l’Auberge de L’Ill, Nishi Azabu (オーベルジュ・ド・リル トーキョー)

You can’t go wrong with this as an introduction. You’re walking down a perfectly normal, maybe even a little grubby, street in Nishi Azabu after getting off the train at the quiet end of Nogizaka and walking through the tunnel by the museum, and suddenly you see something that looks a British aristocrat’s house. This […]

La Bombance, Nishi Azabu

It’s interesting to come back from Kyoto and immediately have what amounts to a kaiseki meal, albeit in a dark, stylish, hostess-friendly setting in Nishi-Azabu. It’s even more interesting to meet completely new people especially when they come with their own nicknames – Baron Destructo and Deluca Cheesemonger. You can tell I didn’t assign those […]

Matagi, Nishi Azabu

I feel like this review should be written in grunts, sort of like the noises that would be made by a wild boar as he snuffles through the undergrowth just before being blown away by a shotgun wielded by one of Matagi’s ‘sourcers’. While new to me, coming through the pages of a back-issue of […]

Derriere, Nishi Azabu

After a large pizza lunch, what do you need? Coffee and cake! Derriere is a cute little cafe, ideal for ladies who lunch with their kids and bankers who don’t work on Tuesday afternoons. They have a big cooler full of beautiful, traditional-style cakes (4 types of chiffon! see the web site) and serve coffee […]