It’s quirky, right? You stay down in southwest Tokyo, Kanagawa really, for 4 weeks, but something draws you back. Inexorably. Through mysterious circumstances we found ourselves staying for three nights in Monzennakacho, 2 minutes from where I used to live. Incidentally, I totally recommend this hotel. Amazing location, and the Japanese-style room was really sweet. […]
upper-mid-price
- izakaya
- ...
Kan, Ikejiri Ohashi (カン 池尻大橋)
Ehhhhhh, Big Bird and I were all set to lovelovelove this place. Somehow it seemed too easy, too predictable, not good enough, and ultimately boring. Oh, and expensive. I may have grown to prefer the thrill of discovery, with my ridiculous run of good-to-amazing places over the last two weeks setting way too high a […]
- izakaya
- ...
Ame Ni Mo Makezu, Ikebukuro (割烹 雨ニモマケズ)
Oh for goodness’ sake, will the stream of amazing restaurants never end? Just when I was getting a bit sick of myself for ordering the same nuta and bitter vegetables and raw fish and finishing with fried food and hot sake, along comes a place with creative food, killer atmosphere, good saki, and great prices, […]
- izakaya
- ...
Shimomiya, Higashi Nakano (しもみや 東中野)
It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, and maybe you too. JR platforms can get completely jammed, especially when it’s the combined Yamanote-Sobu platform at Shinjuku. I was bound for the metropolitan hotspot of Higashi Nakano. [I jest, but Higashi Nakano also houses Tokyo’s single best sake bar, so it’s not exactly a joke.] […]
Ireel, Ningyocho (イレール, 人形町)
Y’all are not going to get any modesty from me regarding my ability to pick places to eat. Someone and I had business to conduct with the gods, or at least the one god who lives at Suitengu, and thus we planned a whole event around it. As regards the lunch portion, I delivered handily. […]
- izakaya
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Ibuki, Machida (風土旬彩 伊吹)
This is the story of a long and random walk around a large and boring town. If you want to cut to the chase, my ‘key takeaway’ is “There is only one good izakaya in Machida. I found it for you. If you’re out there at dinner time, don’t waste time on any other place.” […]
- Italian
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Coulis, Shintomi
After several lunches, I finally managed to make good on a dinner at Coulis. It turns out they really do serve you 10 courses for Y5.5k, and the vegetables are still great. I recommend setting aside a solid 3 hours for the kitchen to push out those dishes, and getting in quick since I still […]
Figlmuller, Vienna
Festive Christmas luncheon! Nothing says Christmas to me like thinly-pounded veal cutlets, and nothing says thinly-pounded Wieners like Figlmuller – though how much of their popularity is due to the food and how much is due to the marketing is an interesting question. As an aside, I enjoyed the atmosphere here tremendously, in mo small […]
Oswald & Kalb, Vienna
Hola. My name is Kalb, but you can call me Oswald for short. Hey, ‘kalb’ means ‘veal’, and the poster to the right of the door (very festive, lads!) said something like “The best wiener in Wiener!” so I think they rate their schnitzel highly. It was Christmas Eve, someone was sick, and I still […]
Cafe Central, Vienna
I was lucky enough to have taken a picture of Cafe Central at night before the afternoon we went, which was lucky considering I forgot to get an exterior shot. Although that pales in comparison to my failure to load a memory card into the camera the following night… This cafe has an illustrious history […]