Y’know, I keep saying I’ve had enough of sake for a while, but I keep going back to the well. Also, in the same way that I always want to start off with raw fish at an izakaya, I kinda like Japanese food on weeknights, foreign food for a fancier Saturday night. Must be getting old since these […]
upper-mid-price
- Other treats
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Iijima, Tokyo (割烹 いゝ島、八重洲)
Honestly, Ding and I have been trying to get together after work for several months. Whenever one of us thinks of it and suggests something, there’s always been a problem. Last night, the only problems were the rain, the fact that Fukube was full, and the fact that I was carrying only my ’emergency’ camera, […]
Itadori, Tsukiji （築地虎杖）
Tourists are always writing about how the fish they ate at a little restaurant in the inner or outer market of Tsukiji was the best possible fish EVER (especially if they waited 2 hours to eat at Daiwa). I don’t think that’s really true; whatever fish is identified as the best is almost certainly going […]
- izakaya
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Wakamatsu, Morishita (魚所若松)
These solitary Friday night excursions are getting to be a habit. It’s just nice to decompress from all the stress of the week with a glass of sake, a plate of fish, and a new copy of Nuts magazine. Hey, what are you laughing at? Wakamatsu languishes in the middle of the square described by […]
Goutte d’Or Crattini
On a day as crappy as this, where I labored under a deadline until lunch time (self-imposed, but if we can’t manufacture our own urgency, who can?) and stepped out to find gray everwhere, there was only one solution. Pasta. I thought about a few places I’ve been to before, but ultimately decided to wander […]
Okonn, Yoyogi Uehara (おこん)
DAMN, I know how to pick restaurants. This one is a little hard to describe, but let me rattle off some ideas that describe it: secluded, stylish, simple cooking but great ingredients, and a lot of care and concern. First, the location – it’s 7 minutes walk from Yoyogi Uehara, which sounds close but feels […]
- beer
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Kura Kura, Kanda (蔵くら)
After a dining fail at di Andoh, the work party I was in took a turn towards KK. I’ve walked by this place, oh, at least a hundred times, and also seen it on maps during my various sake searches. I didn’t take it that seriously because I rarely have an opportunity to go to […]
- Kanda
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Matsuya Soba, Awajicho
When I said to Big Bird, ‘Let’s get soba in Awajicho’, this was the place I meant. It was in Japan Times, after all. It is not the place that Bunny recommended, as well as my colleagues, because that was Yabu, and they were right, because Yabu is better. Where the Japan Times makes it […]
- izakaya
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Akaoni, Sangenchaya (赤鬼)
The Red Devil is a famous place – certainly it was packed almost from the opening on the Sunday that we went (Woody, Poshand, me, taking advantage of their special 5 PM early-opener on Sundays). You’ll want to reserve if you go, and in return you’ll get access to a pretty magnificent list of sakes. […]
- Other treats
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Uogashi Sushi, Tokyo (魚がし鮨)
Uogashi, I confess, sounds terrible to me as a word. Let’s leave it at that. But the concept, ‘riverside fish market’ is appealing. This is the place on Kitchen Street in Tokyo Station that I’ve avoided for months and months and months because I wasn’t in the mood, and then when I was it turned […]