My friends, I am a changed and converted and (further) humbled man. There is an OK Mexican restaurant in Tokyo. And it’s exactly where everyone said it was. In a basement in Harajuku that distorts time and space. As we went into the basement, my expectations actually increased. It’s well-nigh impossible to find decent Mexican […]
upper-mid-price
Fukuden, Monzennakacho (ふく田)
As I write this, Fukuden is the #2 izakaya on Tabelog’s Tokyo rankings, which cover a metropolitan area stretching from Kamakura in the south to Ome in the west, Funabashi in the east to Kasukabe in the north. It’s also the 58th-ranked restaurant overall, which is not a bad feat considering that there are almost […]
- Italian
- ...
XEX, Tokyo (Daimaru 13th)
It’s tough to say no to lunch invitations from people you haven’t seen for a while. Especially when you have a lot of similar interests to that person. And even more so when they invite you to a place where you can join the “city’s growing population of urban hip…to take full advantage of the […]
- Otemachi
- ...
Bel Age Lounge, Otemachi
America would do well to heed comments about Japan’s Lost Decade. It’s a scary prospect – your economy goes sideways for 10 years and then never really recovers. I think it’s too early to declare a Prognosis For America (this would be my sweeping social contract-like name). ‘Green Shoots’ sentiments aside, you really shouldn’t be too […]
Tazumura, Otemachi (たづむら,OAZO 5)
Welcome to the first installment of Tonkatsu Tuesdays. Geez, I thought of all sorts of interesting things while I was eating today, but now I’ve forgotten and can’t promise that this will be interesting at all. Not to put too fine a point on it, I visited the tonkatsu place in Oazo that Ponkan and […]
- Kanda
- ...
Hantejiya, Kanda (韓豚屋)
This will be a boring post. Watch out. Coming back from a big vacation and eating nothing but European food for a week, I actually feel…sated. Usually I want to eat some meat, or pasta or desserts, but this week, not so much. It seems like a good opportunity to reflect and eat less, despite […]
- Other treats
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Nishimura, Tokyo
Truly, my friends, you can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd. But you can eat okonomiyaki for lunch any time if you try. Nishimura proves it. This is a rarity, wouldn’t you agree? What’s even cooler about Nishimura is the food ethic they espouse – it manages to incorporate some elegance in both the space […]
Istanbul, Yurakucho
Ethnic food is a source of continued confusion to me in Japan. In my mind, it doesn’t include Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian and American. And it definitely includes Thai, Vietnamese and other, rarer, Southeast Asian foods. Things get fuzzy when we talk about Eurasia, as I think the actual cultures do as well. Istanbul […]
Hibiki, Marunouchi (響)
Monday nights out always get me kinda down, and it sure doesn’t help when they’re for work. Nevertheless, this turned out pretty well, more for work reasons than food reasons. Hibiki is best described as a chain izakaya gone upscale – it’s attractive and well-presented, but there’s something pretty soul-less about it that shows through […]
- izakaya
- ...
Masuya, Tsukishima (ますや)
Yeah, this does indeed mean that I went back to roam around Tsukishima for a second night. I had seen Masuya on the previous evening and liked the seriously down-home look – brown country-style sliding door, extra supplies piled outside, lively sounds from within. And hey, what are Wednesdays for? Inside was indeed more homey […]