Duck! To my knowledge, this is the only place to go if you really want a duck lunch in Roppongi (Café Eight is known for it, but only at dinner, and their lunches are insipid – I think of it as bad Chinese diner.) The too-much-food and too-tasty Y2000 duck lunch is well-met by lots […]
upper-mid-price
L’Osteria, Roppongi
UPDATE 11/14/08:Had the Pranzo A for the first time. Y2600 seems like good value for the following. I’m not quite as rhapsodic as the same deal at Provinage, however…– Appetizer: small leaf salad with fresh crab (delicious), small portion of roasted vegetables in olive oil with orange accent (a little weird but tasty)– Pasta: Small […]
- izakaya
- ...
Sakana (肴), Takayama (Gifu ken)
Beginning a special 4-part sequence of ‘places I ate last weekend’ is Sakana, the reasonably-unassuming izakaya in Takayama that I have said before is at least tied for first in my list of favorite-restaurants-in-Japan. Extravagant praise, but I really like it. Really really. I really like izakaya, for a start. I love the way the […]
- Ginza
- ...
Shichirinya , Ginza
Everyone’s got their own thing. Recently my friend has been bugging me to stop going to so many French places and go to some equally-high-quality yakiniku. So I did. And here it is. Shichirinya has 4 shops around the Ginza area, three all the way over on the Yurakucho / Shinbashi side and a fourth […]
Il Ghiottone, Marunouchi
Had heard a rave or two about this place from reliable sources (I thought) and always found it booked when I called. Finally managed to get in for a late lunch on a weekend. The staff seemed to feel it was too late to give us proper service, but that didn’t stop them from charging […]
Aux Gourmands, Azabudai (Roppongi / Juban)
I had actually seen this place from the street one time after going to cosplay karaoke (a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as I like to say) but only realized that when I arrived for dinner. It’s slightly hard to find, down a small street and up some stairs, but worthwhile! The food was great, the atmosphere cozy, […]
- French
- ...
Au Gout du Jour, Ichigaya
eek2, you know you’ve been hitting the restaurant scene a bit when you go to a new place and recognize the staff from elsewhere. I guess it’s OK if it’s a different restaurant in the same group, but it’s still disconcerting. Especially when you’ve made what feels like a big hike across town to go […]
Labyrinthe, Marunouchi
This is one of those ‘slice of France’ places, in . It’s in Maru Biru, which I find very faceless and unappealing (perhaps it’s just the lower floors, since I haven’t ascended to the heights for any dining yet?), but when you step inside it’s dark and terribly, terribly Frenchy. I can say that with […]
Viron, Marunouchi
I really can’t say enough good things about this place. In a dining career that has seen me revisit places only rarely, I’ve probably been to Viron’s Marunouchi restaurant in the Tokia building more than 10 times. It’s definitely overpriced for bistro food, but it’s so perfect in every other way that I can’t help […]
- Other treats
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Monya, Roppongi
With 4 shops, does this qualify as a chain? Inside is pretty much the antithesis of ‘chain’ to me (and I guess most other foreigners), but I used to think that about all the ‘country-style’ places too (think Nishi-Azabu Gonpachi!). Anyway, if this is a chain, I love chain restaurants. Twice for dinner, once for […]