Boy do the hits keep on coming. Coming a little too fast; I kept sitting back contentedly while eating and drinking with Woody, thinking “Phew, that was a hard week. Glad it’s Friday night!” It was Tuesday. What’s happening in Shinbashi around quitting time? I mean this semi-rhetorically, because if you have to ask, you […]
upper-mid-price
- izakaya
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Takaban, Awajicho
Tuesday night, I wanted…information. I figured if I got You drunk, then by hook or by crook I’d get some. He was already unstable as we were leaving the office – look how blurry he is here. We walked up to Takaban, which I visited some time ago alone, sans camera, while waiting for someone […]
- Italian
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Ristorante Frick, Aoyama
August brings hard times for big men in Tokyo. When colleagues go to Hong Kong or Hawaii and come back talking about how the weather is worse in Tokyo, all we want to do is retreat to our air-conditioned rooms and laze on the couch. Or maybe go out for a touch of elegance. As […]
- izakaya
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Nekoya, Tsukiji (ねこ屋)
How would you come up with this concept? “Stylish, private basement izakaya with homey food served by a youngish female master in kimono, with an outstanding sake selection. And everything cat-themed.” Everything. Well, it’s a good place, and the Woodsman deserves all credit for coming up with it when the rough plan was an evening around Tsukiji. Neko-san […]
Doromitei, Kagurazaka (泥味亭)
Tokyo is sprawling. Tokyo is compact. If you have a meeting in the office at 8 PM, and can sneak out before that, 90 minutes will be enough to run for the train to Kagurazaka (Dad, I told you I was into Kagurazaka before it was cool, didn’t I?), enjoy a little mid-Summer dusk air, have […]
- bar
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Shu Salon, Shinagawa （酒茶論）
I’ve always thought Shinagawa is an odd place – the station is big, and a little confusing, and it’s really just anchored by hotels. If you’re not there for a wedding, why are you there? In this case we were planning to go to the aquarium, but being a cheap bastard in many ways I […]
Wine and Grill Kazusa, Azabu Juban
Do you like that whole ‘private dining’ thing? Kazusa is practically unlabeled, with only a high second-story sign saying the name in stylized, half-unreadable script to let you know that the nondescript building on the quiet stretch of road south of Telebi Asahi is the right one. The door doesn’t open unless you know just […]
Sankoen, Jimbocho
Oopsie, on the heels of Yosuko Saikan, I accidentally ended up with my colleague Mitch in another place offering cold noodles. It was less good, but they did have lice dishes on the menu, including flied lice, so the cooked food might be better. I’ll keep this short, so here’s the deal. They give you […]
Yosuko Saikan, Jimbocho (揚子江菜館)
As I keep saying, the heat makes me want to eat cold noodles, and I finally put into effect my standard methodology of using the googles to find some likely new venues. Searching out “Hiyashi Chuka Ranking” produced a few weird sites (there’s no hiyashichukadb yet, sadly), and one of them listed at the top […]
Farsi Largo!, Nihonbashi
Farsi Largo is Italian for ‘big joke’ (large farce, get it?) but there’s no joke about the cooking here. Good ingredients and good preparation, very professional. The worst thing about the place is this sign on the street, and the crummy old stairwell that leads down to it. Inside is clean and modern; it could […]