This has been a long time in the making. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked by the stairs to this second-floor place…on my way into La Brace on the first floor. I’m not sure if I know anyone that’s been before either, which means that Kathy and I are brave, intrepid adventurers, as […]
washoku
Ichiriki, Monzennakachououou (一力)
[Jan 2011: This closed ages ago. It’s a shame, really.] 幸せ. I’m really not sure what prevented me from going into this place over 4 years of walking by it. I have a feeling it was the lack of menu outside, which is of course a frequent problem in Japan and one that any self-respecting […]
Goroku, Monzennakacho (伍六)
It’s a hard job, being a famous food writer, and my liver bears the scars for it. But I feel a responsibility to my fan, so I keep going. Tuesday night found us shlepping home (in the royal plural sense) from work, in the rain, remembering that the new restaurant we had spotted the day […]
Kurosawa, Roppongi
Man, I really feel like I wrote this before. We’ve all been to Kurosawa, right? Shifting set of lunch options anchored by soba as well as buta-don, slightly interesting and slightly expensive dinners? Sure, we’ve all been. This is the Roppongi Kurosawa. It does that sorta ‘country Japanese’ ambience quite well, managing to feel homey […]
- Other treats
- ...
Saraku, Tokyo (茶らく)
I have a feeling that I need to adjust my rating system. The lunch contained herein felt like Y1200 or even Y1500 by Roppongi standards, but was Y1100 (and the under-Y1000 lunch looked just fine too). Similarly, if every day is going to bring a new teishoku, just tagging all these entries ‘washoku’ isn’t going […]
- Other treats
- ...
Kushinobo, Roppongi
Squarely in the category of ‘places you’ve been to a lot of times in the last few years’, Kushinobo offers up surprising value in battered and fried items. One challenge is that you have to be a Roppongi worker, or find some other way to get a Community Passport. I guess Kushinobo is a pretty […]
- Otemachi
- ...
Zenmaru, Otemachi (膳丸)
For the inaugural lunch of our Otemachi encroachment, we were shepherded into the basement of the oddly-named ‘First Square’ building and given a choice of two teishoku places (since I had ventured that I wanted to eat teishoku, being in the center of Japanese business and all that). Maruzen looked better, and turned out to […]
- Other treats
- ...
Kyouzen, Roppongi (京善)
Kind of an interesting place, this. There aren’t a lot of lunch places where you can feel like you’ve stepped out of Roppongi and into an altogether more civilized and Japanese environment (Umaya comes to mind, R.I.P.). I suppose for foreigners this means Kyoto style, or at least ‘traditional’ and ‘Japanese’ and ‘the kind of […]
Usagiya, Monzennakacho (Ginza)
Not a situation I like to be in, walking around Ginza with only 30 minutes to choose a place, eat, and get to an appointment. Difficult times call for desperate measures, which in this case involved noodles, rabbits and plastic. Usagiya is a hand-made udon place. These are of the nice, rough-but-springy texture that I […]
- Other treats
- ...
Sumishou, Nishi Azabu (炙り処 すみしょう)
Continuing with our theme of random places on the north side of Nishi Azabu crossing, I wandered into a tiny one today. (This is also in keeping with my theme of averaging one post per day this month…hang in there.) I didn’t notice until after I ate, but Sumishou is a motsu specialist – your […]