Opa! I always feel festive and a little Greek when shopping at the Opa complex in downtown Shinyuri. Not as festive and Greek as I feel watching that Eurovision video, but a little. We were out and about shopping, someone went home with Mrs. Peel, and Catfish and I were left to our own devices […]
yoshoku
- Asakusa
- ...
Ooki, Asakusa (大木洋食店)
I rolled around for hours in the heat, looking at and passing by lunch options one after another. Down a wide but empty street, Ooki stood out. Mostly by the way it retreated into the scenery, humbly nestling behind the tree. It was already 1:30, and there was no sign of life inside except a […]
- bistro
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Bistro Ishikawatei, Nihonbashi (ビストロ石川亭)
As usual, I hope you’ll forgive me for double-posting on this, but since Ishikawa-tei opened this branch in the Muromachi Coredo, I figured I might as well try it. My gushing review of the original is here. I feel a little less gushy now, but the fact remains that it’s good, solid cooking and extraordinary […]
Lautrec, Nihonbashi (ロートレック)
From somewhere I conceived the idea that this vaguely French-bistro themed restaurant would be vaguely European and perhaps good. The windows are filled with various Francophile trinkets, and even the interior gives you some idea that they’re trying to be Euro. Incidentally, note the almost-open cherry blossoms artfully included in the shot. Perhaps it’s more […]
- Otemachi
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San Mari Tearoom, Otemachi
A laaate lunch put me in mind of these places in the basement of the building across the street that stay open all hours. They’re ‘tea rooms’, or kissa, as you like, and this looked like the most likely contender – at least on the smokey atmosphere dimension. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t smoke […]
- Kanda
- ...
Grill Gonnosuke, Kanda (権の助)
I’d like to hit you with a counterintuitive and valuable lesson about picking restaurants in Japan – ‘grill’ doesn’t mean what you think. While Gonnosuke has some neat ambience (murals, surfboards), it is firmly in the ‘grill’ category (I mean, the name really gives it away, right?). That means it’s going to be serving what? […]
- Kanda
- ...
Beaver, Kanda (ビーバー)
Not too long ago, Big Bird and I walked by this place. I thought it might be unseemly for a big bird to enter a beaver – too obvious, not funny, old plastic food – so we let the sleeping beaver lie. But I wanted to get in there, for irony value if nothing else. […]
- izakaya
- ...
Waraku, Tama Plaza (居酒屋和楽)
Part 3 in ‘dining in our the suburbs’ series saw everyone back in Tama Plaza, this time going to the izakaya most highly recommended by my colleague You. The chef worked at the Imperial Hotel years ago and brought back a bunch of that training, which shows up in his food. It’s quite traditional from […]
- Italian
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Rio, Kanda
Aaaaah, how many times have I written this review? “Average quality European-influenced owner-chef-style restaurant where too much Japanese influence has crept in over time and standards have crept down.” Too bad, because the door looks nice. This is exactly the kind of place my team would go for a work dinner. Looking at the food […]
- beer
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American, Shibuya
‘Tis the season, folks, and nothing says FESTIVE to me like a baby plastic tree in the stony lobby of a Shibuya-crossing mid-rise! Our merry crew was practically chorusing in the aisles as ve valtzed to the elevators for round 2 of this forget-the-year party. But hell, it got even better when we got upstairs! American […]