The Kitchen Salvatore Cuomo, Roppongi

There’s a whole raft of restaurants in Roppongi Hills that I haven’t been to recently and thus haven’t written about. Now that I’ve been to it recently, here’s one of ’em. Wait, didn’t I say this yesterday? Ah well, another day, another lunch.

Let’s not debate this – The Kitchen Salvatore Cuomo is expensive. The general lunch plan is about Y3000 for buffet, main, dessert and coffee. This can be construed as good value only if you’re prepared to eat a LOT. I am, but I’d still rather pay less. I think for that price you can almost go to the French Kitchen buffet, which has got to be better. The way to go at TKSC, the ONLY way to go as far as I’m concerned, is the semi-secret ‘foccacia lunch’ set – Y1890 for buffet, sandwich, dessert and coffee. The reason it’s semi-secret, and I’m getting around to my complaint here, is that they seem to have about 4 such ‘special’ sets every day. Yesterday I got there at 11:45, saw the restaurant mainly empty, didn’t see the special on the board, and was told that it was ‘already sold out’. I get the feeling that they may have sold it out around breakfast time, before opening…

But if you can get that set, and are still prepared to eat a lot, the value-for-money goes way up. The buffet is really nice – seared tuna steak bits, calamari fritti with fresh lemon, roast meats, stir fries, egg casseroles, roasted vegetables, cheeses, salad, fruit, corn dog on a stick…it’s high quality for a buffet, and replenished often. Beats the heck out of the other Salvatore buffet in the basement, by the Garden. That’s Y1500 for a mediocre buffet and main (pizza’s OK though). The funny thing is, yesterday’s ‘foccacia’ turned out to be a big plate with a thick slice of roast pork and a pile of fresh pasta mixed with grilled tuna chunks. Perhaps they just did us a favor since we were incredulous about the ‘already sold out’ thing? Either way, it was nice, and I shouldn’t complain so much.

Dessert, you actually get a choice. Yesterday, blueberry panna cotta was a slice of somewhat gooey pudding (I would guess that they have to cut some corners somewhere, and industrial dessert production must be a good place to start). Other choices were ‘banana ice cake’ and I think something chocolate. 3 choices, so you can’t complain!

More cheap lunches, please!
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