Monthly Archives: May 2012

Les Creations de Narisawa

by Bianca

This has got to be one of the most creative French-Japanese restaurants in town. Chef Narisawa always awes me with his many creations, inspired by nature. Dining here is always a treat.

This time, we had the summer menu with its many gifts.

As always, we are presented with the bread dough which looks like a mousse like dish. I almost ate it raw on my first visit. Lucky the waiter stopped me.

The bread dough

And this is how they bake the bread dough, in a forest of leaves.

The dough is then placed in a hot stone bowl and left to bake..

Until it becomes this most delicious bread ever.

And check out their butter. Simply love this.

Butter made to look like a plant

All this was happening while we were being served our first courses which consists of water with tastes of wood, some fried fish and fried onions that actually looked like dark stones placed on a leaf.

The wood tasting water

The fish

The fried onions

The fish and fried onions were absolutely delicious. The water I thought tasted rather strange. Then came the monkfish course which consisted of some soup and fried monkfish.

wild vegetable soup

Fried Monkfish

Some white asparagus came to follow with a delicious hollandaise sauce. Heavenly.

White asparagus slightly baked with hollandaise sauce

Next course : Oysters with onions. Absolutely delectable.

Followed by another fish course.

Tha Garupa

And the last part of the main course the Hida beef.

The hida beef

To clean your palate before dessert, a delicious grapefruit sorbet-like juice is served.

The grapefruit juice

Dessert is chocolate fondant.

Chocolate fondant

I’m not one to finish my dessert during dinner but here, I just could not help myself. We are nowhere near finished with the sweets just yet. You have your pick of sweet delights from their dessert tray. I suggest you pick one of each.

The dessert tray

Nope, not done yet. You still have a choice of mini macaroons to bite on with your tea or coffee.

Mini macaroons

As always, we had a wonderful time. Narisawa’s meals are definitely a work of art, not only a feast for the eyes and taste buds, but also a feast for the soul.

Price : $$$$

LES CREATION DE NARISAWA

2-6-15 Minami Aoyama
Minato-ku, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 (3) 5785 0799

 

 

Crab shabu-shabu at SERYNA

by Bianca

This place is really old school. Its been around for years and I’ve been frequenting this restaurants since my first visit to Tokyo about 8 years ago. The interior of Seryna is rather old-fashioned but I always frequent a place for its food, not its decor.

Their speciality is the kani or crab shabu-shabu. I have yet to find a place that serves such delicious crab in Tokyo. You dip the crab into the hot-pot, wait until it floats and then dip into the sauces they provide for you. As in other shabu-shabu places, they serve you two sauces : the sesame and the ponzu sauce. I always ask for their spicy sauce which consists of chili oil mixed with sesame. I feel it goes really well with the crab. The vegetables and small portion of noodles come afterwards. Also try their garlic fried rice, absolutely heavenly.

The spicy sauce

Seryna also has a beef shabu-shabu course which is delicious as well. However, on your first visit I suggest you go for the kani shabu-shabu. Beef shabu-shabu you can find anywhere in Tokyo, kani shabu-shabu not as much.

Don’t forget to try their plum wine or umeshu, I believe it is the best in town.

Umeshu

The price of all these deliciousness of course doesn’t come cheap. However, their lunch prices are much more reasonable. You can get the same set for a much cheaper price.

They also have two outlets in Tokyo, one in Ginza at the Tiffany building and one in Roppongi. The Ginza outlet has a slightly different menu but the crab shabu-shabu is the same.

Price : $$$

SERYNA ROPPONGI Address : 3-12-2,Roppongi,Minatoku,Tokyo,Japan 106-0032. TEL : 03-3402-1051

SERYNA GINZA Address : Ginza Tiffany Bldg. B1,2-7-17,Ginza,Chuo-ku, Tokyo,Japan 104-0061 TEL : 03-3562-6211

EATALY Daikanyama

by Bianca

This cozy eatery in Daikanyama is the perfect place for some simple, good Italian food. The compound is designed like an Italian piazza with a supermarket, bakery and restaurant. The supermarket sells a variety of Italian food, cheese and bread. I always enjoy browsing through their shelves as I wait for my pasta.

Eataly’s menu consists of a variety of pastas and wood oven pizzas. The pastas are good and fresh. And my favorite dish in the restaurant is their lasagna.

Coffee is also good so whenever you’re in the area, you should drop by.

Price : $

EATALY Daikanyama

Address: 20-23 Daikanyama-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Telephone: 03-5784-2736