Category Archives: Cheap and cheerful eateries

ABURA SOBA

by Bianca

Let me introduce you to my new favorite ramen!. I visited their tiny restaurant in Ginza and fell immediately in love. Abura soba’s noodles are different. They might call themselves soba but the noodles are actually from the ramen family and instead of the usual hot broth, they come lathered with different oils and sauces.

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The restaurant only has a 10 seat bar counter so there is usually a line outside but the waiting time is very short. You order your noodles from the machine at the entrance. Of course everything is encrypted in kanji so ask for an english menu, it is available. You have a choice of salty or spicy miso. I love the spicy miso and I add an extra half boiled egg to it. I then mix the noodles until they look like this…

IMG_3569Absolutely delicious !!!.

Abura soba has a few outlets but the one in Ginza is 2 streets behind the Matsuzakaya department store and this is how the facade of the restaurant looks like.

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A bowl of noodle with extra egg is about 1000 yen. I am so in loveeeeee….

Price : $

 

 

 

KEAT’S HOUSE CAFE

by Bianca

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After the endless stream of guests visiting Tokyo over cherry blossom season and nights of extensive dinners, I was so ready for some healthy food. A friend recommended this place called Keat’s House in Yutenji. I haven’t heard about this area not far from Nakameguro until today and thought it fun to do some exploring.

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Named after the famous British poet John Keats , I was expecting a somewhat European decor with maybe a touch of aristocracy but was pleasantly surprised by the old Japanese timber lodge that greeted me in a corner of busy Komazawa-dori. The place had a cozy, rustic feel to it. The front of the cafe had two tables and a bakery.

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The main dining area was at the patio with four rustic wooden tables. I imagine it to be chilly to dine there in the winter even with the portable heaters, but today it was perfect.

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The lunch menu is simple, uncomplicated and very reasonable. A lunch set is around 1.000 yen. Keat’s house is not a vegan restaurant but most of its food are on the healthy side. They have a set menu of brown rice with assorted condiments on the side like some grilled fish or meat with vegetables. I tried the vegetarian bibimbap and it was flavorful.

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My friend tried the eggs benedict.

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What you definitely should not miss are the whole wheat waffles that come with whipped butter and honey. This was absolutely delicious.

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The lovely lady who served us spoke excellent english and suggested that we tried their ‘misukara’ or wheat drink mixed with soy milk.

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The drink had a very ‘interesting’ taste. I’m not sure it would be everyone’s cup of tea but I liked it.

I’ve never been that much into vegetarian and healthy food. I would pick meat over vegetables any day, yet I liked the bibimbap and I loved the waffles, and I loved Keat’s house atmosphere that I will definitely be back for more.

Price : $

KEAT’S HOUSE. 2-8-12 Yutenji, Meguro-ku. Phone : (03) 6312-2003

 

 

 

 

 

REI-KA-SEN

by Bianca

If you ever get hit by a hunger pang while strolling through Shinjuku’s Takashimaya department store and can’t decide what to eat, Rei-ka-sen, a ‘chinese’ restaurant perched on the 13th floor may be an option.

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The interior of the restaurant is clear and bright with a nice view towards the terrace. They are best known for their shark fin noodles ( I know…I know…I really don’t eat shark fin that much). Anyway, they have a choice of shark fin noodle soup, shark fin rice porridge or shark fin i fu mie at a very reasonable price of about 2000 yen.

Shark fin noodle soup

I fu mie

I fu mie

Other options are the lunch menus which offer a wonderful array of chinese dishes for a reasonable 1260 to 3360 yen. My friend tried one of the lunch menus and this is what she had :

A fresh green salad

A fresh green salad

Shrimp stir fried accompanied by a soup and brown rice

Shrimp stir fried accompanied by a soup and brown rice

And a meat stir fry

And a meat stir fry

We also decided to try some other dishes like their tan-tan ramen (ramen with sesame broth) and prawn with mayonnaise.

Tan Tan Ramen

Tan Tan Ramen

Prawn mayonnaise

Prawn mayonnaise

We also tried the almond jelly and mango pudding dessert. Now this you can skip, it wasn’t that good.

The dessert

The dessert

Just a reminder, the food in this restaurant is not authentic chinese so don’t go expecting that. Still, it was a pretty good, reasonably priced meal.

Price : $

Takashimaya Times Square Shinjuku, 13th floor.
151-8580
5-24-2 Sendagaya,Shibuya-ku,Tokyo

SHABUZEN, cheap and cheerful shabu-shabu

by Bianca

Back from the holidays !. Time to update this blog and what better way to fight this cold weather than with some delicious and cheap shabu-shabu at Shabuzen.

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This cozy restaurant is located in the 2nd basement of the Ginza Core buildingon the Ginza main street. They have another restaurant on the 2nd floor with regular tables but the one in the basement is more interesting. The shabu-shabu is served bar style, You have your own steamed pot to dip your beef and vegetables in.

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There are some lunch sets in the 1300 yen to 3300 yen range and they have an english menu. I usually take the Beef lunch which costs 1680 yen and consists of a big plate of meat and some vegetables.

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You mix your own sauces and your beef and vegetables is accompanied by a hot bowl of rice. The taste to be honest is not exactly spectacular, but for the price, it certainly is a cheap and cheerful meal.

SHABUZEN. Ginza Core Building Basement 2. Ginza Chuo Dori. Phone 03-3571-1717

Price: $

Monsoon lunch

by Bianca

Decided to try this interesting looking restaurant in Daikanyama for lunch today. I loved their relaxed, eclectic interior and they had a decent Asian lunch menu.

For 850 yen, I had a choice of green curry with rice, pho, Thai style chicken basil with rice, pad thai or pan-fried noodles. For an extra 350 yen you could get a lunch set with a salad buffet, some appetizers and dessert. Since it was a bit chilly outside I chose the pho lunch set and here is what I got :

The salad with sesame dressing

The appetizer plate

The pho

I have to say the food was really delicious and the prices wonderfully reasonable. I will definitely be coming back to sample some other dishes in the future.

Price : $

MONSOON CAFE DAIKANYAMA // 15-4 Hachiyama-cho, Shibuya-ku // Phone : 03-5489-3789

SUSHI MIDORI GINZA

by Bianca

Long lines are a definite view during lunch and dinner hours in front of this little sushi restaurant behind the Imperial Hotel. I had to visit during odd hours (around 3 pm) to finally secure a seat. Sushi Midori offers an extensive sushi menu which includes many roles (like california roll) not usually found in more traditional establishment and the prices are really cheap.

Part of the menu

A definite must try is the aburi (burned) sushi platter which costs a mere 840 yen and consists of salmon, tuna, squid, shrimp and enggawa (I haven’t found the english translation for this fish) all burned with some extra condiments including cheese. Absolutely delicious.

The aburi sushi platter

I also tried the regular sushi platter but found that my other favorite sushi restaurant Sushizanmai had fresher toro (tuna) and uni (sea urchin).

Sushi assortments platter

The california roll wasn’t too bad.

California roll

I have made up my mind that when I return, I will order 2 plates of the aburi sushi platter and will definitely be content.

SUSHI MIDORI GINZA. Ginza 7-108. Ginza Corridor 1-F. Phone : 5568-1212

Price : $

DIM JOY

by Bianca

I ended up having lunch at this small dim sum (or yam-cha as the Japanese call it) restaurant on the 11th floor of Mitsukoshi Ginza during a quest to find a good, reasonable restaurant worth bringing guests to in the Ginza area. They had two choices of lunch menus : The Brown Rice Porridge Set that cost 2300 yen and the modern dim sum set for 3200 yen.

I decided to try the brown rice porridge set while my friends tried the other. Here is what my lunch set looked like :

Salad appetizer

Three choices of steamed dim sum

Fried dim sum

Chinese medicine soup

Brown rice porridge

For the modern dim sum set, there were these two extra dishes : (the noodles were delicious)

Stir fried soft shell shrimp with sweet chili sauce

Szechuan sesame spicy noodles

I imagined the soup and porridge to be the perfect comfort food when feeling under the weather, but I have to admit that it is not the most spectacular dim sum I have ever tasted. Yet, it is still a nice choice if you happen to be in the Ginza area and are craving for a little yam-cha.

DIM JOY. Mitsukoshi Ginza 11th floor. Tel : 03-35617091

Price : $