Kaishoku Michiba

Nov14 by Afra

Kaishoku Michiba is another one of those old school restaurants, loved by the older generation, where iron chef Rokusaburo Michiba’s roast beef bowl is to die for.

Photo Oct 16, 13 04 51

The restaurant is located in Ginza with an easy to spot facade as pictured above.

Photo Oct 16, 12 19 14

The elevator lobby interior had a vintage yet homey ambiance.

Photo Oct 16, 12 58 49

As you can see the restaurant attracts an older more conservative crowd.

I made a last-minute reservation and could not be accommodated at the dining area, they offered me the bar counter which was rather narrow yet cozy.

You might have some problem deciphering the menu.

Photo Oct 16, 12 19 44

Since it is my second time here, I’ve decided to order the roast beef again.

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The lovely appetizer plate consisted of five seasonal items. The roast cheese is always in the serving and is my favorite.

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As I mentioned before, the roast beef main course is simply to die for. We fell silent until we finished the whole serving.

For dessert, they had a mix berry pannacotta which was just the right size.

I like this restaurant. The food is just the right size, right price and great taste. It’s one of those places I would recommend to my friends.

The whole lunch menu costs 5000 yen (approx. 45 dollars at current rate) and is a good place to go for lunch.

Price $$

Kanematsu Bldg. 8F 6-9-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
Telephone: (+81)3-5537-6300

Kunimoto

May18 by Afra

I can finally recommend a yakiniku restaurant for those who zest for beef without being deceived by the seasoning, Kunimoto. It is located a few steps away from Hamamatucho station.

I could not get the reservation for the “honten” (main restaurant) due to no table available, so I went to the “shinkan” (new restaurant) located in the same area.

First we were served with their signature salad and I ordered a corn tea as I find it unusual. The fresh scent and mouthwatering flavor was just nice for a long and tiring day.

So we ordered the course with all parts of the Japanese beef with their recommendation as we were required to order a course when making the reservation. It contains a different parts of the beef with their matching seasoning. For beef enthusiast, they are very careful with the seasoning by not covering the juiciness and taste of the high quality beef itself.

We were kinda hungry that day so as an extra we ordered “kamenoko” as it was not part of the set. Adding this order, the overall amount was just nice for 2 pax.

And so the dessert follows with a cup of tea. It is a Milk Pudding with Brown Cane Sugar syrup.

The reservation was not hard to make since it was on a weekday night. I went home and I could sleep smiling with a happy tummy.

Price: $$

Kunimoto Main (honten)
2-12-2 Hamamatsucho, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Phone: +81 -(0)3-3578-1129

Kunimoto New (shinkan)
Kanou Bldg 1F, 2-8-9, Hamamatsucho, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Phone: +81 -(0)3-3435-7605

IRIE LE JOYEUX

Sep27 by Bianca

I am thrilled to be sharing with you my latest discovery, a wonderful little french restaurant serenely and fashionably nestled somewhere behind the Prada flagship store in Omotesando/Aoyama. If you are familiar with the area, Irie Le Joyeux is on the second floor of the building right next to Dries van Noten.

Decorated in soothing hues of nude colors, you immediately feel welcomed. None of the stuffy atmosphere of a classic french restaurant here. Minimalism is the name of the game.

Through an elongated window at its side wall, you can watch chef Irie and his team work their magic. They have two choices of dinner menus, one that is around 12.000 yen and their grand menu that cost around 15.000 yen per person. The menu only comes in Japanese and French but within minutes of choosing the grand menu, chef Irie himself had a special menu printed for us with English translations and his signature in the back. I thought this was a nice touch. So, here are pictures of our feast that wasn’t just pleasing for the stomach but also soothing to the eyes.

First came a cute little plate of bite size bread munchies.

Followed by the first small appetizer which was a very vibrant dish of Hokkaido marinated Sanma fish with Gunma eggplant puree, red beets and tomato jelly.

Our next dish was a wonderful and very color coordinated cold entree of Hokkaido scallop carpaccio and caviar with purple cabbage marinated in amontillado served with wasabi goat cheese.

The warm entree which was a delicate mushroom soup with sauteed foie gras, flan and milk cappuccino was actually my favorite dish of the night.

An autumn inspired seafood dish followed. Tandoori Pan fried sea bass from Ishikawa prefecture served with welk clams, chinese cabbage and black rice puree.

The meat dish that followed was absolutely delectable. Kumamoto Akaushi slow-roasted beef with Syrah sauce, hokkaido oven roasted onions and ricotta cheese accent.

After the meat course came an innovative cheese dish of blue cheese cream with hazelnut oil, radish and crouton with chrysanthemum puree.

And a little pre dessert came before the actual dessert. Sauternes Marinated Persimmon from Kyoto with mascarpone cream.

Chef irie’s tarte tatin was the grand dessert. A raspberry jelly with tart of fuji apple, custard and cinnamon ice cream.

And to accompany your tea or coffee, these lovely little delights.

This sums up our wonderful feast. Beautiful, don’t you think ?

Price: $$

IRIE LE JOYEUX

Luce Minami Aoyama, 2F

5-5-4 Minami Aoyama

phone : 03-6418-7778

NOBU TOKYO

Jun12 by Bianca

People always ask me about Nobu in Tokyo. They wonder if it’s menu is similar to its more famous counterparts in Los Angeles or New York or anywhere else in the world. Is it good ? Is it worth a visit ?. So, I decided to give it try.

When I entered the restaurant on the 1st floor of the Toranomon building near Hotel Okura, it immediately reminded me of the Nobu on 57th street in New york. The interior is very much alike with black and dark honey colored wood and more than half of the patrons of the restaurant were foreigners.

The menu I found to be somewhat different. I could not find the regular Nobu hits like the hamachi jalapeño or the spicy tuna salad. I did however find the black miso cod-fish.

They had a choice of lunch sets and I chose the lightest one which costs around 4700 yen.

For appetizer we had a choice of either seafood tartar or a peruvian ceviche which is like a seafood salad.

The Peruvian ceviche

The seafood tartar

The ceviche tasted better than the seafood tartar.

Main course was a choice between meat and fish. I chose the meat and it was good. Nothing extraordinary, but delicious nonetheless.

The main course

Five pieces of sushi came to follow. The sushi was just so-so. You could get better at any simple sushi place in town.

Five pieces of sushi

We decided to have a little fun with our sushi dishes.

Sushi Galore

For dessert, since there were 4 of us at the table, they decided to give us each a different dessert dish. Now this was all good.

Vanilla cheese cake

The cream rolls

The mango pudding

The waffles with vanilla ice cream

To answer the questions above, my verdict would be, if you are only visiting Tokyo for a short period of time then I would skip this place. There are so many other restaurants with more authentic Japanese food to try. But if you live in Tokyo then hey, why not, give this restaurant a visit. Its got good atmosphere, good service and good food.

Price : $$

NOBU TOKYO. Toranomon Towers Office 1st fl. ４丁目-１-２８ Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo 105-0001, Japan

Tel : +81 3-5733-0070

SAZANKA Teppanyaki at Hotel Okura

May26 by Bianca

“Old school but still cool” would be the perfect sentence to describe this teppanyaki restaurant on the 11th floor of hotel Okura. The interior is vintage as is their food presentation but nevertheless, their teppanyaki is very good and reasonably priced.

There a few set menus to choose from and the prices are about 10.000 yen and over for dinner. Lunch sets are more reasonably priced with about the same amount of food in it. This is what I had…

A refreshing salad to start

Some duck liver if you like

Some savory crab and fish

A few slices of abalone

Some grilled veggies

And of course, the highlight of the evening came to follow. Some lusciously soft red marbled beef. The kind you can only find in Japan.

The beautiful beef

The chef in action

And to end things on a wonderful garlicky note…some wonderful garlic rice.

The garlic rice

As you probably have noticed from the pictures, Sazanka is not big with food presentation. Unlike most Tokyo eateries, they don’t worry that much about how the food looks on your plate. However, the food is delicious and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters, right ?

Price : $$

SAZANKA. Hotel Okura Tokyo 11F, Main Building. Tel.+81-3-3505-6071

Minimalism at Cafe Canoviano

Oct16 by Bianca

Set amidst the beautiful gardens of Roppongi midtown, cafe Canoviano’s modern, rectangular structure will surely catch your eye. In compliance with its design, this Italian cafe serves simple Italian food made with fresh ingredients. There is a set lunch starting at 2,500 yen with an appetizer, choices of different pastas and dessert. We tried the sea urchin pasta and the mushroom pasta.

The fresh appetizer

Sea urchin pasta

The mushroom pasta

Although the pasta was definitely fresh and a little above ordinary, I did not find it exceptional. The dessert however, was a different story. The caramel ice cream with banana was so delightful, I could have licked it all off my plate.

The delightful dessert

I don’t know if I’ll come back for the pasta but I will definitely come back for more dessert.

Price : $$

CAFE CANOVIANO : Galleria/1F/12 Tokyo Midtown. Tel : 03-5413-3575

MIYABI YAKINIKU

Apr26 by Bianca

Now, if you are from Indonesia, you will probably have a smile on your face right now because the name if this yakiniku restaurant in Roppongi is the same as a Japanese porn star who is absolutely huge in Indonesia. She may be relatively unknown in Japan, but in Indonesia, she’s a mega star. Of course she probably has nothing to do with this restaurant I’m going to write about, but still, I entered Miyabi with a smile.

The beef in Miyabi is cut a little bit more chunkier than what we are used to at other yakiniku restaurants. For first timers, it’s better to order their sampler set where they present you with different parts of the cow.

After trying the different parts, it’s a good idea to take notes of their names so you can order what you like next time.

After barbecuing the beef, you eat it with one of the two dipping sauces they provide you or with some wasabi. One sauce is a vinegar sauce which is good with the fatty meat and the other is a sweet sauce which I love.

The beef was delicious and another good thing about this place is that it’s not that expensive. It costs less than my favorite Jumbo yakiniku. The special set cost about 4,500 yen per peson but they have many courses for less.

Price : $$

Address	`Five plaza building, 5-18-21, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0032`Map
Phone	03-5561-2929

Tokyo Food Diary

A journal of my journey through Tokyo's various eateries

Category Archives: $$ restaurants