Category Archives: Speciality restaurants

Nightly festivities at INAKAYA Roppongi

by Bianca

I don’t know why I haven’t written about this place sooner. I always bring my guests to this restaurant especially if they are first time visitors to Tokyo. The festive atmosphere and drama of this little traditional restaurant in Roppongi never disappoints.

Customers sit at a U-shaped counter facing an assortment of vegetables, beef and seafood beautifully displayed in front of them. Two male chef in traditional attire, sitting in the middle of all the lovely displays will then cook whatever you pick robatayaki (grilled) style. The red snapper is really good and is a ‘must try’.

The food is then handed over to you using an oar which is always fun to watch. The restaurant is always loud and festive with waiters screaming out and repeating every order you make. If you order cold sake which comes in a traditional sake box, the whole staff and guests will join in a chorus screaming “more…more….more” as they pour the sake into the box until it overflows.

At some point you may be asked to contribute in making some ‘mochi’ the traditional way which you will later feast on.

The ‘changing of the chefs’ which happens around 8 pm is always super fun. You will be asked to join in a series of claps to mark the change.

To summon things up, Inakaya is definitely touristy and overpriced (dinner may cost 15.000 yen per head) but it definitely never, ever, disappoints. I’ve been there a zillion times and still leave with a huge smile on my face.

INAKAYA. 4-10-11 Roppongi, Tokyo. Ph : 03/5775-1012

Being really adventurous at SANDA in ROPPONGI

by Bianca

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Ok, I know I’ve said that my new years resolution is to try new restaurants every day but yesterday evening turned out to be a really adventurous dinner. It all started when I decided to browse through my Michelin guide book and found this one star restaurant in Roppongi called Sanda. The type of food it served was called “Japanese beef specialities” and the the prices were reasonable : about 6300 yen for an omakase set dinner. I love beef and was so happy when they had a table available for me at such short notice.

With a few hours to spare before dinner time, I decided to browse reviews from this restaurant. That’s when my heart started to beat faster. None of the reviews were bad, most of them loved it but it turns out that the speciality of this restaurant wasn’t beef as in steak, it was every other part of the cow like the tongue, liver, heart and stomach lining (4 different kinds of them I might add). Okkkeeeeeeyyyy….wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. But in the spirit of being adventurous, I nervously decided to stick it out anyway.

Located in a quite alley near Tokyo midtown, Sanda is a small restaurants with about 4 tables and a counter that seats 8. There is no menu, so we were expected to eat what they served. Right.

The appetizers came out immediatly. Three little beautiful plates.

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Sanda appetizers

I dared not ask what they were and decided to just taste them all. I have to say, it did not taste too bad. The sauces were delicious and somehow hid the taste of whatever it is we were eating. They were actually good.

Then came the hard part for me : raw inner parts of the cow. This I had a hard time with. Raw liver. Raw heart. Raw tongue. Not exactly what I am used too but I gulped it down anyway. There’s a first time for everything I guess. For me, I will definitely leave this as a first and last. My other friends however found the raw food to be delicious.

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Sanda raw dishes

Then came a little relief. A meatball soup that actually tasted good. I did not bother to ask what was inside. A beef cheek stew also came which was delicious.

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Meatball soup and beef cheek stew

Then came the teppanyaki which consisted of 4 kinds of meat ( if I can actually call it that ). Inner tongue, outer tongue and 2 types of stomach lining. The tongue I managed to gulp down,the stomach lining I left lying there on my plate.

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Tongue and stomach lining teppanyaki

Last was the shabu-shabu, which consisted again of tongue and two types of stomach lining. Again, I ate the tongue which I thought wasn’t really that tender, and left the stomach lining. The bowl of ramen that came at the end was a sigh of relief.

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Thus, ended my food adventure for the evening. Desert was a simple black sesame ice cream.

I could see how this restaurant actually gained a michelin star. They managed to make beef innards delicious. My friends seemed to enjoy the meal and so seemed everybody else in the packed restaurants. If you don’t mind eating innards as is accustomed in some cultures, I suggest you try this place. If not, then just do what I did… go there once just for the bragging rights, so you can say…”I once ate raw liver and cow heart”

SANDA

4-5-9 Roppongi Minato-ku

Tel : 03-3423-2020