Tag Archives: Roppongi

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

MIYABI YAKINIKU

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, 106-0032Map
Phone 03-5561-2929

Tempura with a twist at YOTARO, ROPPONGI

by Bianca

I was completely charmed by this lovely family-runTempura restaurant in Roppongi. Their tempura was somewhat different from what I’ve been used to. The batter is really thin and soft, lacking the crunchiness of other Tempura meals I’ve tried, yet it was deliciously different.

The father prepared our meal, while his wife served us. His son, who spoke English, worked in the kitchen. He told us he was sent to study cooking in Kyoto by his parents and has been a chef for 7 Years which is still short for Japanese standards. He is planning to take over the restaurant in the future.

There is no menu, so we just obliged with what the chef had to offer. Our first course was some other worldly anago (sea eel) sushi. Absolutely divine.

Anago sushi

It was followed by some sashimi…

And a little surprise, some deep-fried bread with shrimp paste inside. It tasted oh so delicious. Now this dish was some crunchy perfection.

Deep fried bread with shrimp paste

After that came the series of tempura. The usual shrimp, squid, fish and vegetables. If you take a close look at the pictures you might notice the difference of texture in the tempura batter.

Shrimp tempura

 

The vegetables

At the end of the meal, we were presented with their famous ‘fish rice’. They steam your rice with a whole fish in it and then take the bones out and mix the fish meat in your rice.

The famous Yotaro fish rice

For dessert, we had a very interesting waffle with some sticky mochi-like paste inside. This was prepared by the son who told us he created this dish without using any flour or egg. The key ingredient in this dessert was lotus and green tea. It was the perfect desert. Unique, light and refreshingly delicious.

The dessert

So, if you are looking for some tempura with a twist, I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Price : $$$

Address 4-11-4 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Telephone 03-3405-5866
Home Page http://www.roppongi-yotaro.com (In Japanese)
Business Hours 5:30pm-10:00pm(L.O); Closed on Sun

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