BIANCA

Jun28 by Bianca

When there is a restaurant in town that bears your name, you are of course obliged to give it a try (and maybe take pictures in front of its sign).

I stumbled upon this restaurant in the Gyre building (I often refer to it as the Chanel building) in Omotesando one day and decided to go in for lunch.

The interior

I loved the atmosphere of the space. The interior was simple and sleek but I especially loved their out-door terrace with lovely views on to the tree-lined Omotesando avenue.

The terrace

They do have a quite reasonable set menu for lunch starting at 1300 yen. I took the 3 course menu while my friends tried the four course menu. This is what we got for our appetizers…

A salmon terrine

Some smoked chicken cuts

Salad

Followed by some pasta. I had the meat ragu pasta which I thought tasted pretty good, and my friends tried the risotto and tomato based pasta.

Meat ragu pasta

Mushroom risotto

Tomato pasta with beans

Then came the main course. There was a choice of lamb or fish. My friend decided to try the fish.

Fish main course

We then each tried a different dessert.

Chocolate cake

The tiramisu

To be honest, the food really wasn’t that remarkable. But I loved the atmosphere of the place and will definitely be back to dine on their lovely terrace.

BIANCA. 4F Gyre, 5-10-1 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Phone : 03 6418 6771

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

JUBAKO. 200 years of Unagi excellence.

Jun5 by Bianca

You can immediately sense the vintage vibe upon entering the traditional gates of this restaurant specializing in eel (unagi) dishes. Jubako has a 200 year history, and you can definitely feel it. There are only private tatami rooms in this tiny restaurant and the room we were assigned to was particularly charming with views to a lovely little garden. The tatami has a hollow space underneath the table for your feet so don’t worry about getting cramps.

The first dish as usual as in other unagi restaurants is the inner parts of the eel on a stick. I’m not a big fan of this dish but I have to say that this dish did not have the bitter aftertaste as in other restaurants.

Then came a delicious soup. It tasted very unique, unlike any other soup I’ve tried in Japan. I found out later that the fish in the soup broth was a Koi fish, the kind the Chinese keep in a pond in their garden for good luck. I’ve never tasted Koi fish before. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

Then came some grilled eel with salt. Unfortunately I can’t post a picture of it because my picture was blurry.

Then, came half an onion. Baked. I couldn’t finish this because it still had the strong onion taste on it, even though i love onions, I could only manage half.

The main dish was the grilled eel in sweet sauce served with rice and pickles. I loved this. I believe it was the best eel I ever tried. Soft and sweet.

The dessert was especially lovely. Some red bean ice cream inside deliciously crunchy waffles. You were supposed to eat it like a burger.

This restaurant is a little on the pricey side. This elaborate meal costs about 20.000 yen per person. They do speak a little english.

Price : $$$

JUBAKO. 2-17-61 Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo Prefecture 107-0052, Japan. Phone : +81 3-3583-131

ALOHA TABLE

May30 by Bianca

I’ve never been to Hawaii and have no idea what Hawaiian food is all about, but I guess it is safe to say that if you are looking for a taste of Hawaii in the Daikanyama area then Aloha Table is the place to go.

On nice days, sitting out on its terrace is great.

The food is cheap and although there aren’t too many options for lunch, I found the food quite delicious. Here is what we tried…

A refreshing salad

Teriyaki Loco Moco

A tomato based seafood pasta

I especially liked the teriyaki loco moco, a hamburger pate over rice drizzled in teriyaki sauce.

Now the ice cream puff we had for dessert was outstanding, not to mention very exotic looking.

Price: $

ALOHA TABLE Daikanyama Forest. Daikanyama Art Village, 17-10 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku. Tel. 03-5456-7033

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

PIERRE MARCOLINI Chocolatier

May13 by Bianca

I could not wait to share my newfound haven of chocolate dwellings. Pierre Marcolini is a tiny chocolate shop in one of the back streets of Ginza. I have passed it many times and simply dismissed it as a glamorous little chocolatier you go to when in need of gifts. I had no idea they had a small cafe on the second floor where you could order an array of heavenly chocolate desserts and pastries. Thank God I went in the other day and found the tiny cafe on the second floor.

These are the desserts we tried :

The chocolate gateau

Now this was good but somewhat heavy. I would recommend trying something else like the salty caramel eclair pictured below. This was exquisite.

The salty caramel eclair

The star of the show in my opinion was this Marcolini salty caramel waffle and caramel ice cream. This little waffle was absolutely heavenly, soft on the inside, slightly crunchy on the outside with the perfect amount of sweetness to it. And the sizing was just right. Not too big nor too small.

The Marcolini salt caramel waffle with caramel ice cream

I can’t wait to go back and try the chocolate eclairs and chocolate fondue. Will update !

Price: $

PIERRE MARCOLINI GINZA. 5-5-8 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. Phone : 03-55370015.

YAMANOCHAYA (Unagi restaurant)

Apr20 by Bianca

You immediately forget you are in bustling Tokyo upon entering the bushy gate of Yamanochaya, a vintage restaurant specializing in unagi (eel) dishes. There aren’t that many restaurants in town that can boast such tranquility even if you can see a parking lot beyond the trees.

You will need to walk up a significant flight of stairs to get to this restaurants that’s been around for years and years. I tried googling and it says that they have been around since early 20th century and our hosts explained that the last time they ate at this restaurant was 30 years ago. So, Yamanochaya has been around for while.

Lovely ladies in beautiful kimonos guided us to a fake tatami room. The ones with holes under the tables to slide your legs in for comfort.

Now I might have mentioned that I am not actually crazy about unagi. I don’t mind eating it, but I won’t go out of my way to dine on it. Imagine the look on my face when this dish was placed in front of me.

I did not dare ask what it was until I gulped it all down and then discovered that it was the inner parts of the eel (whatever that is). Not the most delicious thing in the world. It had a nasty after-taste that I didn’t like but my husband loved it.

Before long, this dish came along….

Now this dish actually tastes better than it looks. It is called the shirayaki which is white eel grilled over charcoal with a little salt. I had to think of other things not snake related to gulp it down and then decided that it didn’t taste too bad.

A small bowl of miso soup came before the main course.

Followed by the main course which was some unagi grilled in a sweet sauce with rice and pickles on the side. This I loved. The unagi was tender and not as oily as others I’ve tried.

My husband is a big unagi fan and he thought this was one of the best unagi restaurants he had ever tried so if you are in for a challenge, I say give it a try too.

Prices are on the expensive side . Lunch is about 10.000 yen and up. Dinner is about 13.000 yen and up.

YAMANOCHAYA. 2-10-6 Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku. Phone : 03-3581-0585

ABURA SOBA

Apr16 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.

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…

Absolutely 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.

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

Price : $

KEAT’S HOUSE CAFE

Apr10 by Bianca

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.

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.

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.

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.

My friend tried the eggs benedict.

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

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

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

TAKUMI OKUMURA

Apr2 by Bianca

I am going to take yet another detour today and write about this lovely little restaurant in Kyoto where I had a uniquely wonderful lunch a few weeks ago. Everything about this restaurant from the adorable wooden building in the Gion district of Kyoto to the intricately prepared meal was absolutely breath-taking. I don’t say ‘breath-taking’ a lot in my reviews, but Takumi Okumura is in a class of its own. A friend recommended this French-Japanese style restaurant for my day trip to Kyoto and I will be forever grateful.

A most elaborate tray of tiny appetizers in various designs and colors was presented to us and I simply could not stop marveling over the creativeness of this display.

A sensational dish of seasonal fish with a crunchy freshness followed.

Then came a lovely cup of cawan mushi (egg custard) in delicate blue and white china.

Succeeded by another seafood dish of fish and clam.

And no, we are not done yet, another lovely cup of cream soup came afterward.

And no, we are still not done, the last and main course was some luscious beef accompanied with the most decent bowl of curry rice.

Our waitress then came with a wondrous tray of dessert from which we were supposed to pick our dessert of choice. When I told her I wanted everything, she offered to give me mini portions of everything to which I joyfully accepted.

Thus, our delicious meal ends and I have to say this splendor actually came at a somewhat reasonable price for Japan. Lunch for 4 was around 32,000 yen.

I hope you noticed the ever-changing exquisite plates in which our food was presented in. I loved them. I loved our meal and I love this restaurant.

Price : $$$

TAKUMI OKUMURA: 570-6 Gion Machi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku,Kyoto. Phone : 075-541 2205.

Tokyo Food Diary

A journal of my journey through Tokyo's various eateries

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