Kanau 金兎

Kanau is one of those tiny places offering quality food at reasonable prices that seem to defy economic logic. How can these places possibly survive having only one table for 4 and a counter seating 8? There are many such restaurants in this city, usually run by young couples. What makes Kanau stand out is the quality of the cooking. 

Just now, while I was writing, I had to look up the name ‘Kanau’. As we never call this restaurant by its proper name, I could not remember it with any certainty. For us, it is simply the ‘bunny place’, because all the plates and bowls are decorated with rabbits. Even the chopstick rests are shaped as miniature, supine rabbits, and there are quite a number of critters sitting on the counter. These are not just any ordinary rabbits, but the images of one particular, plump, black&white bunny. It took us a while to recognise this fact. Once we did, we asked the owners for an explanation and were told that indeed, the model was a pet rabbit they own. They showed us some photos of the original, a truly magnificent specimen.

There is a regular menu with the usual izagaya fare - soba, dashimaki tamago (Japanese omelette), sobamiso (grilled miso mixed with buckwheat), and tempura - that we often plan to explore but rarely do, because the weakly changing, hand-written one-sheet menu offers too many tempting options. 

We may check out the lower right corner of the menu first, which offers sashimi, or we may start at the bottom of the page and browse among the small plate dishes, featuring innovative combinations of seafood and vegetables. We end by selecting fish, chicken, or sometimes pork, and seasonal vegetables from the list along the top of the menu. These are prepared above a charcoal fire which burns quietly behind a glass wall at the corner of the kitchen counter. 

The husband, as chef, stands behind the counter, working in an easy rhythm and listening shyly to the conversation and banter his wife carries on with the regular customers. She flits about the tiny space, serving food, chatting, and offering advice on the right sake (nihonshu) to drink. She often keeps a bottle of the elusive (and exceedingly nice) Juyondai in the fridge, and she also introduced us to Murayu from Niigata which has become a favourite with us.

Prices are extremely reasonable, about 8.000 yen for two including a few glasses of sake. We have never truly become regulars in any restaurant or bar before, so this is a completely new experience. Returning from a journey abroad, an evening spent at the “bunny place” makes us feel at home. 

Food: 8/10 (excellent)
Ambiance: 7/10 (pleasant) 

Price-performance: 10/10 (a steal) 

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Address: 1-24-1 Sasazuka, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo Tel: +81 (3) 6407-0035

Dashinsoan 打心蕎庵

Since we moved out of central Tokyo towards the west, a whole new area opened up for us to explore. The streets around our station offered a selection of good restaurants to start with and during the past year we gradually extended our search to areas within easy cycling distance. We were aided by recommendations from friends already living in our new neighbourhood, and it is time to share some of our best discoveries. I would like to start by introducing a soba restaurant near Shimokitazawa station.

‘Near’ is a slight exaggeration, as Dashinsoan is almost a kilometre to the south of the station, situated in the wide area between the Odakyu line and the Denentoshi line. Shimokita is the nearest station, but the road leading south does not seem long as there are interesting shops, restaurants and people to look at. This particular restaurant is well hidden though, down of a side street, in a residential area, across from Shinganji temple.

A tall tree is visible from a distance, but entering the small garden, the tree appears to stand behind the house, but when finally within the restaurant, one gradually realizes, that the huge trunk visible behind a low window at the back shows the same ancient tree standing in a small courtyard garden. 

The menu is simple - small plates of tempura (fried seafood or vegetables), dashimaki tamago (egg omelette cooked with fish stock), hotate (scallop) in vinegar sauce, tofu and finally plates of hot or cold soba noodles. Each dish arrives at the table arranged on beautiful ceramic bowls.

There is a small, but good selection of sake to accompany the meal. Again, the katakuchi serving bowls and ochoko cups are beautiful, making it a pleasure just to handle them.

打心蕎庵 Dashinsoan contains a reference to handmade soba (手打ち蕎麦 teuchi soba) combining it with the character for heart (心 shin).

Food: 8/10 (excellent)

Ambiance: 7/10 (pleasant)

Price-performance: 8/10 (excellent value)

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 Address: 3-7-14 Daizawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo Tel: +81 (3) 5431-0141

Yagenbori やげんぼり

We have found Yagenbori a few years ago, walking down a side alley near Akasaka. It is one of the Tokyo branches of a well-known Kyoto restaurant chain. And altough we have had an excellent dinner here once, Yagenbori remains for us a lunch spot. Somehow, we never think of this place as a possible candidate for an evening out. Perhaps it was slightly too expensive compared to other favorites in the area that serve similar quality.

Lunch, however, is quite a different matter and offers excellent value. There are three options, each for the same price, 1050 yen. These do not change, or only slightly with seasonal adjustments. 

- yudofu (silky boiled tofu), 

- dashimaki tamago (egg omelette cooked with fish stock), 

- tororo (mountain yam) mixed with small pieces of raw fish, 

accompanied by rice, red miso soup and a large plate of mixed Kyoto pickles. Best to come as a group, order all three and share. 

There is one large tatami room at the front, that can be reserved for a group. Last january, we filled it with visiting friends who are, incidentally, vegetarians. This is tricky in Japan, as dashi, a delicate, transparent fish stock, is present in almost every dish. Yudofu is a safe bet though, as the sauce (flavoured dashi) is never mixed with the tofu in advance and you can ask the chef to substitute plain soy sauce. 

Apart from the food, another reason we like to lunch at Yagenbori is the atmosphere of old Japan. Tatami mats on the floor, hanging scrolls on the walls, traditionally dressed waitresses, nice pottery and wooden buckets for rice. The entrance, with the tiniest of gardens, is a rare sight nowadays in Akasaka and makes us feel sad for the way the area is changing. The ryotei type of fine, old restaurants that a friend told us he still remembers from a few decades back are all but gone and every year a new, multi-storey bar or large pachinko parlour goes up. 

Arrive early at lunch time, as the place fills up by the stroke of twelve. Strangely enough, practically all the guests are female, just as of course are all the waitresses, while the chefs behind the counter are male. Groups of women from the nearby offices or girlfriends meeting for lunch seem to make up the clientele. Only rarely have we seen an other mixed couple. Perhaps tofu, eggs and pickles, with no large piece of meat or fish, are not considered filling enough for male appetite? With as much rice as you can eat, this is hardly the case. Their loss. Even if there is something feminine about this dainty lunch set, I would not hesitate to recommend it to everyone.

Food: 8/10 (excellent)
 

Ambiance: 9/10 (outstanding)
 

Price-performance: 9/10 (amazingly good value for lunch)

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Address: 3-19-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo Tel: +81 (3) 3528-2270

Ne-no-Tsu 根の津

Altough Kamachiku remains my favourite, Ne-no-Tsu is another excellent udon restaurant in the same area. It serves sanuki udon, which comes from Kagawa-ken, Shikoku. The noodles are thick with a squarish cross section and they are served either hot or cold.

All the usual suspects are available, such as agemochi (grilled rice cake), tororo (yam), tempura, duck and kitsune (sweet and salty deep-fried tofu), but for me a simple bukkake is the best. Ne-no-Tsu bukkake is served with thinly sliced green onions, grated radish, sesame seeds, tempura batter pellets and a generous portion of ginger.

Ne-no-Tsu is on a narrow back street leading to Nezu shrine, just off busy Shinobazu road. The closest station is Nezu. A yellow noren curtain marks that the restaurant is open for business. A more telling sign is the queue, which alerted me to the restaurant in the first place. There are only four tables with the capacity for about 20 people and Ne-no-Tsu and the whole area gets extremely crowded when the famous azalea bushes are blooming at Nezu jinja in April.

Food: 8/10 (excellent)


Ambiance: 6/10 (nice place)


Price-performance: 8/10 (good value) no credit cards

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Address: 1-23-16 Nezu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo Tel: +81 (3) 3822-9015

Semba 仙波

Tokyo neighbourhoods tend to change out of all recognition in just a few years. Buildings disappear to be quickly replaced by taller ones, shops and restaurants close and are superseded by new, trendier places. Especially in Omotesando, the most stylish area of them all.

We used to think we knew this area intimately, as we regularly dined out within the Omotesando-Harajuku-Shibuya triangle after work. Well, that was during the first time we lived in Tokyo. We did expect change while we were away, but it was still a bit of a shock to find almost every familiar place gone. That is probably one of the reasons why we love this soba restaurant that is comfortingly unchanged. The outside got a smart facelift, but that is all.

A colleague has recommended Semba many, many years ago as a reliable lunch spot serving an unusual kind of noodle — kurumisoba. To tell the truth, I had never even asked the real name of the restaurant until the other day, as the name of that dish was enough to identify it.

Kurumisoba means walnut soba. Buckwheet noodles with a cold dipping sauce made of creamed walnut meat and katsuodashi. The sauce is deep, strong and smooth, the nutty taste nicely balanced by the saltiness of the soysauce and the fish stock and I think some sake as well. The condiments are kept very simple: negi onion, wasabi and momijioroshi (grated daikon radish with red chili).

All the usual stuff is available, zarusoba, tenseiro, kitsune udon, even sets with half a portion of noodles and half of rice, but I have to confess I never had any of those. And I have never been here in the evening. I come here to eat lunch and to order one thing. It is that good.

Food: 8/10 (excellent) 


Ambiance: 5/10 (OK)


Price-performance: 7/10 (good value)

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Address: 4-4-7 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Tel: +81 (3) 5474-5977

Nezu Tofu Kóbó Suda 根津とうふ工房須田

In the nineties, when we first lived in Tokyo, in a traditional house behind Gokokuji temple, there were three tofu shops within easy distance from our house. After a little while, we decided that we like the taste of one better than the others and went there to buy fresh tofu every couple of days. A few years ago, when I visited the old neighbourhood, I noticed that all three shops were gone. 

After that I have started to look for tofu workshops when walking around town. Some are still around, I have found one in the middle of Akasaka, but not many. Would they disappear soon, just like sento bath houses did? Supermarkets seem to offer more variety and better quality tofu than they used to - would that be the reason? Whatever it is, tofu makers must find new ways to attract customers. 

I think the Suda workshop near Nezu station found a way to stay relevant. First, they are offering new variations of old favourites: ganmadoki with shiso leaves, slabs of dengaku tofu with chicken flavoured miso paste, okara mixed with purple beni imo as a dessert. Second, they have a website. Third, they also offer lunch sets. Bento boxes with inari zushi on weekdays and a full set with miso soup on weekends and holidays. 

There are many reasons to spend time in the Yanese neighbourhood. Just now, the ginko trees sorrounding Nezu jinja look golden in the sunlight, camelias are blooming in the front yards and the Asakura Choso museum has reopened after almost four years. Sadly, there are fewer and fewer traditional wooden houses, two of my favourite cafés are gone, but the countless small temples are unchanged and the neighbourhood still seems to go about its business as it always has done. 

..... for a repeat visit, try Kamachiku, Ne-no-Tsu or some other fine soba / udon restaurant.

Food: 7/10 (very good) 

Ambiance: 6/10 (nice place)

Price-performance: 8/10 (excellent value)

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 Address: 2-19-11 Nezu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo Tel: +81 (3) 3821-0810

Gyoza Lou

I would like to say that we found this place by ourselves and thus to claim discovery, but it would be a lie. The queue should have been a giveaway, but somehow we missed it. The truth is that we have read about Gyoza Lou in Metropolis, in a rather snobbish article, mentioned as a sort of antidote to dining at the Mandarin Oriental and similar high class restaurants. That was a few years back, so by now, having introduced loads of visiting friends to the place, we feel quite proprietorial towards Gyoza Lou. It has proved a safe bet for anyone not averse to pork.

The menu can not be any simpler than this. There is a choice of yaki (fried) or sui (steamed) gyoza with or without garlic and nira (a kind of onion) and three kinds of side dishes: cabbage, moyashi (bean sprouts) in a spicy, meaty sauce or chilled cucumber cubes with white miso. I’m generally partial to fried gyoza, but for some reason the steamed variety at this place tastes just as good.

Actually, at these prices, there is no need to make decisions at all, just order everything on the menu (minus the cabbage). Each plate will only cost a few hundred yen anyway. Considering the location at Jingumae, just one block behind the luxury boutiques of Omotesando, prices at Gyoza Lou are miraculously cheap. Nevertheless, the price itself would not make us come here as often as we do, if the gyoza were not so good. It is. Tasty, with just the right thickness of skin.

There are counter seats on both sides of the open kitchen and a few tables by the windows, seating four each. There is usually a queue, but it moves quickly. Try to go outside peak dining hours.

Food: 7/10 (very good) 


Ambiance: 5/10 (OK)


Price-performance: 10/10 (a steal)

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Address: 6-2-4 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Tel: +81 (3) 3406-4743

Kuroza-akatsukiro 黒座暁褸

The name is a bit of a mouthful, so we usually refer to this restaurant as "that black place"*. Not so much on account of the first character in its name, but because the first thing that struck us was that exterior and interior were both painted black. 

The black restaurant is located in Akasaka, near the office, so we followed the usual procedure — lunch first, second and third time and finally, to reward a consistently good performance, dinner. Lunch is always fish, such as ginmutsu no saikyoyaki (grilled with miso, mirin and sake). Dinner choices are more tricky. 

In the true izagaya style, they have a bit of everything - sashimi, grilled fish, yakitori, tempura, noodles, and so on. A friend once ordered steak and that was delicious, too. The portions are not huge, but big enough to share between two. We usually order grilled fish and a few seasonal veggies and finish off with ochazuke. I grew very partial to the ochazuke here. There is a choice of ume (pickled plum), sake or mentaiko.

There is an English menu, but it is a bit limited, listing only the basics. The Japanese menu is more rewarding. Every month, there appears a new, beautifully handwritten sheet of paper, with seasonal offers. The calligraphy is hard to read, and the waiters, though nice and willing to help, are too busy to go through the whole sheet with us. We found that the best policy is to choose the type of food we would like to have and having thus narrowed the choices, to ask what is available in that particular category. 

There is a good selection of regional nihonshu and an even larger one of shochu. Just try to get hold of the older waiters to advise you about the drinks. 

Food: 7/10 (very good) 

Ambiance: 7/10 (pleasant)

Price-performance: 8/10 (excellent value)

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* It is not only us, who find it difficult. My Japanese colleagues call it "kuroi toko" which also means "black place" - in Japanese.

Address: 3-11-3 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 

Tel: +81 (3) 6229-2668

Warayaki-ya わらやき屋

Roppongi Warayaki-ya

Wara means rice straw and yaki means burning — and that tells the whole story. Whether you order chicken, fish or vegetables, the food will be held briefly above flaming straw, giving everything a slightly burnt aroma. The leaping flames turn the open kitchen into a circus performance, while the fragrance of burning straw evokes the ghost picnics past.

The magician in the kitchen

Unless we have a group, when we order every single item from the warayaki-list, we usually go for katsuo (bonito) and potatoes. Eat more than that and the smokey flavour becomes a bit overwhelming. The katsuo is lightly seared outside, raw on the inside and arrives with a choice of sliced raw garlic, wasabi, ginger, salt and onions. Garlic seems to go very well with katsuo and fortunately we both like it - we just have to be careful not to arrange to meet anyone for a drink after dinner.

Katsuo no tataki

Warayaki-ya has several locations - among them in Akasaka, Shinbashi and Roppongi. The food is similar, but somehow only the Roppongi shop has the real ambience.

On a warm summer evening last year, kids were playing with tiny firecrackers outside

On summer evenings, the sliding doors are thrown open and it is even possible to sit on the narrow wooden terrace.

Food: 7/10 (very good) 


Ambiance: 8/10 (cool)


Price-performance: 7/10 (good value) 

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Address: 6-8-8- Roppongi, Minato-ku

Tel: +81 (3) 5410-5560

Suzunari 鈴なり

It took us a long time to discover the area around Yotsuya-sanchome station, despite passing by, across and under (by Marunouchi line) hundreds of times.We needed a final push - and that was provided by a friend, an architect who took us to a simple, old place for lunch after we visited his studio which is located on the south side of the station, in a quiet, leafy, residential area dotted with small temples. Hattori Hanzo (who was real enough, not just a fictional character in Kill Bill) is buried within the grounds of one of these.

The area where we had lunch, is on the other side, to the north-east of the station and it could not be more different with its warren of narrow streets that are packed with bars, izagayas and some unusually fine restaurants.

The Chef, Murata-san, worked for high-end kaiseki* restaurants before opening up his own place. The gamble has payed off, as he has already received one Michelin star - but to his credit, he has not changed either his prices or the simple, homely atmosphere of his restaurant. The mid-size dinner course, for around 6000 yen, may sound expensive, but for a dinner of this kind, this is excellent value. The nihonshu** selection is equally nice and quite reasonably priced.

On our spring visit, the course included kegani (horsehair crab) with ginger, a combination of uni-avokado-yuba in a sweet sauce flavoured with wasabi, red hotate ika (squid) with karashi (mustard), kinmedai (golden eye snapper) in salty-sour pondzu, grilled slices of amadai (Japanese tilefish) with fukinoto tempura and takenoko (bamboo shoots) combined with hotate (scallops) in a sweet ankake sauce.

In October, we were greeted with a seasonal selection: kurumaebi (Japanese tiger prawn), kamasu (barracuda), kaki (persimmon), ginnan (ginkgo nuts), kinoko (mushroom) and mizuna ae (boiled Japanese mustard leaves), decorated by an ear of rice puffed up like popcorn, as a token of the recent harvest. This was followed by tamajimushi, a soup-like concoction with eggs and sea urchin.

The otsukuri (sashimi) consisted of katsuo (bonito), honmaguro (Pacific bluefin tuna), kanpachi (greater amberjack), ika (squid) and tai (seabream). Dinner always ends with takekomi gohan (seasoned rice), misoshiru soup and a small desert. By this point, we are usually so stuffed that we can just taste the rice. The rest is made into onigiri (rice balls) that can be taken home for breakfast.

Food: 9/10 (truly remarkable)  

Ambiance: 6/10 (nice place) 

Price-performance: 9/10 (amazingly good value)    

Address: 7-9 Arakicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Tel: +81 (3) 3350-1178

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* kaiseki is a traditional multi-course dinner. The seasonal dishes are served one by one and each small plate looks exquisite, like a miniature painting.

**nihonshu is called 'sake' around the world. In Japan, sake means all kinds of alcoholic drinks, while rice wine is referred to as 'Japanese alcohol' (nihonshu).

Kanzesui 観世水

The grid of streets between Akasaka and Akasaka-Mitsuke subway stations is a “serious” entertainment district, devoid of the erotic excesses of Shinjuku, the teenage loudness of Shibuya and the bumptiousness of Ikebukoro, preferred by businessmen in dark suits dining here after work. There are eateries here for all tastes and budgets and one needs a knowledgeable guide to navigate the hundreds of bars, pubs, bistros, and restaurants. 

Luckily, some business partners provided the necessary guidance and directed us to Kanzesui. Kanzesui is a soba (buckwheat noodles) restaurant, serving decent lunch sets and excellent dinners. However, its main claim to fame is the expertly selected nihonshu* list. There is a palpable passion here for the stuff, as we saw from the enthusiastic response when we mentioned some of the brands consumed at a former business dinner. On previous visits, the two of us ordered from the menu one at a time, slowly discussing the available options with the very knowledgable owner of the place.

This time, however, we had some friends with us, so we decided to go for one of the convenient sets. We settled on the Akaraku course, which promised us 12 dishes for 5400 yen. With the order out of the way, we settled down with a flask of Shizuku from the Kokuryuu brewery in Fukui prefecture. The first dish, a salty, crunchy agesoba (fried noodles) arrived just in time to complement the sake and was soon followed by a small square of sobadofu (tofu with buckwheat flavour) and small spoonfuls of sobamiso. 

The first part of the dinner over, we switched to a flask of the famed Juyondai, a junmai daiginjo* called Ryugetsu. (Juyondai comes in small batches, under different labels, from the Takagi sake brewery in Yamagata prefecture.) This went well with the seafood - first some creamy, slightly bitter ankimo (monkfish liver), followed by a sashimi plate with buri (yellowtail), saba (mackerel) and hirame (halibut) and finally some kind of sea-snail, whose name I did not catch. To be honest, I am not a big fan of snails, but luckily the chef provided a wonderful chawanmushi (salty egg custard) for the more squeamish customers. 

A morsel of grilled, plump chicken and a few slices of tamagoyaki rounded up the meal. At this point, we were all quite full, so we took a break before tackling the soba itself. Our last sake was called Senshin, from the Asahi Shuzo brewery in Niigata. Though significantly cheaper than the Juyondai, it was extremely elegant and sophisticated. 

The meal ended with two kinds of soba noodles, served in old lacquer boxes and an improvised soup made with the leftover dipping sauce and sobayu (the cooking water of the noodles). Desert looked like an ordinary purin custard, but it was somehow infused with the flavour of buckwheat as well. It was getting late, so having received our 4th cup of green tea, we finally took the hint and left. Happy.

Food: 8/10 (excellent) 

Ambiance: 6/10 (nice place)
 

Price-performance: 8/10 (excellent value)   

Address: Takeshita Bld. B1F, 3-12-22, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Tel: +81 (3) 3589-4556

Web: www.kanzesui.com

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* "nihonshu" is what referred as "sake" around the world. In Japan, sake means all kinds of alcoholic drink, while the rice wine is referred as "Japanese alcohol" (nihonshu). 

**  junmai means that it is pure rice wine, without any added alcohol. In ginjo sake the rice has had the outer 40% of the grains polished away, resulting in a delicate, fragrant, complex taste. In a daiginjo, more than half of the grains was polished away. Juyondai actually means "14th" indicating that it comes from the barrel no. 14. Truly excellent stuff, unfortunately a bit pricy...

The boiling pot amongst the bamboo 釜竹

Kamachiku* is hidden among narrow alleys in the residential part of Nezu. We first visited it over a year ago, on a wet evening, without a reservation and were thus obliged to wait outside for 15 minutes. This might have put us off the place, but luckily the interior was pleasant and the udon noodles delicious, so we quickly forgot about the rain and enjoyed ourselves. What’s more, I noticed that whenever we have occassion to be in the neighbourhoood, we time is so as to be able to have a lunch or dinner here. 

The reason why we first sought out the place was not actually gastronomical, but professional - the converted kura** and the small addition next to it was designed by Kengo Kuma, one of the bright stars of Japanese architecture. Once the kura had probably belonged to a substantial mansion, but now a home for elderly people stands on the adjoining land. Luckily, a large part of the ground was turned into a garden, which the restaurant takes advantage of, opening one wall fully to enjoy the view of a pretty lake.  

The entrance is through the new addition, where a communal table seats less than a dozen people. Those, facing the glass wall have the advantage of the garden view. A few steps lead up to the kura, where tatami mats were laid down and the seating is around small, low tables. The roof structure was left open, and from a sitting position, the height of the space appears even loftier. 

The menu is simple and the food is good. There is a choice between kamaage-udon (udon served hot with a dipping sauce) and a thin-cut zaru-udon (cold, flour-based noodles in a bamboo basket). The noodles can be supplemented with some small dishes - tofu, gyutataki, tempura with seasonal vegetables, a mix of tsukemono and perhaps a small plate of grilled fish. The sake selection is small, but excellent. 

The neighbourhood seems to appreciate the place - a few months ago I overheard a local couple striking up an acquaintance with some out of town visitors, telling them the story of the building and proudly explaining about the architecture. They had every right to be proud. 

Food: 8/10 (excellent)


Ambiance: 9/10 (outstanding)


Price-performance: 8/10 (excellent value) 

Address: 2-14-18 Nezu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 

Tel: +81 (3) 5815-4675
Archive pictures of the original kura storehouse are here.

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* Kamachiku 釜竹 means pot and bamboo 

** kura is the name of old, Japanese-style warehouses

Uoshin Nogizaka 魚真

We go quite often to this place, but we actually did not know its name until we checked it for this post. We just refer to it as let’s go to that fish-place again. Actually, we were not far from the truth there, as Uoshin means something like “honest-to-goodness fish”.

The narrow entrance looks quite respectable with a white noren curtain and a tiny, white-pebble garden with a stone lantern. The inside is altogether a different story - a crazy hotchpotch of rooms on two floors with an additional terrace protected by transparent vinyl sheets and decorated by red-and-blue striped paper lanterns. The furnishing is equally haphazard with rickety tables and upended beer cases with a cushion tied on top serving as stools.

Uoshin is actually one of a chain of restaurants with close ties to the Tsukiji fish market. This connection accounts for the consistently good quality, reasonable prices and the unusual types of fish on the menu. On our recent visit we started dinner with sashimi moriawase a seasonal selection of sashimi, including buri (yellowtail), katsuo (bonito), tobiuo (flying fish), kinmedai(golden eye snapper), isaki (grunt).

We are rather particular to grilled kama (jaw or head), especially the huge jaws of tuna which offers plenty of tasty morsels around the bones. This is not a good dish to start with, it is better to share it with friends, eating slowly after ones first hunger is slaked. Kama is not on the menu, but we always ask the waiter what is available from the kitchen. This time we hadwarasa no kama (young yellowtail), a fish much smaller than tuna, so we had the whole head grilled.

We were sitting at the edge of the terrace, watching the drizzling rain and the reflected lights on the wet road. The cool evening called for something warming, so we drank shochu rather than nihonshu and ended dinner with simmered kurodai (black snapper), rice and misoshiru.

The best part (OK, almost) comes at the end when we ask for the bill. It always costs much less than we expect...

Food: 7/10 (very good)

Ambiance: 6/10 (nice place)

Price-performance: 9/10 (amazingly good value!)

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Address: 9-6-32 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Tel: +81 (3) 3405-0411

Web: www.uoshins.com 

Unosato うのさと

Unosato is hidden in a narrow alley, just behind BEAM in Shibuya. Perhaps the very narrowness of the street saved this single story, traditional house from being ‘developed’ and it stands now, incongruous, facing the back walls of a hair salon and a sports shop. We were originally attracted by this very quality, a sense of survival against the odds.

What draws us back, however, is the food, which is much superior to the usual izagaya fare. We loved the hearty, warm chicken nabe (hotpot) and fat cuts of gindara on the winter menu, but on this visit, we got a foretaste of spring.

The otóshi plate is steamed spring vegetables - takenoko (bamboo shoot), akaninjin (dark red carrots) and nanohana (rapeseed greens) - heaped on top of a piece of saba (mackerel). The sake we choose to go with is soft, rounded, with a fresh, fruity flavour. It is a junmai ginjo* from Niigata, called called Shimeharitsuru jun.

To our surprise, there is a new English menu - even the tasting notes of the various sake and shochu are translated! As a rule, we try to read the Japanese menu or simply consult the waiter, simply because the English menus tend to list only the regular dishes and to omit the seasonal ones. This time we are pleasantly surprised;the menu is not only translated, but someone has evidently devoted some thought to it and decided to leave the Japanese kanji characters, while adding the Japanese reading and the English translation - the best solution in our opinion.

Back to dinner. We quickly order a few favourites, then spend a pleasant half hour studying the menu. Katsuo no tataki (bonito, seared on the outside) with lots of raw onion, grated ginger andmyoga (wild japanese ginger buds) and shiso (perilla leaves), sesonal young takenoko (bamboo shoot) served raw, sashimi-style and namayuba (soy milk skin) with a dark, salty dipping sauce. All very good so far.

Finally, we order a bowl of rice and a grilled dish each - momoniku (chicken thigh) grilled with natural salt and gindara no misoyaki (butter-fish grilled with soybean paste) and switch to Sato Kurokoji imoshōchū (sweet potato shōchū**), a strong drink from Kagoshima, from the island of Kyushu. The chicken is nice and crispy, but the gindara, which is naturally sweet and buttery, is a bit overwhelming under the rich miso paste. Then again, perhaps we simply ordered too much and should have stopped eating after the chicken...

Unosato is a popular place, so do not turn up without a reservation. There are two rooms, one with counter- and table seating, the other with tatami.

Food: 7/10 (very good)


Ambiance: 6/10 (nice place, perhaps a bit dark and often much too loud)


Price-performance: 8/10 (excellent value)

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* junmai means that it is pure rice wine, without any added alcohol; in ginjo sake the rice has had at least the outer 40% of the grains polished away, resulting in a delicate, fragrant, complex taste.

** shōchū is a distilled beverage native to Japan. It is typically distilled from barley, sweet potatoes, or rice. See more at the Wiki.

Address: 36-1 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku

Tel: +81 (3) 3496-2087

Sasuga Bekkan 流石別館

High-end soba-restaurants seem to be a new fad, as soba* used to be an essentially cheap dish. Indeed, if you walk into Sasuga Bekkan in Ginza, you can still order a zarusoba (plain buckwheat noodles in a bamboo basket) for 1.000 yen and occupy a table for as long as you wish. But this somehow just does not happen in Tokyo - and indeed, once seated, it would be a sad waste not to try a few other dishes as well.

We are sitting at the counter, which is always a good vantage point to watch preparations from and to discuss food and drink options with the chef. (Actually, having been warned in advance, we have ordered something called sobazushi when we made the reservation.) We choose the sake first: Tenyurin junmai ginjo-shu** from Mie, from the vicinity of the sacred shrine at Ise. It comes in a beautiful container, that were made to order by a Japanese craftsman, who also created on beautiful ceramic plates.

Our waitress recommends a few starters before the main attractions - I almost wrote main course, but that concept does not really exist in this kind of cuisine - and we choose slices of roast duck and sobagaki (steamed buckwheat dumpling). The dumpling is soft with a grainy texture and does not have much of a taste in itself, but it is flavoured with an interesting combination of wasabi and a salty-sweet sauce.

Roast duck

Sobagaki

We do not quite know what to expect from the sobazushi, but it was recommended as a house speciality. It looks like a plate of makizushi (sushi roll), only with soba noodles instead of rice. Interesting we think but we will stick with the standard version...

We are planning to eat a simple zarusoba at the end, which is always served cold, so first we need some warming food - delicious, crunchy steamed vegetables and the Sasuga nabe yudofu (tofu boiled in hot water at the table). A gas cooker is placed in front of us, than a small ceramic pot with water that is slightly murky and turns out to be the cooking water of soba noodles. Slabs of tofu are immersed in the boiling water for a few minutes, followed by mushroom, leek, leafy greens and atsuage (fried tofu). By the time the vegetables are done, the water is transformed into a lovely soup.

To complete the soba-theme tonight, we try some cooked buckwheat grains (which is seldom served in this form in Japan) and finally, the zarusoba. It is Juwari, says the waitress and a quick look at my iPhone translates the word as 100% buckwheat noodle. A farewell glass of Shinshu (young sake) from Hyogo sends us on our way happy.

The zarusoba

Sasuga Bekkan is part of a trio of high-end soba-kaiseki restaurants, all located around Ginza. Bekkan is on the second floor of a rather ugly house near Showa dori, but do not let the unpromising look of the building fool you - the entryway opens into an exquisite Japanese interior.

Food: 7/10 (very good)

Ambiance: 8/10 (beautiful tableware)

Price-performance: 6/10 (reasonable)

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Address: Toni Bld. 2F 2-13-6 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Tel: +81 (3) 3543-0404

* soba is essentially buckwheat, a type of cereal widespread in Europe, as well, in the 18th-19th century. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckwheat

** junmai means that it is pure rice wine, without any added alcohol; in ginjo sake the rice has had at least the outer 40% of the grains polished away, resulting in a delicate, fragrant, complex taste.