L’Effervescence, Nishi-Azabu　（レフェルヴェソンス、西麻布）

Posted on by Ryan

Shinobu Namae is a bit of a food critic’s darling in Tokyo’s competitive fine dining scene. With two Michelin stars, a ranking of #12 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, and an entire CNN Culinary Journeys episode dedicated to him, the sky seems to be the limit for him and his restaurant, L’Effervescence.

Still, while the restaurant had always been on my own culinary radar, the effort required for a reservation and the hefty price tag had deterred me from visiting.  One fateful night in early June while casually perusing OpenTable, however, I found a rare Saturday table and decided to snag it.  For the most part, it was worth it.

When it comes to Tokyo dining, L’Effervescence stands toe-to-toe with the big hitters like Narisawa and Quintessence.  The food is creative, meticulously plated, and delicious. The service is attentive and rarely misses a beat.  The interior design is plush, if not a tad dark, with white table clothes but a “no jackets required, yet collared shirts preferred” kind of vibe.  Expect Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Beck, and The Doors providing background music.

Of course, this is Tokyo haute cuisine and the price tag is “haute” as well.  Only one menu available at dinner for 20,000 yen plus service and tax.  Lunch is 10,000.  Add a few glasses of wine (pairings and an extensive bottle list also available), and you’re looking at at least 32,000 yen per head.  Prepare accordingly.

Let’s eat L’Effervescence!

The meal starts with a serving of wine mixed with sake. A good way to start the course that features Japanese ingredients prepared using French technique.
Some olives to accompany our champagne.
The first course is called “Hello.” Kegani crab, red pepper with a fennel foam / kabosu & sake frozen with liquid nitrogen.
One of the restaurant’s specialities is “Just like the apple pie.” This was the 29th kind they’ve made.
Sea urchin, conger eel, and seaweed.
“South Wind” – Kuruma ebi shrimp poached in the sour cream’s whey, cucumber and yuzu vinagrette, honkarebushi reduction
The delicious, soft, warm bread is served with a tofu and sour cream spread with a touch of olive oil.
Another speciality – “A fixed point” – Tokyo turnip cooked for 4 hours, parsley, Basque ham, and brioche with an Italian parsley and spinach sauce. The juciest turnip ever.
Migration- Chilled sweetcorn soup and cultured milk, mole negro. Apparently, the chef was influenced by his trip to Mexico to eat at the Noma popup in Tulum. Simple, but very artistic.
Grandma’s Taste – Tiny chawan-mushi, turban shell (sazae), hatsuka radish rice bran marinated
Consomme from the ayu sweetfish to be served next. This is one whole fish worth of reduced and clarified consomme.
“Summer” – Ayu served with its fermented innards, edamame, rice vinegar, taro stem. The head was lightly fried, crispy, and delicious. A beautiful dish and one of my favorites from this course.
“Through the forest / memory of hunting” – Summer venison roast and mussel sauce, myoga, eggplant, shiso, rhubarb
Post-dinner salad is made up of 50 different products from artisan farmers. They give you an entire list with the salad, but I won’t type it here. Very reminiscent of Den’s salad. I wonder who copied who?
The cheese plate- two French cheeses (top) and two Japanese cheeses.
A kind of late birthday celebration came with this very pretty plate. The edible candle is orange flavored.
“Little rest under a tree” – Melon, yogurt, Japanese big leaf magnolia ice cream, coffee cookies.
Underneat the melon.
“Little nap in the meadow” – Peach, mugwort, goat milk. In my opinion, this was the weak point of the night, but Midori loved it. A dessert for the Japanese palette, perhaps.
Mignardaises.
At this point, they bring a green tea cart to your table and serve green tea in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony style.
Green tea and “World Peace” in the back- a kind of peanut milk with brown sugar.
Some delicious pineapple bread to take home as a souvenir.

Icaro in Naka-Meguro イカロ、中目黒

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As an early birthday dinner for me, we decided to visit an Italian restaurant that’s been on my radar a while.  Icaro has one Michelin star and is conveniently located a short five minute walk from Naka-Meguro station.  It is on the 4th floor of a fairly nondescript building more apt to contain chainstore izakaya than fine dining.  Still, upon entering, the restaurant feels like an Italian trattoria adorned with wine bottles, posters with Italian writing, Ducatti paraphernalia, and freeform jazz playing at a volume that encourages jovial conversation.

While Icaro does offer a course menu, the server actually recommended we choose from the a la carte options to ensure we get something we actually want to eat.  He said the dishes are sized to share and recommended 4 to 5 items between the two of us.  All the choices sounded delicious, and we vacillated quite a bit.  Luckily, our server was kind enough to guid us through the more popular options on the menu.  In the end, we opted for two starters, two pastas, one meat dish, and dessert to share.

Besides the food, there is an extensive list of Italian wines to choose from, and everything is priced quite reasonably.  Bottles average 6-7000 yen, while food runs from 2000 yen to about 5800 yen.  All the food pictured below, a bottle of delicious red wine, two glasses of spumante, herb tea, and a generous pouring of grappa with dessert was exactly 30,000 yen.  Not bad at all.

The whole meal was delicious and I’d love to go back to Icaro to try some of their other options.  Fortunately, going back should be easy as it’s on my way back from work, it’s a very casual and open atmosphere, and it is simple to get a reservation through Open Table.   That said, reservations are highly recommended, as I did see one couple get turned away when we dined here on Friday night.

Let’s eat Icaro!

Abalone with mushrooms atop polenta and a new onion puree with abalone liver sauce.
Zucchini flower stuffed with squid and burrata cheese, lightly fried and served over a paprika sauce. Amazing.
Spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli. Simple, but so delicious.
Hokkaido venison ragu sauce over pappardelle pasta.
Lamb with various herbs wrapped in fat with onion and young corn, anchovy sauce.
Our server noticed we still had some wine left, so he gave us some raisins and candied citrus to accompany the drink.
Dessert was a pistachio topped with ricotta gelato. A bit more dense than your standard creme brulee, but oh so delicious.

 

Loco – Lisbon, Portugal

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Loco was the last stop on our European gourmet vacation, and I’ll say it right off the bat- it was fantastic.  This ultra-modern and vibrant restaurant has quickly gained attention in Lisbon, receiving its first Michelin star just one year after opening, and it’s easy to see why.

After passing through the entranceway featuring a massive, suspended olive tree, one can immediately feel a pulse throughout the restaurant. Perhaps it is the open kitchen at the center of the single large dining room, the vivacious greetings from the youthful and gracious staff, or the striking visual design throughout, the space just feels alive and exciting.  I knew right away that it would be good.

The food is beautifully presented and each dish could double as a work of art. Everything is precise, creative, but never convoluted.  The chef obviously holds great respect for Portugal’s natural ingredients and features them prominently in the very reasonably priced course menu (90 euros).

And then there’s the wine.  This is a food blog and only a food blog namely because I don’t know much about wine.  However, the wines that the sommelier recommended to us were some of the best wines I have ever tasted.  For that, I have included some pictures of the wines at the bottom of this post.

Loco checks all the boxes- it’s fun, exciting, beautiful, and absolutely delicious. Moreover it checks all the boxes without being pretentious and does it all for an extremely reasonable price.  To top it all off, the staff gave us a complementary bottle of limited edition Loco red wine to take home with us.

I am sure that at this rate, Loco will receive its 2nd Michelin star soon enough.

Let’s eat Loco!

 

Cod, eggs, and parsley. No meal in Portugal is complete without some cod!
Wild asparagus, lime jelly, and rosemary.
Brocolli and fennel, elderflower, atop a cream that had been reduced for several hours.
Clam with chilies and coriander.
Chorizo bread. Reminded me of a dim sum dumpling. So juicy.
Oyster in an orange and olive oil sauce. Tangy and delicious.
Black pork croquettes.
Bread service with olive oil, four butters (sheepsmilk, nori seaweed, red pepper, and garlic), and meat gravy!
Shrimp ceviche and tangerine.
Frostfish with smoked oil and ginger salt. First time eating this fish- it was extremely meaty with a very full mouthfeel. Smoky and delicious.
Horse mackerel with onions in a duck sauce.
The fish of the day was creamy and perfectly done. Sadly, I can’t remember what kind of fish this is. I was probably getting drunk at this point…
Nori chips served with the fish.
A creamy coconut drink served with the fish.
Duck with parsnip crisp and kale.
Beef tongue with mustard seeds and onions.
Seaweed filled with sweet sesame.
White asparagus (yes, this is dessert), milk ice cream, coffee, and cardamom. Such a clever dessert. Very creamy and refreshing.
A carrot soaked in orange juice with orange sorbet.
Coffee service. The server made sure to explain that they don’t serve espresso because they want their customers to sit back, relax, and enjoy their coffee slowly and leisurely. I had my coffee spiked with a whiskey like liquor seen below.
The petit fours came served in this sewing kit here.
Petit fours served on an embroidery hoop.
Final, final petit fours filled with ice cream.

 

Belcanto – Lisbon, Portugal

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Lisbon’s only two Michelin-starred restaurant, Belcanto, is located in the heart of the city’s historic center, and is nothing less than a must-visit stop on any gourmet itinerary. Landing at #85 on this year’s World’s Best Restaurants list, Jose Avillez’s restaurant has been helping put Portugal on the culinary map.  Indeed, the country’s celebrity-chef has been featured on CNN’s Culinary Journey’s, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, and plenty of other media, as well.

The restaurant is small, cozy, intimate, and very elegant.  Although their countries share a border, this is a whole world away from our experience at DiverXO.  And that’s okay. Sometimes it’s nice to dine in a more traditional setting.  Still, as can be seen in the pictures below, the food is anything less than traditional.  It’s fairly experimental taking cues from Avillez’s time at El Bulli (explosive olives anyone?), but strikes a perfect balance between molecular and recognizable.  And oh my, it is absolutely delicious.

Belcanto offers three different course menus (from 125 euros to 165 euros), each with its own wine pairing.  There is also an A La Carte menu.  Whichever you choose, it will be incredible.  We chose the Evolution Menu with pairing, and it was a perfect amount of food but quite a bit of wine.  We left feeling, well, drunk.

There’s really nothing negative to say about Belcanto in Lisbon.  I can’t recommend it enough.

Let’s eat Belcanto!

“Elderini” – green olives with a chocolate and cumin core.
“Elderini” – Martini made with elderflower liquor (served togethr with the olive)
Cod and chickpea “stones” (you eat the black and white ones)
Azorean tuna “bouquet”
Pork head.
Pull the tuna belly temaki from the bouquet and enjoy!
Smoked horse mackerel slivers, cod’s liver, pickled flowers, pearl onions with crispy bread.
The butter!! Rosemary ash butter, sausage butter, and regular butter.
The very elegant bread basket featuring olive bread, corn bread, and other selections.
Bullhão Pato clams ceviche (amazing dish, maybe my favorite)
Algarve’s scarlet shrimp two ways: With xerém (maize porridge) of cod’s swim bladder and Hart’s pennyroal
The head in a crust of beetroot salt.
The crust is removed and you are allowed to eat/suck the entire juicy head.
Coal roasted cozido (Portuguese pot-au-few) cabbage with jowl.
LT yolk with sunroot purée, “farinheira” of roe, eel, and “cabidela” sauce. The egg yolk popped into that red sauce made of chicken’s blood. SO GOOD!
Sea bass with smoked avocado, pitachio oil, lime zest and dashi.
Grilled squid over squid rice, lemon zest, bone marrow, and pancetta emulsion.
Pork shoulder from the Alentejo region with red paprika and bread mash, small fava beans, pig trotters with cilantro.
Traditional cheese variety from Serra de Estrela cured three ways.
Choco- chocolate and cuttlefish ink icecream (“tinta de choco”). Who knew that squid ink ice cream could be so divine!!
Strawberries, apples, roses, and lychees.
An espressotini for me to finish.
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The lovely Belcanto staff were kind enough to let us tour the kitchen. Unfortunately, Jose was not there as he was in Mexico enjoying Noma’s popup in Tulum.

DiverXO – Madrid, Spain

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DiverXO, Madrid’s only three-star Michelin restaurant, feels like someone turned Cirque Du Soleil into a restaurant.  Pronounced “duh-ver-show,” the dining experience is an Alice in Wonderland-like, four-hour-or-so trip into the wacky, perverse, and utterly creative mind of owner-chef David Muñoz…and damn, is it good.

To be honest, I feel like blogging about DiverXO deserves a spoiler alert.  If you ever intend to eat there, don’t look at the pics below.  Even if the menu does change regularly, I would recommend going into this restaurant much as you would the latest film in your favorite series.  Keep all prior knowledge and expectations kept at bay and just dive (pun intended) right in.

This destination of a restaurant is set apart from the historic center of Madrid, and that’s probably on purpose.  I won’t pretend to be a Madrid expert (I was only there for one full day), but I can say with a fair amount of certainty that DiverXO’s somewhat remote location was chosen so that its privileged diners could feel they had gone on a journey away from the touristy parts of the city.

Entering the restaurant, one can expect mounted pig butts, massive ice cream cone-shaped wine bottle holders, butterflies everywhere, a full-tour of the ordered chaos of a kitchen, and if you’re lucky (like we were), a photo with the surprisingly down-to-earth David Muñoz at the end of the meal.  Each of the 12 tables are enveloped in a private velvet curtain fit more for a theater than a restaurant.  Around 20 minutes into the meal, the waiters dramatically whisk the curtain away to reveal the rest of the restaurant with a hearty “Welcome to DiverXO!” It’s this dramatic decor and presentation that makes DiverXO more of an experience than just a restaurant.  Of course, there’s also the food, but I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

The food is epic, the presentation is epic, and so too is the price tag- there are only two courses priced at 195 euros and 250 euros.  I usually opt for the “go big or go home” type mentality at these places, because I may never have the chance to go back. In this case, however, the waitress actually advised AGAINST the longer course menu.  We were glad she did, because our shorter course was a ton of food. I’m a big eater and can put up a solid fight at any buffet, but by the end of this meal, I was STUFFED.  It begs the question- is the longer course really even necessary?

The reservation system is difficult, so plan way ahead.  You need to find an open date on their website a good 3 months in advance, and then buy a 60 euro “ticket” (down payment that goes to the final bill price) to hold your seat.

I promise you- this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and totally worth all the effort.

Let’s eat DiverXO! (Note- all food descriptions below are exactly as printed on the menu.)

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A small idea of the interior decor.

Viva Mexico Cabrones!!! Green mole with fennel and green tomato, olluco, steamed octopus, and bone marrow.
Crunchy sandwich and ox tail with black mole.
Taco filled with huitlacoche, pumping flower, and palo cortado. (These three dishes were served at a quick pace as one “canvas.” It was after eating the taco that the velvet curtain was taken away.)
Steamed white asparagus “vichyssoise” with toasted buffala’s butter, red Japanese rice, yuzu, homemade sriracha, sansho pepper…suckling pig!!
Grilled semi-baked red tuna with shiso and lime pesto “fetuccini,” quali fried eggs, botargo, and bacon!!!
Bacon ice-cream with beet chips (the bacon part of the last desciption)
How does a Whopper taste like in Diverxo? Duck royal with five chinese spices and “gochujang,” green mustard, chive and red vinegar, roasted duck….
…and his own tongues. (Duck tongues served after the previous dish.)
Prawn “spicy bolognese” with red shrimp, lily bulb, rocoto pepper, “karashi sumiso” (sweet Japanese mustard), and his own grilled head.
Detail of the X dish
Detail of the O dish.
At this point (and for the following 7 dishes), the staff turned our table into one that would be at a Chinese dim sum house to start the course called “Typical Chinese from Madrizzzz….” First is WontonXO soup- guinea fowl dumpling with shiitake, ginseng soup, and peas.
Char siu bao-XO….Chinese bun dipped in sheep milk with toast corn.
How the previous two dishes were presented together.
Each dish was paired with a sweet wine in these cute little cups.
The third dish was presented thusly. I was instructed to search through these to find the food.
Codfish dumpling.
Calamari sandwichXO….squeed, spicy ali-oil, black seasame, and crispbread with sweet and sour sauce.
Crunchy nigiri of grilled cocotxa with bergamot and a creamy paella sauce
Thrush cooked in his own sauce with coconut rice, galanga, keffir lime, and tomburi with lemon puree
The bird was served with this shiso mojito.
The next dish was served like this, then the fish above was plated at the table.
Roasted skate with world peppers….black garlic butter, home-made kimchi, XO sauce, and violet potato!!
Traveller “strogonoff?” Japanese wagyu sirloing cooked on the wok with achiote sauce, shimeji mushroom, and radish raifort chantilly!! (The black thing on the left was a puffy curry-flavored rice)
Rhubarb, pink pepper, sheep milk, and caramel milk. (SO GOOD!)
The prior dessert is called “The tail of the pink panther”
Vilets, basil, blackberries, and “frozen cotton candy!!”
A cream-filled “mochi” served on some interesting dishes…
Croissant ice-cream with chocolate, white cookies, black sesame, and papaya sweetsour ketchup!!
Guava creamy pie, white chocolate, calamansi, and beetroot…thai basil, lychees, and chocolate cookie powder.

Zurriola re-visited (スリオラ、銀座）

Posted on by Ryan

For Midori’s 30th birthday, it was a pretty easy decision where to celebrate.  Her answer for “If you were on death row, what would you request for your last meal” has been the caviar ravioli at Zurriola since we first had it in 2015.  Indeed, it was time for a 2nd round to this wonderful Spanish restaurant in the heart of glitzy Ginza.

Even though it has two Michelin stars, Zurriola still feels a bit under-the-radar.  It’s deceptively easy to snag a reservation, and the owner/chef Honda-san is so personable and down-to-earth as he explains each and every dish before you.  Restaurants like Den and Florilege may hit the “World’s Best Restaurant” lists, but for my money, Zurriola is a no-brainer.  This is one of the best restaurants I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit…twice.

Except the speciality caviar dish, every other dish was different from those served two years ago.  The menu in concept is still the same- two course menus to choose with the addition of the caviar marking the supplemental price.  Wine pairings available in 3, 4, or 5 glasses, or a long list of bottles available for the connoisseur.  It doesn’t come cheap (20,000 to 30,000 yen per person), but the simple-yet-innovative, artistic, and most importantly, delicious food paired with a welcoming atmosphere is well worth it for any celebratory evening.

Let’s eat Zurriola…again!

One-bite bread filled with tomato and olive oil. Rice senbei cracker.
Botan ebi shrimp prepared simply in salt water. So much flavor. So juicy.
Cod fritter with sudachi foam, lemon cream sauce. Wrap with the lettuce and enjoy with your hands.
Uni (sea urchine) in a Spainish salpicon sauce atop an uni flan. Possibly my favorite dish, the strong briny flavor of uni was cut with tabasco and the refreshing sauce.
Snap peas, squid, blood sausage.
Zurriola’s speciality – caviar that has been smoked over grap twigs and konbu seaweed served generously atop a ravioli filled with a burned onion cream sauce. One of a kind.
Bread served with the fish- red-wine grape bread and focaccia with Spanish olive oil and salt.
Tai (tilefish) simply steamed in a pungent Spanish liquor, topped with chorizo and served over trumped mushrooms in a coconut water broth. Tasty, but a tad on the sweet side.
Akagyu Japanese beef grilled over coal with salt. Simple and absolutely, absolutely delicious.
The beef was served with this piquillo pepper. Juicy with just the right amount of kick.
Cheese plate- vezelay with gewurztraminer jelly, tomme de savoie with tartar of figs, valdeon with marzipan.
Cava sherbet under a lemon mousse. Refreshing and delicious.
Raspberry with basil ice cream. Creative, beautiful, and tasty.
Various homemade chocolates with edible flowers. At the bottom is written, “Happy birthday, Midori” in Spanish.

Mr. & Mrs. Bund, Shanghai

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We spent an extended weekend in Shanghai last week and wanted to dine at one special restaurant.  Mr. & Mrs. Bund is a renowned restaurant that has won all sorts of awards and been on all kinds of lists.  It unfortunately fell off of Asia’s Top 50 Restaurants in 2017, but I didn’t care- I had heard great things and I had to try it.

The owner, Paul Pairet, is a French guy who has become a household name amongst gourmets in Shanghai. His culinary empire consists of MMB, the avant-garde (and for me unaffordable) Ultraviolet, and the newly-opened gastropub Chop Chop Chop.

Mr. & Mrs. Bund is an absolutely beautiful restaurant.  Although the interior and service style is rather traditional French (chandeliers, huge white doors, table-side carving service, extensive changing of silverware), the food is innovative, exciting, and fresh.

The menu offers a whopping six different course options meant to cater to each person’s preferences (do you like heavy French ingredients like foie gras, or do you prefer the chef’s carefully selected tasting menu? Want caviar on those oysters?), or you can opt for the a la carte menu.  All the dishes are portioned very generously to be shared by the table, and you will leave feeling stuffed but not uncomfortable.

We chose the chef’s tasting menu which also happens to fall right in the middle of the pricing spectrum.  We left the wine choices to the sommelier and were very pleased with everything on offer.  If you know what you like, however, there’s a massive list of wine to choose from, creatively presented on an iPad.

It’s a splurge (around $500 for 2 people), but so, so worth it.

This is an absolutely amazing restaurant…and oh my god…those desserts.

Let’s eat Mr. & Mrs. Bund!

Amuse bouche- tuna mousse with crispy bread sticks. We were instructed to eat quickly as it’s a light mousse that melts quickly!
Homemade breads.
Branded butter.
Meuniere Truffle Bread- toasted bread covered in truffles with a meuniere foam. Absolutely. Incredible.
Arugula salad with truffles, mushrooms, parmesan, and a soy dressing. Served together with the truffle bread.
Jumbo shrimp steamed in a glass jar with citrus, lemongrass, and vanilla.
The plated shrimp.
Shrimp in a jar came served with black cod in a bag.
Plated black cod in the bag- served tableside over a bed of rice with cantonese sauce (poured directly from a slit cut into the bag).
Long short-rib teriyaki served with orange reduction. The lightning is a bit rough here, but this was one of the most gorgeous pieces of meat I’ve ever seen.
Spinach garlic asiate.
Mash tradition – Mashed potato and butter. Creamy and divine.
The waiter cutting the short-rib.
The short-rib after being plated to serve.
My own plating.
Mango Liquorice Sable – mango and a passion fruit candy served on a sable cracker with liquorice & dill sauce.
Lemon & Lemon Tart – candied whole lemon (peel and all), lemon sorbet, lemon curd with a sable.

Hashimoto in Edogawabashi (はし本、江戸川橋）

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If there’s one thing I learned from last month’s meal at Ryo, it’s that eel. is. good.  I needed more and decided to check out Hashimoto.  Located in a very quiet neighborhood somewhere between Nagatacho and Ikebukuro, Hashimoto was established in 1835 and is run by a sixth-generation owner and chef.

The scent of grilled unagi wafts outside and upon sliding the front door open, it feels like you are entering a traditional Japanese home somewhere far away from Tokyo’s bright lights.  It’s a very casual restaurant and only offers about 10 items on an a la carte menu.  Unlike most Michelin-starred restaurants, there is no course menu, no service charge, a concise, if not limited, selection of libations, and zero sense of pretentiousness or stuffiness.  Rather, the service is attentive and the eel is given its proper space to shine.  From the fact that almost every item contains eel in some form, to the “Unagi Washoku” posters on the walls, there is no doubt that this is a dining destination for the eel purist (do those exist?).

And it’s one of Japan’s cheapest Michelin restaurants, too.  The most expensive item, the unagi-ju jou, is only 3300 yen and most drinks are 700 or 800 yen.  With sake and all the food below, our bill came out to under 13,000 yen.  Not bad at all for expertly prepared eel with a nearly 200 year-old history.

Let’s eat Hashimoto!

Otoshi appetizer of a pickled leaf.
Eel bone senbei crackers. A little grotesque in prsentation? Maybe. Crispy, delicious, and perfect with sake? Absolutely.
Unagi hire (Eel fins)
Mukou-bone (eel rib meats on the bone)
Umaki – eel inside a fluffy, juicy omelette.
Eel liver soup.
Pickled vegetables to accompany the una-ju.
Una-Ju Jou – the top level of eel served over rice. Fatty, juicy, and so, so good.

Ryo in Naka-Meguro (翏、中目黒）

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I’ve never been a big fan of unagi (eel) despite it’s popularity among Japanese and foreigners alike.  It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just something I’ve never gone out of my way to eat.  Still, my wife always credited my lack of unagi enthusiasm to the fact that I’ve never had really good eel.  With that in mind, I searched for some Michelin-starred eel and was happy to find Ryo, a restaurant new to the 2017 guide.  It’s unique in that it only serves one course and each dish comes paired with sake.  Thus, it seemed like a good place to start my unagi journey, because even if the food was no good, I could at least get a good buzz.

Luckily, the food was awesome.  Let me ride the bandwagon- I am a fan, and would be happy to eat the slithery little water snake any time!

Ryo is in a quiet location, a good 10 minute walk from either Naka-Meguro or Ikejiri-Ohashi stations, and it’s 2nd floor location above a car repair shop makes it very easy to miss. Once you find it, it’s a cozy, 8-seat restaurant with just one table that wraps around an open kitchen.  The owner, a 38 year-old well-versed in music, mans the ship doing all the eel preparation, while his father works as a sous chef, and his wife manages the beverages.  It’s a fairly hip place with vinyl album covers like Neil Young and Coltrane adorning the walls, while similar music plays in the background.

The course is a great value, as well.  Two people can enjoy expertly prepared eel served in the kaiseki style and enough rare and unique sake to feel Ryo’s good vibes for well under 30,000 yen.

Let’s eat Ryo!

Appetizer- clam & daikon stewed with sake kasu
Sashimi course- makajiki (broadbill swordfish) and sayori (halfbeak fish)
Unagi shirayaki (eel grilled with sake)
Tempura course- squid, scallops, mountain vegetables, pickled ginger, and Japanese orange peel (!)
Eel fin, liver, and bones
Sawani soup- leek, gobo (burdock), carrot, chicken breast, and yuzu
Eel bowl- grilled eel over rice with special sauce. Unbelievably tasty.
Dessert sake from Kyoto

Sense at Mandarin Oriental Tokyo （センス、日本橋）

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I love dim sum.  My wife loves dim sum.  Really, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love various meats, seafoods, or veggies wrapped into dumpling form and then steamed, baked or fried.   With that in mind, and after my epic weekend devouring gourmet dim sum in Hong Kong last year, I thought it was time to see what dim sum Tokyo had to offer.

Sense at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Hotel offers gourmet Chinese courses and dishes at night, but it’s the weekend-only, all-you-can-eat dim sum course that piqued my interest. Choosing between two courses (8,054 yen or 10,739 yen for the more premium offering), you get an appetizer, a rice/noodle choice, a dessert option, and oh yes, an unlimited selection of delicious dumplings of love made to order.  Bring your appetite- this could be Tokyo’s most filling Michelin-starred lunch.

The restaurant is situated on the 37th floor and offers an amazing view of Tokyo while you eat yourself silly.  The service is attentive and accommodating.   Additionally, it’s rather easy to get a reservation at Sense through their website.  Indeed, a lunch at Sense is a great way to pass away an afternoon taking in a beautiful view, consuming dumplings to your heart’s content, and perhaps catching a nice little buzz with their expensive but delicious drink menu (pairings available at 7,000 yen for 3 wines or 10,000 yen for 5 wines. There’s more than meets the eye, though, as the wines are themselves paired with full servings of Chinese Huanjiu wine!).

Let’s eat Sense!

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Quite the spectacular view.

 

Appetizer – jellyfish with beef sinew, roasted peking duck, various pickled vegetables.
Shanghai crab xiao long po dumpling.
Double-boiled soup dumpling with king crab and Iwate pork, served with blood swallow’s nest
Three premium dim sum- truffle and eggwhite, lobster and hokkaido scallop flavored with homemade XO sauce, abalone topped siu mai with Iwate pork.
Deep-fried taro puff dumpling
Pan-fried daikon radish cake
Shrimp dumplings and scallop dumplings
Steamed sparerib with black beans
Steamed sparerib with black beans after unwrapping. Yum.
Spring rolls with three kinds of seafood.
Steamed chicken feet with black beans.
Truffle and mushroom dumpling & Chinese spinach with Okinawa star grouper dumpling.
Fried shrimp wonton with sweet chili sauce
Barbecue mochibuta pork bun
Pork xiao long po
Beef siu mai and another truffle dumpling.
My noodle soup with shrimp wontons
Midori’s steamed glutinou rice with chicken and dried scallop
Glutinou rice after unwrapping.
One last dumpling- steamed dumpling with king crab and shrimp.
My dessert- mango pudding
Midori’s dessert- almond pudding