415 replies to this topic

[torakris]

Roppongi Hills. Yes, here is a link

http://www.roppongih...en/information/

Amazing place, worth a visit.

Roppongi Hills is definitely worth a visit at least to look at the architecture/construction. I was very dissapointed in the shopping, nothing but over priced boutique style stores though there are some good restaurants. I had some great sushi there, though it cost my husband and I $100 for lunch.
My husband worked on the Mori Tower (the big building in the middle) and told me that 3 construction workers lost their lives during the construction of that building.

That place is like a maze we never did figure out where exactly we were and always ended up taking the long way to get anywhere
I recommend going by car just so you can see their incredible advanced car parking system. I felt like I was transplanted 50 years in the future, it was the most incredible thing I had ever seen and I have seen some really cool parking in Japan before!

[Sinbad]

Did you go to Jiro Sushi?

[Sinbad]

Going to Tokyo next week, but this place is not high on my list (it's actually not on it) despite the fact that I'll be working in the area.

Instead, I'll trek down 5 minutes down the hill to Wakon-Yosai in Nishi-Azabu, the best Kyushuu sea-food place in Tokyo (that I know of).

Edited by Sinbad, 04 December 2003 - 07:08 PM.

[pirate]

I stayed the first week of December at the new Grand Hyatt in the recently opened 4 billion dollar Ropongi Hills development. The hotel itself is great with very well equipped rooms. The Grand Club served very nice breakfasts and also small dishes with wines in the evening. Admittance is a premium over the regular room rate. There are several restaurants in the hotel. I tried three of them. The Oak Door was attractive especially the stonework. They did simple grilled and roasted dishes, salads, sandwiches etc. The food was decent. There was a Japanese restaurant which was very nicely designed
especially the massive polished stone counter. Very good service and good enough food. The third was the French Kitchen purportedly a brasserie. This was the one place in the hotel where the interior decor failed. The food and service were poor for Japan. Not more than 300 meters from the hotel is the restaurant Le Bourguignon which is small (I counted 20 seats) but nicely decorated like a French country inn. The food is pretty much prepared to order. Food prices comparable to the French Kitchen, but wine prices are a third less. Excellent service and English spoken. I think it would get a Michelin star.I again had excellent sashimi and sushi at Kyubey in the Ginza. Ekki the restaurant in the Four Seasons Maranouchi which I wrote about last year was a disappointment this time except for one dish with caviar and sea urchin mousse. Alas a Japanes restaurant I wanted to eat at was fully booked for the week. Roppongi Hills is magnificent and worth a visit. Shopping is interesting but it's not competitive with the nearby Omotesando area, which is getting a massive development where those dingy apartments were near Harajuko. Also not competitive with the Ginza.

[pirate]

In the Roppongi Hills complex there is a two story food store with the name that starts Foo-D ... (not a misprint). That's as much of the name as I remember. In any case I checked it out and was amazed by the array of products. One would never see the "in" water of France "Wattswiller" in the USA and there it was. A nice selection of products from Peck in Milan (from which city I had departed). Loads of other interesting products and clearly carefully selected. Yes Torakris the carrots are enormous by American standards. I did not go to Robuchon's Atelier. Alas I ate at Robuchon's three star place in Paris while still extant and was disappointed. I can't remember the name but in Omote-Sando
(Sinbad is correct about spelling) near the new Prado store there is a Japanese seafood restaurant on a corner and down a flight of stairs from the street at which I had a nice lunch at a reasonable price. A few slices of sahimi, rice, grilled red snapper, miso, tea and white sesame ice cream plus a glass of beer on tap for a bit over 3200 yen including service and tax. Some English spoken. The longest lines were for the shop "Le chocolat de H" in Roppongi Hills.

[torakris]

The food store at Roppongi Hills is called FOO:D Magazine (the capitals is how it is written), I was slightly disappointed in it, they did have quite a few things I had never seen before, but their prices were the highest I had ever seen. I could have bought some of the same products for about 1/3 of the price in other places. I was also hoping it would have been bigger.....

The book shop a couple stores away did have an INCREDIBLE selection of foreign books, great for browsing but I would never pay the prices they were asking!

Edited by torakris, 12 December 2003 - 05:44 PM.

[pirate]

Torakris: Thanks for getting the name. Since I wasn't buying I didn't check prices. The department stores are much bigger and much more complete. I recall that the Tokyu department store in Shibuya uphill by Bunkamura (spelling?) had a rather fancy Kinokuniya (spelling?) store. It's not the store at the JR station. Have you been there?

[torakris]

I have only been to the Aoyama and Aobadai ones (the Aobadai branch is less than 5 minutes from my house).

here is a list of all of their branches (in English)

http://www.e-kinokun...nt/tenpo_e.html

I have to admit I don't really care for Kinokuniya, even though it is just 5 minutes away I probably haven't been there in over a year.

[jrufusj]

Did you go to Jiro Sushi?

no it was a kaiten place called Pintokona.
I definitely want to go back to Roppongi Hills now and check out the store called 'White Trash Charms Japan" that I just noticed on their floor map.

Fifty dollars a person for kaitenzushi? Ouch.

Was it good enough to justify the price? Comparable to a more standard sushiya?

Jim

[torakris]

It was good, it was definitely a high end kaiten sushi place, we could have spent less though.... We ordered two of all the most expensive things , the seared foie gras sushi with caviar was really great and they had the best kanimiso I have ever eaten, my husband had at least 3 kan (6 pieces) and I had 2 kan.
I have to admit though one of my favorite dishes was the duck salad.....
and my husband's miso soup with crab was incredible.

It was our anniversary so we decided to spebd more than we normally would (ok that is way more for us ) besides you can't get your parking ticket validated unless you spend over $100! and then you only get two hours......

[Sinbad]

It was good, it was definitely a high end kaiten sushi place, we could have spent less though.... We ordered two of all the most expensive things , the seared foie gras sushi with caviar was really great and they had the best kanimiso I have ever eaten,

Was the foie gras sushi on the conveyor belt? It sounds like you ordered it.

[torakris]

It was good, it was definitely a high end kaiten sushi place, we could have spent less though.... We ordered two of all the most expensive things , the seared foie gras sushi with caviar was really great and they had the best kanimiso I have ever eaten,

Was the foie gras sushi on the conveyor belt? It sounds like you ordered it.

it was made to order, but it was listed on the kaiten sushi menu rather than the regular menu, and it is something you wouldn't want to eat after having made a few rounds on the belt.

[pirate]

Torakris: It is the Shibuya store of Kinokuniya. It was very spacious and elegant and had a very fine selection of wines. It looked rather new last year when I stopped to see it. If you get the chance check it out. Le Bourguignon made the Kategeiho International list of ethnic restaurants, as I discovered when I finally got home and retrieved the winter issue yesterday. This will make it harder to get in. Two other of my favorites were also on the list.
The architecture of Roppongi Hills is very notable . I particuliarly liked the terracing and stonework of the Hillside shopping area. I keep thinking that the Getty museum in Los Angeles should have been designed that way instead of having the rather routine architecture of Richard Meier.

[torakris]

There has been a lot of talk of Roppongi Hills, but one of my favorite places in Tokyo is Odaiba. Besides a lot of (affordable ) shopping there are lots of restaurants, the a museums, beaches and a humongous ferris wheel all with in walking distance of each other.
More on the area:
http://www.tcvb.or.j...a/11rinkai.html

Edited by torakris, 19 December 2003 - 04:43 PM.

[torakris]

here are some homepage links for some of the three major shopping areas of Odaiba

Aqua City (information available in English as well as Japanese)

http://www.aquacity.co.jp/

Decks (information in English as well as Japanese)

http://www.odaiba-decks.com/

Palette Town (Japanese only)

http://www.palette-town.com/

[Sinbad]

I like Odaiba and I think it's a great area to visit, but in one sense it always leaves me disappointed. Tokyo is a city by the ocean, but it never feels like it is (similar to New York, where I currently live). I had great hopes for the area, and I think it did OK, but I always wished that it would have attained more of a "beach-culture" athmosphere. Tokyo is a city by the ocean, Japan does sea-food better than anywhere else and I wish that Odaiba would have expanded on this.

Don't view this as a criticism of the area, view it more as a wish of what it really could have been.

[pirate]

I believe there is a branch of SPOON (Alain Ducasse chain) in Odaiba. Am I correct?. Anyone eat there?

[torakris]

I believe there is a branch of SPOON (Alain Ducasse chain) in Odaiba. Am I correct?. Anyone eat there?

Ducasse's restaurant SPOON was at Ikspiari, the new shopping/eating area built into the Disney Resort area, not to far away from Odaiba.
I say was because as I was looking for the homepage to link to, I discovered it no longer works, I checked both Ducasse's homepage as well as that of Ikspiari and could find no mention of it. I wonder what happened......


I am off to Odaiba for the day with the family I told the girls we were taking them to see the Disney Princess show and playland at Aqua City but I am really going to get a burger at the newly opened branch of Kua' aina

[pirate]

torakris: thanks for the information on Spoon. It's interesting that it's closed. Particuliarly since it got excellent reviews when it opened. Well the next Spoon is set for Gstaad. I wonder about the fate of some of the Roppongi Hills restaurants including L'Atelier, which was offering fixed price dinners at 6000 yen.

[torakris]

Well we had a great day yesterday at Odaiba, we hit most of the major spots before Hide fell asleep and had to be carried back to the car.

We were able to get to 2 places we never ventured into before because they weren't stroller friendly, Little Hong Kong and Odaiba i-chome shoutengai.

Little Hong Kong is just like what it sounds set up like a mini indoor version of Hong Kong, it was basically just a bunch of stores selling overpriced trinkets and a lot of restaurants including a kaiten yamucha (various dumplings and other Chines foods served conveyer belt style)http://www.kaitenyamucha.com/main.html

Odaiba i-chome shoutengai was a lot of fun, this was setting up like a shopping area from 1955 Japan, they had toys, snacks, food stalls and games. This place was packed and it was hard to move around but we all really enjoyed ourselves and bought quite a few snack foods (at 2003 prices!)

The rest of Odaiba is not much different than any other shopping area, lots of stores and more restaurants than we could count. We had lunch at Kua' aina which was great and we had a snack at Abbots frozen custard before leaving, the kids had some great frozen custard sundaes with choclate and strawberries while my husband and I had some hot chai which tasted old dishwater that had been watered down
The worst chai I had ever tasted, it was completely flavorless.

I managed to snap one picture before the batteries on my camers died (note to self: recharge batteries, recharge batteries). Here you go a picture from the back deck of Aqua city, that is the famous rainbow bridge and oh, yeah, the statue of liberty:blink:

Edited by torakris, 21 December 2003 - 04:33 PM.

[c1628]

Leaving for Asia on Jan 1, will be in Tokyo on Jan 11. Have a few questions...
- was told there's very traditional mochi store in Ginza, not packaged mochi, but fresh. last time I was there, couln't find it. Any ideas?
- any good restaurant for Kobe beef? Tried Seryna. Is it a tourist place, or it's "the place" for Kobe beef?
- any good tofu restaurant?
- will be staying at Grand hyatt in roppongi hills. not exactly familiar with the area. what should I be looking for, or any must visits. food or otherwise?
- any suggestions for good ramen, tempura and unagi?
I know that's a lot of questions, thanks for your help.

[torakris]

Also for tofu restaurants I would highly recommend the Umenohana restaurants, they serve tofu kaiseki courses and are wonderful. They are all over Tokyo, here is their homepage in English:

http://www.umenohana.../ume/index.html

As to the mochi I am not sure exactly what kind of mochi you are looking for, most of the sweet/snack style mochi products sold at Wagashiyas (Japanese style seets stores) are made with fresh mochi, you can also find them in the depachika of any department store.

[c1628]

I've been to ume no hana last time, it was very good. Read somewhere Shunsenbo is also very good, any ideas? While we're at it, how about any recommendations for oden, ramen and izakaya? Thanks so much.

[torakris]

No one can recommend ramen better than BON, check out his world ramen net
http://www.worldramen.net/

[Sinbad]

c1628,

Seryna is pretty OK, but it is not "the" place for Wagyu(prefer to use the word wagyu instead of Kobe Beef) in Tokyo. The most famous restaurant for steak in Tokyo is propably Arakawa(but is will cost you around 50,000 Yen). Shima is a cheaper alternative, around 15,000 Yen and equally good in my view. I only ate once in either place though and with a couple of years intervals(and both times on expense accounts so cost estimates might be off). Seryna is a little bit less expensive than Shima, but I thought Shima was better value.

One of the most famous Oden places is Konbu-ya which is near Roppongi Hills. Ate there once, and I was totally underwhelmed and so were most of the other people I ate with. I don't think it was the quality of the food in itself rather than paying more than 5,000 Yen for what is essentially convenience store fast food(kind of like paying $50 for a hot dog). My recommendation is to get Oden at a convenince store as a lunch take-out and save the difference for an upgrade at dinner, but if you must eat Oden at a restaurant this is propably a good alternative.

The most famous Unagi restaurant in Tokyo and actually a very good one is Obana. It's quite far out in Minami-Senju, but the Hibiya line that is next to Roppongi hills goes directly there so it should be a pretty fast ride.

Izakaya. I would recommend Wakon-Yosai in Nishi-Azabu, maybe a 10 minute walk from Roppongi Hills. Excellent small Kyushu-Style restaurant in a basement, around 8,000-15,000 Yen including drinks.

[Sinbad]

c1628

Forgot adresses/phone numbers. Wakon Yosais phone number is 03-3479-0359, adress Nishi-Azabu 1-14-3. The other places are more well known, so your hotel should be able to find them for you.

Enjoy your trip.

[torakris]

Thanks, torakris. Any ideas is very helpful, from you or anyone. Just wondering, are you from Tokyo.

I am from Cleveland, Ohio, but I have been living in Yokohama for 9 years.
Like Sinbad said I wouldn't waste your money on a fancy oden restaurant, I would just drop in to the local conbini for a lunch or late evening snack.
Most izakayas that I have been to in Tokyo were about 10 years ago and most of them were the tiny places that seat about 5 or 6. Unfortunately I remember no names and wonder if most of them are still there, my favorite izakaya by my house just closed a couple months ago.

Have you ever had monjya-yaki? I really think this is one of the most underappreciated foods in this country, by both the Japanese and the tourists.

[c1628]

not sure what monjya-yaki is??

[torakris]

not sure what monjya-yaki is??

monjya-yaki is one of my favorite foods!
It is the Tokyo shitamachi version of okonomiyaki, but it is thinner and runnier, that may sound gross but it is really a wonderful thing.
the varieties are also much better than what you would find with okonomiyaki, they are only served in monjya-yaki restaurants.
Some of my favorites include a pork and kimchi one and one with mentaiko (spicy cod roe) and mochi. Like okonomiyaki it is do it yourself at your table.
Tsukishima (Tokyo) has a monjya-yaki town with over 50 shops in one small area, there are also a lot of shops in the Asakusa area.

here is a picture:
http://www.tokachi.c...aki/04page.html

I have tried to make this at home at it just doesn't turn out the same.....

[torakris]

Kateigaho International Edition's most current issue has a pull out section on "must try" restaurants in Tokyo. There homepage has a glipse of it, but you need to buy te magazine to find out about all of them.

http://www.kateigaho...ain.cfm#gourmet