MakeLifeFun

Perhaps the best aspect of Japan's food culture is that you can get excellent food of ALL types, not just Japanese. Italian, greek, steak, burgers, pasta, french, every style has excellent restaurants available. I hate to even admit it, but even chain restaurants like Sizzler (*) are quite good in Japan. (*) Please forgive me for mentioning such a place on eGullet! But it really was quite good when I went to the Yokohama Sizzler. It was nothing like the vile American version. So, my specific advice to you for the first few days is to go to the Marounuchi building, about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. (You can cut through Tokyo station underground, or go around and walk the street). The Marounuchi building has perhaps 50 restaurants of every conceivable type... pick the ones that fit your mood. We've tried about 6 restaurants there, 6 winners so far. The Marounuchi building has a huge advantage in that you can go there without a plan and simply decide what restaurant you like when you peek inside and look at the menu. Being so near to the station, almost all the restaurants are used to foreigners and communication is easier there than perhaps any other part of Japan. And finally, don't skip my favorite nearby restaurant, Hiro.. the small one in the station or the larger (higher end) in the Marounuchi building. Finally, don't dismiss Okonomikayi because "you have to make it yourself". That's part of the fun! Shabu shabu and yakiniku are also "cook it yourself" foods but usually that adds to the experience. Still, I remember the scene in "Lost In Translation" where they walk out of the Shabu Shabu restaurant and say "What a terrible restaurant, they make you cook your own food!" That's a funny comment on several levels.

My wife and I stayed at the Four Seasons Marunouchi for over a week in November. Definitely an excellent hotel. Nearby foodwise, there's the entire Tokyo station for all levels of food. We became VERY fond of the fast, affordable, and tasty Italian restaurant Hiro in the station. (Try their carbonara spaghetti, try their desserts). There's also a step-up-in-class Hiro bistro in the Marounuchi building, a 15 minute walk from the hotel on the other side of the station. We only ate at the hotel restaurant Ekki once, for breakfast, and their Japanese breakfasts were outstanding, very very well done. Most of the other patrons were all obvious gaijin (non-Japanese) and were universally eating Western breakfasts of pancakes and french toast and the like... those looked very tasty, but we never tried them. (I'm American, my wife Japanese). The Four Seasons staff were eager to give food recomendations BUT they were not too helpful since they tried to they were comfortable giving us advice for "high end" dining but not for the "hey, which of the quick little hidden restaurants around here is tasty?". They were clearly just being conservative, worrying that a simple ramen shop would be too inelegant or something. The Four Seasons has a famous "Paul" bakery on the bottom floor. We went several times and were NEVER impressed. Instead, go to "Veron", which just opened in November. It's a 5 minute walk, under the train tracks, in a new skyscraper. We always enjoyed Veron in Shibuya, the Marounuchi versiion is just as good. Ginza is a 20 minute walk away, with all of its restaurants. We were not impressed by Kihatchi China. We both happily endorse the Chinese food at Ginza's Quilin, both for its ground floor tea shop (and tasty 800 yen lunch) as well as for its higher end 5000 yen lunch on the upper floor. Quilin is just off the main Ginza street, near the Foxy boutique and Barneys New York. Try their tea and desserts!! Don't miss the Marounuchi building (where the other Hiro is). That's got three floors of excellent restaurants in it.. seriously, every one of them would be one of our favorites if they were in California. There's just way too much good food in Tokyo, it beats every other city I've visited.

My wife and I have been to the Gyoza stadium. We both enjoyed it! It really is almost a theme park. Kids will love it! Come hungry. BUT We went during a non-holiday, 2pm on a Wednesday. It was STILL packed. Most lines were only a few minutes but there WERE lines. Tables are hard to find, too. It's quite crowded. Probably not good for kids if they're not old enough to fend for themselves in a crowd. We really enjoyed the gyoza though! Shoucream-land wasn't as crowded but also not as tasty.. surprising because I like shoucream. But I think I was just unlucky. The gyoza stadium is inside a huge, huge shopping mall (surprisingly rare for Japan). I have walked PAST the Yokohama curry museum many times but have never eaten there. It's on a wonderful shopping street, probably my favorite place in Yokohama. I plan to actually try the museum, probably when we return to Japan next month. If you do go to the curry museum, afterwards, you may want to walk about 3 extra blocks down the shopping street (away from the station) and find the coffee shop "nan ban ya" on the left hand side. It is EXCELLENT.. perhaps my favorite kisaten in the world. Get their "cafe chocolat". Their iced coffee is great too, with kohe cori (coffee ice cubes!) so your coffee doesn't dilute as they melt. :-)

About Koi Palace... My wife and I visited on September 8 for dinner. The waiter spilled a full bowl of soup onto my wife's leg and her very very special "best occasion" handbag. Management was mildly apologetic, we left without eating. The spill was accidental (though to be honest, the waiter just wasn't paying attention) but the management reaction was not comforting. Differnt topic: "Taipan", a new high end Dim Sum restaurant opened in Palo Alto on Friday, where Flower Lounge used to be. Totally remodeled, looks beautiful. We'll be trying it this week.

After a little web search, I think you're right! I thought that San Jose Tofu also made tofu at Ishihara because of the San Jose Tofu sign, the special tofu ordering window, and the rather industrial storage and prep areas behind the window. But I never actually ASKED. You can get San Jose Tofu most days at the Mountain View Nijiya. Nak's Oriental Market also has San Jose Tofu. Nijiya's own house brand of tofu is also quite good, it's more of a smoother, creamier texture. I think it's made in LA. San Jose Tofu's has more soy flavor, and is stiffer and more crumbly.

I've succeeded three times in getting reservations. My method was simple persistence. I set my watch alarm for 9:57. Then, using my cell phone,I called the FL number. As soon as I heard the busy tone, I hung up and called again. My phone has an automatic "redial if busy" feature, but that cycle is 30-40 seconds for each try, which is easy but quite slow. Manually, I could redial in about 7-9 seconds, and luckily my phone used the same button to first hang up, then press again to redial last number and one last time to accept. So I'd just be reading a web site or whatever and my thumb would go tap tap tap, there would be a pause as I heard the connection and busy tone, and I'd tap tap tap again. It was really mindless to simply keep repeating until 10:15 or so. I was able to succeed after 2-5 days in each case. Each time I was also amused at the relaxed politeness of the reservationist. Your adrenaline is actually pumping a little from your success, but their tone each time was slow and friendly like the reservations are nothing special. Anyway, from experience, the easiest way to get a reservation is brute force, dial dial dial dial, hopefully with a phone that lets you redial very quickly and easily. I admit that we probably will not be returning to the FL again though. It's a great once-in-a-lifetime experience, but we've decided it's not worth the effort and $$. No specific gripes, just that there's lots of places we can go for one third the price and hassle.

Just made reservations for my wife and I to visit Urasawa on Tuesday. We're definately looking forward to it! One question, does the $250 per person cost include a built in tip (ie, no extra payment expected), or is an additional tip arrogantly added on (French Laundry style), or is it just classic tipping at diner's discretion? Thanks to all the reports (and photos) from posters to this thread, especially jeffj and jschyun. We wouldn't know about Urasawa without you!

Nijiya's Mountain View store is slightly nicer, it's on the corner of El Camino Real and Highway 85. Other Japanese markets I know: Ishihara on Stevens Creek in Cupertino: many vegetables, poor fish selection. Fresh tofu, made in the back of the store (San Jose Tofu) (unknown name) on Buchanan and Sutter also in SF Japantown. About half the size of SF Nijiya, which is only a block away. (unknown name) in downtown San Mateo. Nak's Oriental Market in downtown Menlo Park: small and cramped but extremely friendly "mom and pop" store. Excellent mentaiko, better than other stores. Mitsuwa in San Jose: Clearly the biggest and best in the bay area. It's on Saratoga Avenue right next to Highway 280. It's a full supermarket size, about 4 times bigger than any of the other markets. There's also a Kinokunia (Japanese book store), a Japanese pottery store, a Japanese electronics store, and a Japanese bakery in the same shopping center. Mitsuwa is having a specual Kiushu food event this weekend (Fri-Sun) where they fly in a mess of special food from Japan, especially sweets and fish.

As I anticipated, my wife and I drove the 90 minutes again today (Saturday) to have lunch at the bakery. The courtyard was indeed updated, there are about 4 more tables outside, which makes seating easier. We arrived in a lull in the rain, so luckily we had yet another good experience. We enjoyed our favorate chocolate doughnut. We were a little early (11 am) so there were no brie-and-walnut-bread or ham-cheese-baguette sandwiches yet. That's no big problem, there's lots of other tasty things to try! There's always a crowd in the (small) store space. That's good, it shows that people really support it! I did try the latte for the first time (someone posted that they were good.) It was indeed well done, but we both still like the Bouchon blend coffee better. I also had the raspberry tart for the first time. Very well done, not too heavy or sweet, and the fresh raspberries came through nicely over the (lemon?) cream. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.. Since both bread and pastries are so good at the bakery, I'm eager to see any other types of food they might make someday.. some savory rolls or breads might be really nice. I am spoiled by my experiences in Japan, where bakeries/pastry shops are everywhere and are very, very high quality (Bouchon Bakery quality, but dozens of them!). Black pepper, bacon, and potato in bread, curry center bread, blue cheese rolls.. (Artisanbaker Rob, are you listening?)

Another vote for Bouchon Bakery! My wife and I live in Menlo Park, a 90 minute drive away. We have driven up to Bouchon Bakery perhaps 8 times in the past four months. Notice I didn't say drive to Yountville, but to Bouchon Bakery. We go ONLY for the bakery! We spend an hour relaxing in the courtyard and then drive back, usually stopping in San Francisco for the afternoon and dinner. My wife's favorite is the weekend-only chocolate doughnut! It's killer. We have called ahead on our last two visits to make sure there are enough, since apparently they're only made on the weekend and they make only 6 of them. {Artisanbaker Rob, is this right?} The doughnuts also taste very good chilled the next day. I'm not as big of a chocolate fan, but I do like the vanilla doughnut. My favorite is the walnut bread and brie sandwich. And I like to get a loaf of walnut bread to eat over the next 3-4 days.. it's rich and chewy and tastes great even after it goes stale. The ham and cheese baguette is also great, though I don't like mustard on sandwiches at all, I still enjoy it. Everything at the bakery I've tried has been good except the macarons. I think they're just not my taste, though, not necessarily badly done. We found the bakery this spring when we had Sunday lunch at the FL, and we were walking off the meal afterwards. And even right after a FL meal, we were tempted to try Bouchon's pastry, and we were hooked! We haven't been back for three weeks, now it sounds like it's time to go again. :-) First post, we just joined the forums today in order to give our thumbs up! Thanks, Rob!