Tokyo Restaurants: Reviews & Recs

[torakris]

Seryna has a couple branches through out Tokyo, I have heard good things about it but never been.

Seryna homepage:

http://www.seryna.co.jp/index-e.html

this is the English site which doesn't have much but the Japanese side has some nice pictures and details of the dishes

[smallworld]

I had shabu-shabu at the same place years ago. View, service and food were amazing. I really haven't had better shabu-shabu since then.

This was the place I wanted to take my parents for their big Japanese beef experience when they visited last month, but we opted for yakiniku instead (not Japanese, I know, but the BEEF was Japanese).

So Seryna is on my list of places to go for a very special dinner. Hope something comes up before my husband's birthday- that's MONTHS away...

[smallworld]

Found this article in last month's Travel + Leisure magazine. Features six restaurants in Tokyo representing six different cuisines. A few minor mistakes (I hardly think having sobagaki on the menu would identify a place as 'a new-wave soba-ya'), but it still made me want to try every place.

Anyone been to one of the places featured? Care to comment?

http://www.travelandleisure.com/invoke.cfm...588A2ED388920D1

[torakris]

Smallworld,

Great article!

Actually 3 of the restaurants were places my husband and I were considering going to for our anniversary earlier this year. Kozue, Daidaiya, and Mikuni's sushi train.

We ended up checking out the very new at the time Roppongi Hills (major disappointment) and a going to a decent, but nothing special, kaiten sushi place.

[torakris]

I was asked if I know any good reasonably priced kaiseki places, this is not a type of restaurant I frequent often and thought others might have some suggestions for good places in Tokyo and Yokohama.

Anything?

[Sinbad]

I have only been to Daidaya, they actually have several branches. It's a wonderful place, they serve very innovative Japanese food and I do recommend it. It is however not an Izakaya by any stretch of imagination in my view. An Izakaya is a down-to-earth place that serves (usually) good food, it is basically the Japanese equivalent of a pub (although it serves far better food). Daidaya is a place with a very trendy modern decor, I was surprised that it was listed as an Izakaya.

The article was OK, but with Tokyo being one of the great dining destinations on the planet they could have done better than that(especially listing Kaiten-Sushi, it's like having McDonalds as a destination restaurant in New York).

[prasantrin]

How about this one, from an article in the NYT by Elizabeth Andoh:

Sai, 2-2-15 Honcho (JBP Building B1) Kitchijoji, Musashino-shi; (81-422) 21-7876, has three types of obento. Hana (flower in Japanese) obento is $23; tauki (moon) is $19 and yuki (snow) is $34. It also has two types of kaiseki course. Sajura (cherry blossom) kaiseki is $50 and tsubaki (camellia) is $67. Beer $5.50, wine by the glass $4.20 for white, $5 for red. Sake and fruit and floral liqueurs $4.20. Lunch is served Tuesday to Sunday from 11:30 A.M. to 3 P.M. (last order at 2) on weekdays, and dinner is from 5:50 to 10 P.M. (last order at 8:30) nightly except Mondays. The menu is the same for both meals. Reservations required.

I've never been there, of course, but she seemed to like it.

From another NYT article by her:

Kocho, 1-12-1 Yurakucho, Chlyoda-ku, Tokyo; 03-3214-4741.

Use the Hibiya Exit at the JR Yurakucho Station. Across the street from Sogo Department store is the Shin Yurakucho Building. The restaurant is in the sub-basement of this office building.

Closed Sundays and holidays. Hiru Kaiseki: 11:30 A.M. to 3 P.M. $68, $85 and $128 for set menus. Kocho Bento; 1:30 to 3 P.M. $50; three-person minimum. Ladies Kaiseki: 1:30 to 3 P.M. $60; three-person minimum. Dinner: 5:30 to 9 P.M. $170 to $340. 15 percent service charge and 5 percent consumption tax.

Reservations essential. Six tatami rooms seat 2 to 25 people.

Dinner is expensive (though not necessarily so by Japanese standards) but lunch is reasonable. The articles the suggestions are from are 4 and 5 years old, respectively, so the places may no longer exist, and the prices would definitely have gone up, though.

[Jason Perlow]

Have they finished that giant high rise in Roppongi yet?

[Sinbad]

Roppongi Hills. Yes, here is a link

http://www.roppongihills.com/en/information/

Amazing place, worth a visit.

[Jason Perlow]

I saw a program about it on the Discovery Channel. Apparently the way they constructed it is a prototype for "Sky City", a 5000 foot structure housing 130,000 people they want to build right in the heart of Tokyo, by the year 2060 or so.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engin...nteractive.html

[torakris]

Roppongi Hills. Yes, here is a link

http://www.roppongihills.com/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 December 5, 2003 by Sinbad (log)

[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 December 13, 2003 by torakris (log)

[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-kinokuniya.com/cont/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.jp/en/infomation/2area/11rinkai.html

Edited December 19, 2003 by torakris (log)

[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/