Tokyo Restaurants: Reviews & Recs

[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 December 21, 2003 by torakris (log)

[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.co.jp/e/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.co.jp/chai/9912/okonomiyaki/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.com/int/jan04/main.cfm#gourmet

[pirate]

Three restaurants are cited in Kateigaho International that I like. They are Cam Chien Gripp\'e, Canoviano and Le Bourguignon.

[SobaAddict70]

Another favorite staple is soba, subtle nutty buckwheat noodles with a toothsome texture. When eaten cold, "there's more authority to the bite," said Yoichi Nakamuta, owner of E&Y, a manufacturer of home furnishings in Tokyo. Lovers of soba served hot, in a broth, feel that the noodles should be eaten quickly before they soften. At Nanaki, in the Ebisu neighborhood, in the southern part of Tokyo, a vegetarian lunch of cold soba was accompanied by string beans, blanched carrots that were sweet and tender, and a fried tofu croquette. All soba lunches are around $8.

How To Have A $25 Meal Per Person -- In Tokyo (Elaine Louie) (from today's NY Times DIGEST update. You may have to scroll down for the appropriate link.)

Soba

[torakris]

I was quite surprised, in a dissapointed way, by this article. From the title I was expecting to read about some incredible finds in Tokyo at really low prices. She was basically discussing lunches and $25 for lunch here is damn expensive! She must have spent the rest of her trip in Japan eating at restaurants in hotels to make these prices she quoted seem cheap. She should have ventured a little deeper into Tokyo and then she would have really found great food at incredible prices. The average lunch price here is about $10 but I have eaten some great food for half that.

If I had to fork out $25 a day for lunch, I'd be living on the street......

[smallworld]

Yeah Kristin, that was are really disappointing article.

She does seem to have found some good places -I've been to Sushi-sen and it is good. Especially the seared toro she described. But then again EVERYONE has been there- with two or three branches around Tsukiji, it's probably the most famous sushi shop in the area. Also I'm pretty sure I've been to the ochazuke place, but she doesn't mention where it is so I'm not sure.

How hard would it have been to provide addresses?

[dankphishin]

When i was there in the summers, i used to go into wherever, and language barrier aside, i found a lot of great and cheap noodles, sushi, etc. also i'd hit up the convenience stores when i was desperate.

[torakris]

Shinagawa is being built up at an incredible speed and it is becoming one of the new places to be seen.

http://www.atre.co.jp/shinagawa/

Atre Shinagawa opened on 3/3/2004 with some places worth taking a look at:

Dean and Deluca's 3rd Tokyo store

Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant

http://www.oysterbartokyo.com/

[torakris]

Mistukoshi Department store has always been the cornerstone of Nihonbashi. Celebrating their 100th anniversary this year they are undergoing a complete renovation and will open their new doors in Ocober of this year.

New to Nihonbashi is Coredo Nihonbashi which will open on 3/30/2004 of special note the Spanish Restaurant Sant Pau

http://www.santpau.jp/

and the Paris bakery Maison Keyser

Edited March 24, 2004 by torakris (log)

[Verjuice]

I'm going to making my first trip to Tokyo pretty soon. I'm so excited that I involuntarily emitted half a dozen squeaks en route to the grocery store after booking my ticket last night. I'll be there for a week and a half in mid-May, and I would love to get some suggestions on good eats. My main concern is that we eat fabulously; our budget is somewhat flexible and we are willing to spring for a couple of heftier meals, wallet-wise.

What should I not miss? Any must-eats that would be criminal to bypass?

And I mean, sushi, soba, nouvelle, steak, whatever. I know next to nothing about Japanese food in Japan, but I've already begun salivating.

[torakris]

where will you be?

any absolute dislikes?

[Verjuice]

Um, I think it's Hiroo Shibuya-Ku? The code is Tokyo 150-0012.

No dislikes whatsoever. However, an absolute LOVE of sushi.

Any suggestions?