Lunch buffet!
Fried chicken and simmered pork belly.
Aubergine tempura, simmered pumpkin, fried oysters.
Sweet egg roll, lotus and mentaiko salad, sweet potato tempura, cabbage roll, meat balls, harusame(vermicelli) salad and chimaki.
Rice with ume(sour plum) and jako(dried little fish) in it.
Nikujaga, fried tofu, grilled anko fish and mango cream bun.
Kanten and fruits. Homemade warabi mochi.
From the second visit. All veggy side dishes. 5-grain rice.
Kinoko mushroom cream stew. Salmon and Sensai(green veggy) rice. Lots of salad.
Steamed organic vegetables. Mitarashi dango and caramel pudding.
The food is nothing fantastic but okay quality, cooked in Japanese style and has a large variety of options. The restaurant’s name says “Natural food” so at first I thought it was organic food + healthy cooking but I think only the steamed veggy are organic. Also there are quite a few deep-fried things, and the cooked vegetables are all quite sweet(as in being cooked in sugar), so I guess it is not exactly that strict-healthy. Still you get to eat a lot of vegetables. The staff will shout whenever they bring something new from the kitchen, which is quite often thankfully. Original price for an adult with a time limit of 90mins is 1800yen, but I printed out the coupons from here and it became 1500yen.
大地の贈り物 (Daichi no Okurimono)
Add: 4F, 1-20-11 Ueno, Taito-ku
Tel: 03-3836-2640
ホタテ貝とラタトゥイユのカソレット。 仔羊ジゴのロースト。
Scallop and ratatouille cassolette. Roasted baby lamb shoulder meat.
ラタトゥイユとリエット。豚ホホ肉のコンフィ。
Ratatouille and rillette. Pork cheek confit. Gateau chocolate.
ラタトゥイユ。 豚カタロース肉のロティ ローズマリー風味。
Ratatouille. Pork loin roti with rosemary.
生ハムと高原トマト、インゲンのサラダ。 牛バヴェット（ハラミ）のソテー 黒ビールのソース。
Prosciutto, tomato and kidney bean salad. Beef bavette saute in black beer sauce.
From four lunch visits. 1600yen lunch includes appetizer, main, bread and coffee.
First time I went, the scallop and the lamb were so wonderful that I went back again taking a friend for a weekend lunch. However the second time was disappointing - the pork confit was no good and the chocolate cake was simply bad. Wanting to know if the second visit was just bad luck, I went back the third time, and had the pork loin roti which was very good!! Why?! Why?! Not giving up and went back the fourth time: the beef bavette was hard and impossible to chew…so the quality fluctuates!! The scallop appetizer was delicious and other appetizers were pretty basic salad/ratatouille that don’t go wrong so they are alright. The grilled vegetables on the side of the main dish are always nice too.
This restaurant is always completely empty at lunch time….basically it is just the chef, the waiter who is a little too attentive cos he has nothing else to do, and us/me. I was so glad to see other customer one time - the girl eating by herself - that I took a picture of her. ^^;;;; The bland interior, the claustrophobic underground space with no windows, and the complete silence make the atmosphere very depressing. ^^;;; Maybe it is more lively at night? Afterall the location is pretty local and not many offices nearby.
Lunch menu(J): 1, 2, 3, 4.
Maison du Châtaigne
Add: B1, 2-14-10 Nezu, Bunkyo-ku.
Tel: 03-3827-2503
From the 1250yen lunch which includes self-service salad bar, bread, soup, mini pasta, main dish and coffee. Pasta is pork, tomato and mizuna spaghetti.
For main dish I had Itoyori(fish) wrapped in lettuce in uni sauce. Sounds amazing but tastes pretty normal. Dessert from the self-service salad bar.
海老、ニンニクの芽、茄子のペペロンチーノ。牛ロース肉の薄切り、香味野菜とバルサミコソース。
From the same lunch course. Soup is corn potage. Little pasta is prawn, garlic and aubergine. Main dish is grilled beef with Balsamic sauce.
アサリとバジルのビアンコスパゲティ＆鶏ささ身と大葉の和風スパゲティー（梅風味）、￥１０５０。
ナスとツナのアラビアータ、￥９５０。
Half & half pasta lunch: Clam and basil spaghetti + chicken and Ooba(or Shiso) spaghetti.
Pasta lunch: Aubergine and tuna Arrabbiata.
Food is just so-so but there are always seats available even at the peak of lunch time so I ended up going back a few times. Also you can see some green from the window as it is near Ueno Park.
Lunch menu(J): 1, 2, 3, 4.
Fontana
Add: 1F, Hotel Park Side, Ueno 2-11-18, Taito-ku
Tel: 03-3836-5713
Organic restaurant that doesn’t use meat, fish, egg, dairy products, white rice, white salt, white sugar…etc. Left pic is the front of the store selling organic goods.
日替定食：豆腐ハンバーグ、茎わかめときゅうりの酢のもの、切干大根煮、玄米、味噌汁、おしんこ、￥１１００。
野菜カレー、￥１０００。
Today’s lunch(1100yen): Tofu hamburger, wakame and cucumber with vinegar, simmered shredded radish, genmai(brown rice), and miso soup. The tofu burger is really nice. The brown rice is easy to eat. Though the portion is so small that I got hungry really quickly. I went back again for lunch a few times afterwards when I wasn’t feeling too hungry, and the small portion healthy veggy lunch was just right. Right pic is vegetable curry, 1000yen.
You can get to the restaurant through the organic store, or through an entrance at the back. The restaurant is only opened for lunch, except on Fri when it is also opened for dinner. I tried the dinner set(1300yen): chilled udon, vegetable and atsuage, sesame tofu, fried veggy with miso, genmai onigiri.
高野豆腐のはさみ揚げ、モロヘイヤのり和え、さつま芋と金時豆の煮物、玄米ご飯、味噌汁、￥１１００。
玄米おにぎりセット、￥７００。
Fried tofu sandwich(potato and carrot in the middle), Jew’s marrow, sweet potato and red kidney beans nimono(stewed dishes).
Genmai onigiri set.
I guess the restaurant is trying to be environmental friendly - the air-conditioning is minimal even on a very very hot summer day, and simply no air-con at night with only the doors opened. There is no paper napkins on the tables…my nose was running while I was eating the curry and I had nothing to wipe my nose…bring your own tissue to this restaurant!
日替定食、１１００円。夏野菜の揚出、さしみコンニャクとオクラの酢味噌かけ、あらめの煮つけ、玄米ご飯、みそ汁、漬物。
An old visit. Today’s lunch is fried summer vegetables, sashimi konjak and okra with vinegar and miso, simmered string seaweed, brown rice and miso soup. Love the vegetables and the brown rice. Though the konjak had some really bad fish smell…^^;; After I took picture of the interior, customers kept coming in and filled up the place, all of them either elderly or girls.
Lunch menu(J): 1, 2, 3, 4.
Dinner menu(J): 1, 2.
根津の谷(Nezu no ya)
Add: 1-1-14, Nezu, Bunkyo-ku
Tel: 03-3823-0030
クィーンポーク（豚ロース）のグリル、サラダ添え。
Grilled pork with salad.
新鮮なうにのスパゲッティ。 かにのリングイネ。
Spaghetti with sea urchin. Linguine with crab.
Cheese tart.
La Bettola is a very popular and high-profile Italian restaurant. The original shop is La Bettola da Ochiai where the main chef Ochiai is based in. He goes on TV a lot - gourmet shows, CM etc. Booking is almost impossible - apparently 2 months wait is the norm. This sister restaurant I went to is only a few minutes walk from the original shop and is easier to book because they only take bookings one week in advance. Still we were only allowed to stay for two hours before giving up our seats to the next round of customers.
Dinner course is 3360yen, where you can choose 3 plates from an extensive menu of appetizers and pastas. There is no “main dish” in the menu, but the pork I picked, which is supposed to be an “appetizer” and came first, was so huge that it was practically a main dish. The uni pasta is the chef’s specialty(available also in original restaurant) and it is to die for! I mopped every bit of the sweet and creamy uni sauce with bread. A must order! Dessert and coffee are not included in the course but they are inexpensive. The cheese cake I had was not too sweet and very good.
There are a few restaurants bearing the same name La Bettola. Make sure you only go to the original shop La Bettola da Ochi or bis LA BETTOLA. The other two branches (LA BETTOLA per tutti Nihonbashi and LA BETTOLA per tutti Nishi-Shinjuku) are not directly related to the original shop and definitely not as good.
Menu(J): 1, 2, 3, 4.
bis LA BETTOLA
Add: 1-27-8 Ginza, Chuo-ku
Tel: 03-3567-5657
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