Monthly Archive: April 2006 [44]
« March 2006 | Main | May 2006 »
April 30, 2006
cafe ano
Supposed to be Czech cuisine...even though I have been to Prague before, I have absolutely no memory of the food there, being budget backpacking and all.
Some Czech liqueur...STRONG and spicy. Some super-sour cheese soup, with pieces of avocado. Interesting...
Sausages and pickled cabbage. Czech risotto...just tomato-sauce chicken rice with paprika.
Best thing in the course - pancake with cheese inside. Quite salty but goes well with beer - of course Czech beer.
Beef stew and steamed bread. Well if you call it Czech...
Some milk pudding with (canned?)fruits. Tastes like stuff you make from those supermarket pudding mix...^^;;
cafe ano
Comments(3) [ other cuisines | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
Alberata
前菜の盛り合わせ。
Girls in kimono are such eye-candy~~
フェデリーニ、釜揚げシラスと水菜。
Fedelini with shirasu(little white fish) and mizuna. The pasta is surprisingly good. Lunch is 1680yen. Since the appetizer and the dessert are just so-so, the cheaper 1260yen pasta-only lunch is probably more worth it.
Alberata
Comments(2) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
FIRE HOUSE
モッツァレラマッシュルームバーガー、１２６０円。クラムチャウダー、４７３円。Mozzarella Mushroom Burger, very very good! Clam chowder is so-so. But 1260yen for a burger is just too crazy~~
FIRE HOUSE
Comments(3) [ good cheap eats | 本郷・根津・湯島・上野 ]
キッチン亀
オムハヤシスペシャル、１１２０円。Omelette with ketchup fried rice and hayashi sauce. Very good! Like the half-cooked egg.
キッチン亀
Comments(4) [ 大山・板橋 ]
ゑ～もん
豚とろ網焼きランチ、８８０円。The grilled pork is very good! Though the rice is too soggy.
ゑ～もん
Comments(0) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
Trattoria Toy
Bacon and peas and vegetables spaghetti, 1000yen. Cheap but taste so-so.
Trattoria Toy
Comments(2) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
Steak Kentas
サイコロステーキ（２００ｇ）、１３６０円。Steak with demi glace sauce, not bad. It is already medium size yet still very small - beef is so expensive in Japan.
Kentas
Comments(0) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
April 24, 2006
Pomme de terre（ポムドテール＠西荻窪）
Super popular bagel shop...I went there 15mins before the shop opened and there were already 12 people in the queue....oh my. I was planning to eat-in and also take-out, but then I was alone and got kinda panicky about whether I should get a seat first or buy the bread first or how can I do both at the same time...^^;;. But then the girl from the shop came out and asked everyone in the queue if they wanted eat-in or take-away, and miraculously most of the people just wanted to take-away, so I got a seat reserved immediately and I could get the bread first before sitting down....yet by the time it was my turn, the most popular item "miso bagel" was sold out! And 45 minutes after the shop opened, all the bagels were sold out....for the day!!!!!! Crazy!!!!!! The counter table in the second picture was lined up with bagels when I got in, but when I was still eating my lunch, only a few were left over, and yet people still kept coming and getting shocked about the sold-out. Anyway, the lunch was grilled chicken with bread-crumbs, and of course a freshly baked carrot bagel on the side. The chicken was so tender and nice, the vegetables fresh and sweet, and the bagel was crispy on the outside and chewy inside, incredibly yummy!! Also came with a cold potage and coffee, 1200yen. I wish I live nearby and can lunch here everyday!
Pomme de terre
All About
Comments(10) [ bakeries ]
Southern Kitchen BORA BORA
タケノコとひじきのレモングラス炒め、豚野菜のブラックペパー炒め、レッドカレーのランチ、９９５円。Curry, fried pork and veggy with black pepper, fried bamboo shoot and hijiki(that black seaweed thing) with lemon grass. Hmm, tasted so-so, just a quick lunch.
Comments(0) [ 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
龍
ブロック焼定食、８５０円。Beef cubes in some soya sweet sauce. The beef terribly rough and the rice soggy. Bad.
Comments(0) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
Ristorante UA
Prawn and broccoli, curry cream sauce spaghetti, 900yen. Can tell from the pic that it is one of those over-cooked pasta with the sauce just mixed with the pasta but not cooked together. Well I sorta had the feeling that it would be that kind of pasta place when I saw the front door, but it took me a long time to find the place and was starving, so just went in anyway. ^^;; From the homepage, the chef seems to be a man, but when I went for lunch, only a young girl was cooking and serving...hmm.
Comments(2) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
April 20, 2006
s.l.o
ジャガイモのポタージュ、鴨パテサンドイッチ、１０００円。Duck pate sandwich, it is sooooooo nice!!! The bread is homemade and nicely toasted, the pate is such a thick slice~. Want to go back to try their full course lunch, which the ojisan in the picture ordered and he kept telling the waitor how he delicious it was and in fact took pictures using his mobile phone...maybe he has a food blog too. ^^;;
s.l.o
Comments(6) [ good cheap eats | 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
Gioacchino Rossini
Bread(2 kinds:cereal and onion) were warm but had a strange crispy texture. Appetizer was marinated hon-masu - a fish similar to salmon. Quite nice! There were two small slices of cheese on the plate too.
Pasta was ravioli, both the sauce and the stuffing were made of prawn and crab, and the pasta seemed to be made of whole-grain, looked brown and had a slightly rough texture, which I really liked! The sauce was slightly salty but also very nice. The waitor brought a sample plate of different pasta for me to choose, most of them were in shapes that I had never seen! Dessert plate was apple tart, pudding and pineapple ice, tasted so-so. I went on a weekday lunch, and there were only me and 4 other customers...maybe because the restaurant is in a rather quiet area, quite far to walk even from the nearest station.
Gioacchino Rossini
Comments(3) [ italian food | 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
りゅうほう
チャーハン、７５０円。Simple and nice fried rice~
Comments(0) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
紀の善
くずきり、８９２円。
Kuzukiri - a healthy sweet of jelly-like strips made from kudzu. It is basically tasteless and you dip it into the honey. There is ice to keep it cool. Great for summer!
Comments(3) [ japanese sweets | 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
はし
穴子天せいろ、１５７０円。Lots of varieties of soba in the menu, want to go back and try the others too.
Comments(7) [ 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
蕎麦カフェ sanesuke
越前おろしそば、７００円。Got attracted by the name "soba cafe" and thought it was a girly trendy place...turned out to be a small bland soba place with only businessmen who were all smoking...though the madam was nice and shifted me to a corner with less smoke.
Comments(2) [ 護国寺・江戸川橋 ]
April 16, 2006
Sofitel Tokyo (closed)
Cake set at the lounge of a hotel, 1200yen. I chose Mont Blanc, the chestnut is inside instead of outside, very good but tinnnnnnnny!! ^^;;
Sofitel
Comments(4) [ cakes and sweets | 本郷・根津・湯島・上野 ]
根の津
肉つけうどん（大盛）、揚げもち。Beef udon and fried rice-cake. Have been to this place many times, very good as usual.
龍圓
前菜盛り合わせ：牛肉煮こごり、鴨の燻製、くらげ、メンマ、フルーツトマト。
Appetizer plate, dunno how to translate...beef pate-ish thing was nice, smoked duck had pork paste on top. Very good.
たっぷり野菜の棒々鶏、エスプーマソース。フカヒレ入りカブのポタージュスープ。
Shredded chicken with sesame mousse. Shark fin raddish potage soup.
三浦の春キャベツと刻み豚耳入り、コラーゲン餃子。なまこ、フレッシュ筍、千寿葱の煮込み。
Pork ear dumplings. Sea cucumber, bamboo shoot and onion.
車エビと、ブロッコリーとカリフラワー、X.O.醤炒め。和牛ホホ肉の老酒煮込み。
Prawn, broccoli and cauliflower, X.O. sauce. Beef cheek meat chinese wine stew.
中華パン。牛肉と無農薬フリルレタスの炒飯。
Beef and lettuce fried rice. Love it.
杏仁風味のブリュレ。杏仁豆腐。
Almond brulee, lychee sorbet, with tapioca. Almond tofu.
Additional comments: Five of us to share. The food is not very typical chinese, especially the shredded chicken that comes with so much salad. Taste is very light, little salt, little oil, but the sauce is thick and heavy. About 6000yen per person.. proper chinese food in Japan is not cheap really.
龍圓
Comments(8) [ other cuisines | 浅草 ]
April 15, 2006
黒兵衛
味噌らーめんにオールスターをトッピング、１２００円。Miso ramen. It is good, soup not too salty, pork very soft, a bit too much beansprout though.
黒兵衛
Comments(3) [ 飯田橋・神楽坂 ]
April 13, 2006
瑠璃家
フカヒレやきそば、ふわふわ卵炒飯、担々麺。Shark fin fried noodles, egg fried rice and Dan Dan noodles. Rare chinese food entry...a friend wanted to eat shark fin and I only know this place. ^^;;
瑠璃家
Restaurant S(虎ノ門)
ウズラのロースト、レンズ豆スープ。
Cheese puff. Roasted quail and Lentil peas soup.
エスカルゴ詰めたホロホロ鳥。イチゴのクラフィティー。
Pintade stuffed with escargot. Strawberry Clafoutis.
A restaurant owned by a famous sommelier apparently. Dinner course is 3990yen, one bottle of wine is also 3990yen. Cheap certainly, but the food is no good and the portion tiny. Even the wine...hmm.
Restaurant S
April 12, 2006
Brasserie L'ecrin (ブラッスリーレカン＠上野レトロ館)
新人参のクリームスープ。Carrot cream soup.
イシモチのポワレ オマール海老風味のクリームソース。赤いフルーツのスープに浮かべたフレッシュチーズのクレームダンジュ。
Filet d' Ishimochi poele sauce creme de homard(copied from the menu, err, something like: pan-fried fish with prawn cream sauce). Creme d'anjou accompagnee de soupe aux fruits roges(fruit soup and fresh cheese cream something...^^;;). Lunch set is 1500yen, dessert is plus 500yen. I like the service here, very efficient in attending to your needs - water, extra portion of bread etc, but at the same time not bothering you while you eat at peace. The restaurant is inside the huge Ueno station compound and the station was so crowded and busy on a weekend afternoon. I went early so I got a seat immediately, but the queue started forming outside the closed door while I ate, and by the time I finished, the queue was unbelievably long with dozens of people. I mean this is not a ramen shop where people eat quickly, but each table probably stays for more than an hour....I wonder how long those people in the queue would have to wait. But even in such a busy time and I was alone, the atmosphere inside the restaurant was relaxed.
Brasserie L'ecrin
Comments(2) [ french food | 本郷・根津・湯島・上野 ]
デリー上野店
カシミールカレー、９００円。Kashmir chicken curry. The hottest curry on the menu and it was devilishly hot....tongue numb, nose running as usual...very good though(the first few spoonfuls).
デリー
麻布茶房（上野レトロ館）
クリームスイートポテト宇治金時とアイス抹茶セット、８５０円。Ice-cream on sweet potato. The ice-cream was half-collapsed...hmm.
洋食寅八軒（上野レトロ館）
チーズインオムライスドリアデミグラソース。Cheese omelette rice demi glace sauce, 1029yen. Taste is hmm.
April 09, 2006
La Casquette(ラ・カスケット＠初台）
Bread was served warm, with butter and pork rillette.
My friend's appetizer: White asparagus bavarois with broccoli sauce. Mine: Smoked duck and persimmon salad.
ホワイトアスパラのヴァバロワ、アヴルーガ添え、ブロッコリーのブルッテ。マグレ鴨の燻製と柿のサラダ仕立て。
My main dish: Roasted quail stuffed with wild rice and mushroom piraf. My friend's: Lamb cous cous, La Casquette style.
ワイルドライスと茸のピラフを詰めたウズラのロースト、カレー風味。仔羊のクスクス ラ・カスケット風。
Strawberry milk La Casquette style. Some kind of huge grapefruit terrine and mango sorbet.
イチゴミルク、ラ・カスケット風。晩白柚のテリーヌとマンゴーのシャーベット。
Huge portion simple bistro food with full dinner course only about 4000yen and house wine ~700yen per glass. Very cheap! The quail was not bad, I have had better though not as cheap as this place. My friend's cous cous and lamb chop came with an impossibly massive family-size bowl of vegetable soup with chunks of vegetables and more lamb and sausages inside, she couldn't even finish one-third of it and I ended up helping her and stuffed with a bursting stomach. The waitor recommended "strawberry milk" to us for desserts and we were rather skeptical but ordered it anyway, turned out to be a slice of frozen strawberry with ice-cream underneath and the waitor poured hot milk onto it; quite a big pretentious fuss but it tasted good. ^^;; The atmosphere was not exactly that friendly....actually quite gloomy, but the waitor was certainly polite and helpful. Other tables' food looked really good...don't mind going back again and try other menu.
La Casquette
天寿々
特上天丼、１８００円。Tempura rice bowl. Good but felt a bit ill afterwards. ^^;;
天寿々
美噌元
味噌汁セット、８４０円：湯葉のとろとろ味噌汁（八丁味噌と津軽三年味噌）、明太子ごはん、胡麻豆腐、柚子ジュース。
Miso soup set with mentaiko rice, sesame tofu and yuzu juice. A counter eating space inside a department store food section. At first I thought, 840yen for just miso soup and rice?! But as usual the miso is all special and branded type and the lady actually mixes and cooks the miso in front of you. The yuba(beancurd thing) is really nice, and the miso is richly flavoured. Quite satisfying actually....
美噌元
Comments(3) [ 池袋 ]
April 08, 2006
厳選洋食さくらい
Omelette rice lunch set with salad, carrot soup and coffee, 1800yen. Very good! The fried rice with ketchup, chicken and mushroom was wrapped immaculately inside the omelette, the demi glace sauce was nice too.
厳選洋食さくらい
Comments(6) [ good cheap eats | 本郷・根津・湯島・上野 ]
あんばらんす
ズワイガニの和風サラダ。Crab salad.
鹿児島産の黒豚の角煮。オムレツ風たこ焼き。
Fatty pork and omelette-style tako-yaki. The pork is good but has a little too much fat....even for me(^^;;). The tako-yaki just tastes like those normal ball-shape tako-yaki but in a pancake form and doesn't have much octopus inside...This place is owned by the famous sumo guy Konishiki, who is originally from Hawai. The restaurant is divided into two parts, Japanese and Hawaiian. We went to the Japanese side, where they serve chanko hotpot which is a typical food for sumo-san. Most customers ordered the hotpot...maybe we should have too. The other part of the restaurant serves Hawaiian food, including some jumbo huge size hamburger and steak. My friend whom I went with, sort of chickened out after seeing the scary menu on the Hawaiian side so we went to the Japanese side. ^^;;
あんばらんす
April 07, 2006
北島亭
アンチョビクロワッサン。スープにつくラスク。
Anchovy croissant. Rusk that goes with the soup.
名前は適当に。カキの野菜スープ。鶏のロースト、アサリとキャベツ。
Oyster vegetable soup. Not as good as it looks. Roasted chicken with clams and cabbage. Not bad but very very SALTY!!! Had to keep eating bread and drinking water, would have been better if I had ordered wine though. The clams had too much sand....
Strawberry tart is super yummy~! My favourite part of the course. We chose the cheapest lunch course, including soup, main dish, dessert, fruits and chocolate and coffee, and it was about 4000yen. Even though we didn't have appetizers, we were really stuffed at the end cos the portion was so huge. Wouldn't mind going back and ordering from the a la carte menu which is more appealing...if I ever crave super salty food.
北島亭
Comments(3) [ french food | 四ツ谷 ]
とらや
あんみつ、白玉と花豆トッピング、１１０２円。Not bad.
とらや
Comments(3) [ japanese sweets | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
Sadeu
昆布風味、鶏チャーシュー丼、１２６０円。桜寒天と黒糖プリンの抹茶パフェ、１２６０円。Chicken rice bowl. Sakura kanten and black sugar pudding macha parfait. Both taste so-so. The parfait glass is too heavy at the top and too thin at the bottom that it threatens to topple any minute(bad design), and I really don't like the pudding and the cereal in the parfait....
Sadeu
Comments(3) [ japanese sweets | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
イタリア料理 キャンティ＠上野松坂屋
Chicken in tomato sauce and spaghetti with garlic. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the menu, the lunch set was 2520yen, and that was the cheapest lunch set available. Some super basic and boring menu like spaghetti with meat-sauce cost 1500yen, no salad no drink included...Anyway, the chicken is quite good but the pasta is bad, just can't help thinking why this place is so ridiculously priced.
Bel-Air Produced by TOTAL Workout
High protein, low fat and low carbo deli restaurant produced by a gym(in the pic). The deli plate is 1000yen which you can choose from a selection of deli food, or you can have a bit of everything which is what I did, turned out to be a big plate. Taste-wise...well...I guess taste is not the point. ^^;; I was just curious...never stepped into the gym(oh god no...).
Bel-Air
Comments(4) [ 麻布・六本木・赤坂 ]
ENZO forno
桜えびと小松菜のアーリオ・オーリオ。
Lunch salad+drink bar is quite good, lots of choices. Pasta is sakura prawn and veggy, garlic oil, hmm, should have ordered pizza instead...
いちごのミルフィーユ。
The lunch set was 1200yen which included a small dessert but the blackboard with the dessert menu was hung right in front of me and I couldn't resist ordering the strawberry millefeuille(^^;;)....hmm, if I knew the qualilty I would have resisted.
April 03, 2006
MUSEO
海老とにんじんのムース ズッキーニ巻き、ロビオラのキッシュ、アスパラと合挽き。ジャガイモのスープ。
Prawn and carrot mousse rolled in zucchini, ricotta cheese quiche, asparagus and minced meat terrine. Potato soup.
桜エビとカラスミクリームスパゲッティ。生ハムとブロッコリーパッケリ。
My friend's choice: Sakura shrimp and karasumi(fish roe) cream spaghetti.
My choice: Ham and broccoli paccheri.
ババロアリゾーニ。Risoni bavarois.(Risoni is rice-shape pasta)
An absolutely perfect lunch experience!! Every dish is delicious, especially the pasta, which is so simple yet incredibly good, and served in a satisfying big porton too. Pasta lunch course including appetizer, soup, pasta, dessert and coffee, is only 1800yen even on a weekend. Considering those super expensive but no good Italian I have had recently, this place is heaven. Oh also, the waitor seems to have good ears. It was my friend's birthday but we kept it rather quiet, yet her dessert came with a candle and chocolate drawings on the plate. Then we were talking about some cappuccino cafe nearby which does very pretty drawings on the foam, and somehow the cappuccinos at the end of the lunch course were something we never expected of a restaurant...the birthday gal had "Happy Birthday" written in Japanese on her cappuccino...how lovely. Definitely want to go back again.
MUSEO
Comments(6) [ my favourites | italian food | 麻布・六本木・赤坂 ]
Sadaharu AOKI
Strawberry, peach cassis on a thin chocolate tart, and mille-feuille. So stylish and beautiful~~. I like the mille-feuille the best, though all are quite good.
Sadaharu AOKI
Comments(7) [ cakes and sweets | 有楽町・丸の内 ]
鹿乃子
鹿乃子あんみつ、１２５０円。Gosh all those time I was hanging out in Ginza, I never knew about this Japanese sweets place!! It is sooooooooo good!! I want to eat it everyday! The best "anmitsu" definitely(also the most expensive ^^; but it is worth it).
鹿乃子
Comments(6) [ japanese sweets | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
Wrap & Dog Cafe
豚のタコスプレート、７００円。Pork tacos, spicy Buffalo chicken wings and Kheema curry spring roll. Cute little cafe with pictures of doggies all over the place. Food is great too.
Wrap & Dog
Comments(4) [ 大山・板橋 ]
蓬莱屋
ヒレカツ。Pork cutlet lunch. Quite famous place, very packed with businessmen and elderly...I must have been an unlikely customer cos the chef kept staring at me even before I started taking out my camera(^^;). I knew this place is not cheap but I expected they have cheaper lunch sets...unfortunately they don't. The standard price is 2900yen(ouch...). And the pork was quite hard and not very juicy....hmm. The chef seems to know everybody, saying "Oh long time no see" to an ojisan, and "Is your mother genki?" to the young salaryman sitting next to me. ^^;;
ル･スフレ
Cream cheese souffle, good as usual.
