Monthly Archive: June 2007 [21]
« May 2007 | Main | July 2007 »
June 28, 2007
Irreel (イレール)
１０種類の野菜と地鶏ささ身のプレッセ 沖縄産シークワーサーソース。
Lunch menu B, 3990yen.
Presser of 10 kinds of vegetables and chicken breast meat in Okinawa shikuwasa(Okinawa citrus fruit) sauce. Hmm the sauce is too sweet.
マッシュルームの温かいフラン。 春キャベツのスープ。
Mushroom flan. Red wine sauce and truffle bits on top. The sauce is like demi-glace, a bit yoshoku-feel but delicious.
Spring cabbage soup. With quite strong pepper and shiso in it. Very washoku-feel...but I like it.
シャラン産鴨胸肉のロースト コリアンダー風味 干しイチジクのピューレ添え。
Roasted duck breast, with coriander and dried fig puree. This is very very delicious!! But...only one slice!?! ^^;;;
Warm banana pie and Earl grey ice-cream. A bit normal.
Have been to this place 3, 4 years ago and have forgotten what I ate EXCEPT the main dish which was soft and juicy beef steak with cheese on top - absolutely amazing and impossible to forget. This time again, the main dish is the most delicious. The interior is renovated and much more stylish than before. I still remember last time the fire alarm went off and didn't stop for a loooooong time while the customers continued eating...^^;;
There were actually 3 different appetizers and 3 different desserts available, but because we were a big group of 8, we weren't allowed to choose. So the staff simply decided who was going to get what. A bad arrangement cos people tend to wish they had someone else's food. ^^;;
Lunch menu(J) here.
Irreel
Add: ABC ANNEX building 3F, 3-29-16 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku
Tel: 03-5475-6127
Comments(2) [ french food | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
June 27, 2007
たもいやんせ (Tamoiyanse)
宮崎綾地鶏骨付もも焼き。
An izakaya offering regional Kyushu food and many different kinds of shochu from Kyushu.
Charcoal-grilled Miyazaki chicken thigh.
黒豚とんこつ煮。若竹煮。
Simmered pork belly and ribs of "black pig", a specialty of Kagoshima. This is so good! The soft meat slid right off the bones. The sauce is sweet.
Simmered bamboo shoot.
豚飯。冷や汁。
Pork rice. Hiyajiru - cold, soybean paste soup with dried bonito, sesame and other ingredients poured over rice(and tofu in this case). Both are good~
Shared between 2 people with 2 shochu, about 6600yen. Slightly expensive but the environment is clean and comfortable(except for the tobacco). Nearest station is "Shinsen" but less than 15 mins walk from Shibuya station.
たもいやんせ (Tamoiyanse)
Add: 10-10 Shinsencho, Shibuya-ku
Tel: 03-3461-4333
Comments(5) [ japanese food | 渋谷・恵比寿・代官山 ]
June 25, 2007
CICADA (シカダ)
モロッコ風クラブケーキ。 カラマリロースト、プロシュートと香草パン粉詰。
Spicy moroccan crab cakes. Roasted Calamari stuffed with prosciutto.
ラムタジン。 魚介のタジン。
Lamb ｔagine with cous-cous. Seafood tagine with cous-cous.
ピスタチオクレームブリュレ。 ヴァローナチョコレートケーキと生チョコレートジェラート。
Super-rich and warm Valrhona 70% cocoa chocolate cake with chocolate gelato. Pistachio crème brulee.
I read a review here and got curious about this place. It looked very foreigner-oriented, having a couple of sister restaurants offering American food like hamburger so I wasn't so sure. But I was pleasantly surprised that the food was great! Supposed to be Mediterranean cuisine: Greek, Moroccan, Portuguese, Italian etc. 2800yen lunch course includes appetizer, main dish, dessert and coffee, with tax included and no service charge for lunch, even on weekends. All the stuff we ordered were delicious - every dish of them! The portion is huge. I have never seen a creme brulee that big in a Japanese restaurant, and it is not just big but delicious and rich with pistachio flavour. The waiter came to recommend us olive oil with the bread, and he didn't say anything about additional charge for the olive oil, fortunately I had read the review...^^;; But apart from that the staff are very friendly. English-speaking staff available.
CICADA
Comments(4) [ my favourites | other cuisines | 神宮前・青山・広尾 ]
June 23, 2007
石丸館 (Ishimarukan)
蟹のグラタン。
Crab gratin. Massive for an amuse-bouche. Generous amount of crab and vegetables~, delicious!
Bread is so-so.
ローストキチンサラダ。 ブイヤベース。
I suppose this is the appetizer course. Two big pieces of roasted chicken and salad. Simple but good.
Main course is Bouillabaisse. Two types of fish, scallop, and fish cake....again big portion and tasty.
Mango ice-cream. Mango mousse cake and a big and super yummy strawberry~
There was a blackboard with the prices of different lunch courses ranging from 3500yen to 10,000yen. We weren't shown the lunch menu(maybe there wasn't one), we weren't asked about which course we wanted, and we weren't told about what kind of food was coming...the chef only came to take our drink order, and some 15 mins later we just started eating. Somehow the atmosphere made us feel comfortable enough to leave everything to the chef, who is probably over 60s(?) and talks to you as if he knows you since you were a baby. ^^;;
There was an old lady(over 80s?) eating a full course by herself, and two ladies who seemed to be regulars and their main dishes were different from ours. Apparently they had told the chef in advance that they didn't want fish for their main course and they had pork instead...which looked really good.
Well it was a relief that our lunch was the cheapest 3500yen and not the 10,000yen one. Amazing value considering the quality and the quantity you get. Only shame is that the wine is pretty bad...glass wine is cheap, about 800yen, but it tastes like it should be used for cooking(though I am no wine expert). Will come back again, and must not forget to request for meat!!
石丸館 (Ishimarukan)
Add: 2F, 2-15-6, Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku
Tel: 03-3716-3113
Comments(4) [ my favourites | french food ]
June 19, 2007
七條
豚肩ロース、カレーソース、￥１０００。
ホロホロ鳥のパン粉焼き 悪魔風、￥１０００。
From many lunches.
Pork shoulder loin in curry sauce. So-so.
Grilled guinea fowl with breadcrumb, "devil-style"(curry taste ^^;;;). Very good!
活〆穴子フライタルタルソース添え、￥１２００。
メンチカツ、￥８００。
Fried anago tartare sauce. It is massive!! Very good.
Menchi-katsu. Juicy inside and crispy outside.
若鶏むね肉のソテー、マッシュルームエストラゴン風味、￥１０００。
仏産鴨のロースト、粒マスタードソース、￥１０００。
Chicken breast saute, mushroom sauce. Too healthy-tasting for me...
Roasted duck with mustard sauce. Okay.
ミックスフライ タルタルソース添え、￥１３００。
若鶏とアサリのソテー、バジル風味ピペラド添え、￥１０００。
Mixed fried shrimp/scallop/crab cream croquette. Good.
Chicken and clam saute, basil sauce. Good.
仏産鶏の香草パン焼き 青豆ブレゼ添え、￥１０００。
仔羊のロースト、キノコ添え、バジルソース、￥１０００。
Grilled chicken with breadcrumb, green beans brasier. Very good.
Roated lamb with mushroom and basil sauce. Bad.
Long queue on weekday lunch time! Must go no later than 11:30am when it opens for lunch. For weekend lunch and dinner, you can reserve in advance.
Yoshoku-style deep-fried stuff are all good, the two grilled chicken with breadcrumb are good, but big chunks of red meat(pork, lamb, and duck also) are not so recommended...usually too rare and impossible to cut or chew despite its softness, UNLESS it is made into a stew like the beef here, which is only available at night and weekends. Weekday lunch menu usually has 3 deep-fried seafood sets(Mixed-fry, Fried Anago, Fried prawn), 1 meat cutlet choice(A lunch), 1 bistro-style meat choice(B lunch), and beef curry. Lunch A and B change everyday.
Past entries: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Restaurant Shichijo 七條
Shougakkan Bldg.
2-3-1 Hitotsubashi
Chiyoda-ku, Japan 101-0003
03-3230-4875
Comments(3) [ good cheap eats | 神田・神保町・秋葉原 ]
June 13, 2007
さぼうるⅡ
Ground floor.
ナポリタン、￥６５０。 ポークしょうが焼き、￥７５０。
50-year old cafe which is famous for its "Naporitan". Huge mountain of thin spaghetti with a little bit of mushroom, ham and onion, stir-fried with ketchup. Nice, but need to add tabasco, add parmesan cheese, add tabasco+cheese to give it a bit of variety in taste. In my second visit, I had the pork ginger, a bit salty~.
Basement.
バジリコ、￥６５０。 ミートソース、￥６５０。
"Basilico". Good but a bit oily. I was expecting more pesto sauce...I guess a little pesto sauce was added to give it a green hue, plus two slices of basil cooked with the fried-noodle-like spaghetti.
Meat sauce spaghetti. Not bad but the sauce was only enough to eat half the mountain of the spaghetti.
ハンバーグステーキ、￥７５０。 イタリアン、￥６５０。
Hamburger steak. The outside is grilled to a slight crisp and the sauce is nice, but the hamburger is grounded to a pasty texture which unfortunately I have developed a distaste for recently...
"Italian". Just the same fried spaghetti with the minimal amount of ham, mushroom and onion. Basically "Naporitan" without the ketchup, and "Basilico" without the basil. It is so bland, I left most of it.
エビプラフ、￥８５０。
Prawn piraf. At lunch time it is 650yen, but it is 200yen more at night for the same thing. I was a bit shocked to see the piraf coming out from the microwave in the kitchen...and it tasted like leftover fried rice reheated in the microwave too - rice soggy and clumped up. Ihe best menu remains to be "Naporitan". Dinner menu inlcudes all the lunch sets, plus a variety of bar snacks like pizza, sausages, cheese cake etc.
This cafe has two parts right next to each other, the food menu is only available in "2". At lunch time, there is always a queue.
Lunch menu(J) here.
さぼうるⅡ
June 12, 2007
ろしあ亭
Lunch B: Russian salad, Borstch, beef stroganoff(beef and mushroom cream), Russian bread(not sure what so Russian about it...) and mango dessert, 1050yen. The salad and soup are nice. Bread is no good. The beef is tough and the white sauce is bland. Couldn't finish the super sweet mango jam.
Lunch D: Russian hamburger with tomato. Had rice with it. Salad, Borstch and dessert are the same as above. I printed out a couple(from the link below) and got a free Russian tea. Instead of sugar you add blueberry jam. The hamburger is mushy paste-like type.
Special lunch for summer only(945yen). Potato salad, Borstch, blue berry juice and Russian pancake. The Borstch is not hot today...Marinated salmon is sandwiched inside the pancake with onions...tastes just so-so. I saw the cook microwave the pancake, but when it came out it was cold...why? The pita bread thingy is also cold and has nothing in it. The only thing available to put in was the salad so I stuffed in everything. The dressing in the middle has a faint taste of alcohol but basically tasteless.
Last pic on the right is Lunch E from another visit. The main is cabbage roll. The meat stuffing doesn't taste so good... Comes with salad, soup, rice and the mango jam (which I told the madam I didn't want it and she looked shocked...^^;;).
Recently I keep going back to the same place for lunch as long as the quality is not ridiculously bad...
Lunch menu here and here.
ろしあ亭
Liberal Table Cafe
Salad with 5 Toppings, 580yen. Green peas potage, 380yen.
Dried curry set, 850yen. Comes with a small salad and drink(I had hot peach tea). Quite sweet curry with lots of raisins in it. Tastes healthy.
Whenever I feel like I am lacking vegetables I will come here. The salad bowl is huge and stomach-filling. The soup changes every week, mostly potage soup which is always a little too thick for some reason. Once they had minestrone and it was good. This place promotes detox diet, in which you basically just eat vegetables, fruits, and drink herb tea. Can't do it everyday....but once in a while.
Liberal Table Cafe
ムアン・タイ・なべ
Ｂランチ（￥１１５５）：グリーンカレー、魚介類のサラダ、トムヤムクン、ライスとデザート。
Lunch set B: green curry, seafood salad, Tomyamkun soup, rice and dessert. Quite expensive for the amount and the quality. The soup and salad are very sour. Probably won't go back.
Lunch menu here.
ムアン・タイ・なべ
June 11, 2007
Bondy （欧風カレー ボンディ）
Very famous curry place. You have to walk through an old bookstore to get to the entrance.
ビーフカレー、￥１４５０。 チーズカレー、￥１４５０。
Beef curry. Cheese curry. From two separate lunch visits. You can choose "hot", "medium hot" and "sweet". I had "sweet" for the beef and "hot" for the cheese. "Sweet" tastes fruity but still a bit spicy. "Hot" is not THAT hot, but less sweet. There is melted cheese on the rice. The potatoes come with the set....but who will need 3 potatoes with such a big plate of rice?! ^^;; Nice curry though I wish the price were cheaper.
Bondy
丼達
スタミナ丼（ヨシダソース）、￥６００。サラダ、￥１００。
Pork donburi with Yoshida sauce(actual thing displayed in the shop), 600yen. Plus salad, 100yen. Seems like Yoshida sauce is famous in US?? I have never heard of it....Anyway, tastes very junkfood. Pork is dry. 600yen donburi looks big but it is mainly rice with very little pork. You get double amount of the pork for an extra 150yen, triple for 300yen. Don't think I will go back though.
丼達
雪花の郷
金銀財宝、￥５００。
Not kakigori, not sorbet, but "snowflake ice" apparently. Originated from Taiwan. It does feels very fluffy and feathery. I had the one with mango and mango sauce on it. The shop is in the middle of the busiest street in Akihabara.
雪花の郷
Comments(3) [ cakes and sweets | 神田・神保町・秋葉原 ]
June 08, 2007
鮨処 しみづ
12600yen Omakase course. Octopus.
Hirame(flatfish). Ika(Squid).
Vinegar-pickled Hirame. Katsuo(Bonito).
Maguro. Toro.
Aji(Horse mackerel). Steamed Abalone.
Kasugo. Torigai(shellfish).
Forgot. Scallop.
Prawn. Mirugai(shellfish).
Vinegar-pickled Aji. Forgot.
Anago. Egg. Shellfish soup.
A famous sushi place with only 8 counter seats. Located in an area where at night, mainly salarymen hang out. The chef is a big guy and can be intimidating af first, but he is very friendly and talks and smiles a lot. He let me take pictures of the sushi but my seat was right in front of him so it was quite embarassing, especially when there were so many of them. ^^;;; Wanted to jot down what we ate but just couldn't in that situation...what I could recall afterwards might not be that reliable. The course included 18 sushi. And the rice for the sushi was so big(the fish was not small either), I was stuffed to my throat by the end. Other customers gave up after 15. The rice is strong with "red vinegar", and there were 4-5 out of that 18 sushi that had the fish itself vinegar-pickled also, so it was a bit too much sour taste towards the end. Quality is high nonetheless, and good value considering how much food you get. You don't have to order the omakase - you can choose what you like or request for a course with fewer sushi.
鮨処しみづ
Comments(4) [ japanese food | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
June 06, 2007
Les Dix temps the TOTOKI (レディタン ザ・トトキ)
9450yen dinner course(the "cheapest" in the menu).
Amuse-bouche. Bread is very good.
土佐産天然真ダイのマリネとホワイトアスパラガスのムース。
プティポワと有機オニオンのカプチーの仕立て。
Marinated madai(bream) and white asparagus mousse.
Petit Pois(green peas) and organic onion cappuccino.
軍鶏のローストと有機野菜。
Roasted Shamo and organic vegetables.
Caramel pudding.
Strawberry parfait with pistachio ice-cream.
Amuse-bouche ~ bread ~ appetizer ~ soup were all great, then the main dish shamo came and it was dry and the sauce tasted like yoshoku...it might be too much to ask that the whole course is "perfect" and you like every single dish, but you do wish that the one you don't like isn't the MAIN dish. ^^;;; The pre-dessert ~ dessert ~ petit fours are great, but the server said the pudding is orange-flavour yet no one out of 6 of us could taste any orange. The pistachio ice-cream in the parfait is super rich, though for a 10,000yen course I had expected something more fancy than a simple and rather small parfait. Also the half-melting chocolate stick was unnecessary. The Canelé from the petit fours is soft type, very good.
Sad thing is, the service is rather bad. Nothing rude, just very very cold and snobby, and the stuck-up waitress dropped the cutlery rather loudly twice throughout our meal....Heard from a friend who loves this place that you get much better dining experience sitting at the counter and talking to chef, who welcomes requests about the food. Like the front page of the menu lists all the recommended seasonal ingredients, and you can pick those you like, set a budget, and let the chef design a course for you on spot. Though if you sit in the counter you won't be able to take pictures. We sat in the private room so we got away with it. ^^;;
Menu(J): 1, 2, 3.
TOTOKI
Comments(2) [ french food | 新橋・銀座・日本橋 ]
June 05, 2007
Anniversary (アニバーサリー)
A cake shop that does wedding cakes. We had the strawberry roll cake(apparently not made into a bear face on purpose ^^;;), short cake, and rare cheese cake. Old-fashioned neighbourhood cake shop kinda taste. Nice and comforting though. Also got the Marron chocolate which is a big non-sweetened marron with chocolate coating.
Anniversary
Comments(7) [ cakes and sweets | 神宮前・青山・広尾 ]
Patisserie Potager (パティスリー・ポタジエ＠中目黒)
ベジロール・トマト。大根とショコラ。
Cakes made with vegetables. Left is raddish and chocolate, right is roll cake with tomato. Both are pretty bad...^^;;; The patissier chef is a young and pretty lady who goes on TV food shows sometimes.
Patisserie Potager
Comments(3) [ cakes and sweets ]
June 04, 2007
mammies (マミーズ＠春日)
Local apple pie shop. The apple are in huge chunks and taste fresh and not too sweet. Custard underneath the apple too. Very good.
Almond cake with raisins inside. Banana pie. Both good.
mammies
Comments(6) [ cakes and sweets ]
MOTHER'S (マザーズ)
Organic restaurant. Lunch buffet is 1260yen. Maily carrot, potato, lotus root that are boiled, steamed, grilled, made into salad, mixed with curry... Not much variety in taste but you get your fiber intake...There is an organic supermarket at the basement.
MOTHER'S
伊のマタギ
蝦夷鹿挽肉とザーサイのラザニアグラタン＋スープ、￥９８０。
Ezo-shika(venison) minced meat and chinese pickles lasagne gratin. Very bad. Almost no sauce. I was just eating dry pasta by the end. No wonder this place is always empty...
伊のマタギ
June 03, 2007
PÂTISSERIE DÉFFERT (デフェール)
ジバラ。マンダリンナポレオン。
Left: Chocolate and marron mousse cake.
Right: Prize-winning chocolate cake. Has orange liqueur in it.
シブースト。モンブラン。
Left: Ciboust. This is very good!
Right: Mont Blanc.
アルモニ。サントノレ。
Left: Chocolate mousse cake with Jasmine brulee and Camomile sauce. Nice fragrance.
Right: Saint Honoré. My favourite!
They also have very nice cookies. Light and fluffy and crispy all at once. The one in the pack has ginger taste, very spicy and good! Not in picutres are marron galette, macaron and financier. All very good.
The cake shop is in Yokohama. A bit far for me, but it is only about 3 mins walk from the nearest train station and they have a cafe for eating in. I have tried their cakes before when they had a booth space inside a food mall in Shibuya station.
PÂTISSERIE DÉFFERT
Comments(2) [ cakes and sweets ]
June 02, 2007
Cold Stone Creamery
ファウンダーズ フェイバリット： スイートクリームアイスクリーム、ブラウニー、ピーカンナッツ、チョコファッジ、キャラメルソース。
チョコレート デヴォーション： チョコレートアイスクリーム、ブラウニー、チョコチップ、チョコファッジ。
Founder's Favorite(S): Sweet cream ice-cream, brownie, pecan nut, choco fudge, caramel sauce. Very nice! Love the brownie!
Chocolate Devotion(M): Chocolate ice-cream, brownie, choco chip, choco fudge. A little too sweet for me.
Somehow, S is too small, M is too big.
アイランドライフ： チーズケーキアイスクリーム、バナナ、パイナップル、マンゴ。
バナナアイス、アップル、グラハムパイクラスと、ホワイトチョコチップ。
Island Life(S): Cheese cake ice-cream, banana, pineapple and mango. Not much of cheese cake taste...got the ice-cream wrong?
Custom creation(S): Banana ice-cream, apple pie filling, Graham Cracker Pie Crust, white chocolate chips. Should have been less greedy and skipped the white choc chip. ^^;;
スイート ブロッサム： サクラアイスクリームにブルーベリー、ホワイトチョコチップ、ホイップクリーム。
ホワイトチョコアイス、ストロベリー、スポンジケーキ、ヌガーキャンディ。
Sweet Blossom(S): Sakura ice-cream, blueberry, white choco chip, whipped cream. This is spring special. Very good!
Custom creation(M): White chocolate ice-cream, strawberry, sponge cake and nougat candy. Good!
ストロベリーアイス、ブラウニー、ラズベリー、アーモンド。
ブラッシング マンゴ クラウド： マンゴアイスクリーム、ストロベリー、マンゴ、ホイップクリーム。
Custom creation(M): Strawberry ice-cream, brownie, raspberry and almond. Good.
Blushing Mango Cloud(M): Mango ice-cream, strawberry, mango and whipped cream. Summer special. Very good!
The shop in Roppongi.
Old entry here.
Menu(J) here.
Cold Stone Creamery
