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
4725yen lunch course.
Amuse-bouche: A little pie with pate, kinkan(kumquat orange), pinenut and nanohana.
Bread is good.
岩手県・三陸の桜マスのカルパッチョ、菜園の薬味。
春野菜とフォワグラのロワイヤル、鴨のコンソメ仕立て 。
Sakura-masu(like salmon) carpaccio and garden vegetables.
Spring vegetables and foie gras royale(mousse), with duck consomme.
岩手県産・白金豚のポワレ、アサリの菜の花の マリニエール。
お口直しのティラミス。
Platinum pork and spring vegetables.
Pre-dessert: tiramisu. There are bits of sweetened ginger inside.
苺とアーモンドのパフェ。
Dessert: Strawberry and almond parfait.
After the main dessert, there is still the “wagon dessert”.
I asked for a bit of almost everything…
Savarin is rich in alcohol and has moist texture, very good. Also like the mont blanc.
Vegetables are very very delicious in this place. In general very healthy and delicate taste. The kind of French that doesn’t make you crave wine. Amongst the 3-course dessert, my favourite is the tiramisu. Value is good for lunch, though dinner seems very expensive. Saturday lunches get booked up very quickly(Sunday not opened). Say if you want to book a Sat lunch in May, you need to phone on the 1st April at 10am.
Menu: 1, 2. There is one more expensive lunch course that I forgot to take.
NARISAWA
5500yen lunch course. Sangria with fruits.
前菜の盛り合わせ。
Cheese chip. Appetizer plate(clockwise from left): baked prawn with breadcrumbs, onion mousse, anago fritter, octopus, mozzarella cheese and tomato, flatfish carpaccio, kidney beans and pumpkin.
冷製トマトのカッペリーニ。
Cold tomato Capellini. A bit too cold….
Simple toasted bread.
ズワイ蟹のバヴェッティーネ。
仔羊のカラメルソース。
Zuwai-gani(crab) bavettine.
Baby lamb in caramel sauce. Very super tiny portion….
Dessert is tiramisu, blanc manger and caramel ice-cream.
One of those impossible-to-book restaurants. Yet to my utter disappointment, the food is nothing special. Not bad or anything but considering the price and the hassle of booking, that is not one dish that really impresses. Also there is only one toilet for both men and women…^^;;
Menu here.
RISTORANTE HAMASAKI
Nice entrance~.
ナスで巻いたウサギのガランティーヌ、タイム風味。
4410yen lunch course with 2 appetizers, main dish and dessert. The bread is quite big size but it is just so good that I had THREE!!
Galantine with rabbit meat rolled in aubergine. This kind of meat appetizer is the chef’s specialty apparently. Very good!
カキ(厚岸産)とフォアグラのグラタン。
ホロホロ鳥と大山地鶏をミンチ状にして二層に。胡椒とポートワインのソース 。
Oyster and foie gras gratin. Absolutely delicious!!
Guinea fowl and chicken are minced and made into two layers. Sauce is pepper and port wine. As my friend put it: a high-class chicken hamburger(^^;;). Very good though. Sauce is rich and delicious. Great with wine.
クレームブリュレ。
Creme brulee with banana crepe and chocolate slice(nice chocolate smell, probably freshly made?) and ice-cream.
And one petit four plate for each person!
Coffee refill OK. And a small glass of vinegar at the end to clear your taste. Finger cakes for everyone to take home too.
Service can be a bit robotic with no smiles. But the food is great and the value is good(drinks are reasonable too). Definitely want to go back!
Cool menu plates: left half, right half. A bit difficult to read though.
L’Embellir
Marron glace ice-cream, 1890ye. Plus 10% service charge…so expensive and totally not worth it. Just watery vanilla ice-cream with like 2 micro pieces of marron glace.
DEL REY
I never thought this elevator was the main entrance and circled around the block…but this was it. ^^;;; Very lovely open terrace. Too bad it was too cold to sit outside.
The little tidbits have interesting spicy taste. Bread is from Maison Kayser.
カボチャのニョッキ パルメザンのチュイル。
ウズラの卵とトピナンプールのヴルーテ。
Amuse-bouche alone consists of 5 dishes!
Pumpkin gnocchi and parmesan feuille(I guess “feuille” is the same as mille-feuille but just one layer?).
Quail egg and topinambours(Jerusalem artichokes) in Velouté sauce.
ポロ葱とムール貝のスープ。
牛肉とカリフラワーのジュレ コリアンダー・ホウレン草 アーモンドを添えて。
Poireau leek and blue mussel soup.
Beef and cauliflower jelly, coriander and spinach, with almond.
平スズキのマリネ スモークサーモンのペースト。
Hirasuzuki(a kind of sea bass) in marinade, with smoked salmon paste.
ノイリー酒の香るフォアグラのガトー仕立て モヤシとズッキーニのクロッカン緑のソースにキノアを浮かべて。
地キンメのパヴェ 焦がしバター風味 フヌイユのママレード＜ピエロ＞サフランの香り。
Foie gras gateau(a slice of smoked duck on top), beansprout and zucchini(chopped into small bits) and quinoa in green sauce. On top is “Crystal leave”, which is some fancy laboratory invention and has a natural crispy texture and a shiny surface caused by the salt intrinsic to the leaf….quite delicious but felt like eating an experiment. ^^;;
Kinmedai(Alfonsino) “Pavé”, with burnt butter, marmelade of fenouil(fennel) in saffron sauce.
Dessert alone has 4 courses…
Raspberry soup with forgot-what ice-cream.
The cube thing is pistachio and forgot-what ice-cream.
Pear soup with forgot-what ice-cream(should have jot down some memo). The spaghetti thing is fried custard cream apparently.
Underneath the chocolate disc is chocolate paste and hazelnut and other things. The server poured hot chocolate sauce into the hole before we ate.
A 3-hour parade of dozens of dishes of food in bite size, all in trendy and stylish presentation. Each dish, no matter how small, is so complicated, that we spent a lot of time listening intently to the server’s long explanation and cross-checking with the menu that everyone got at hand. I think I am not the one who went from mildly dazed to half-confused to utterly exhausted. ^^;; The food are all fancy but I have to say taste-wise they leave very little impression. Seriously I simply didn’t know what I was eating at some point…very interesting experience though!
We had the 7000yen lunch course, which is quite cheap considering how many plates and bowls they will have to wash afterwards, but the drinks are quite expensive so better watch out.
PIERRE GAGNAIRE à Tokyo
サラダとモツの明太子和え。
Salad. Motsu and mentaiko.
馬刺し盛り合わせ（赤身、霜降り、炙り） 。もつ鍋(味噌味)。
Assorted horse meat(sashimi and broiled). Motsu-nabe(miso based).
チャンポン。
Chanpon is added to the leftover soup.
Delicious motsu-nabe. A lot of seasoning stuff on the table(garlic, miso, chilli, wasabi…) for you to add yourself.
山笠