La Saetta（ラ・サエッタ）

Posted on January 16, 08 by seat

Have been here before(see tag), but didn’t get around to try their brown rice lunch and dessert.

玄米ランチプレート、￥１０００。沖縄産寿豚パラ肉と季節野菜のボッリートミスト、サルサヴェルデ添え（＋￥２００）。
Brown rice lunch plate: Okinawa pork belly and seasonal vegetables pot-au-feu with Salsa Verde. The pork is soft and very nice with the green sauce. Also came with Minestrone, curry-taste omelette and brown rice. Dessert is panna cotta made from milk, which is unfortunately a bit bland. Lunch includes a small cup of either coffee, Okinawa herb tea or Genmai-cha.

牛バラ肉のキノコたっぷりラグー、温泉卵添え、￥１０００。
Beef belly meat and mushroon Ragu sauce with hotspring egg.

自家製サルシャチャとケッパー、キノコの白いワインソース、￥１０００。
玄米ランチプレート：オーストリア産牛ホホ肉の白ワイン煮込みマッシュポテト添え、￥１０００。
Salsiccia, caper, mushroom, white wine sauce.
Cow cheek simmered in white wine with mashed potato. Again brown rice lunch comes with Minestrone.

築地直送エビと有機野菜のフリットタルタル添え、￥１０００。
カキとキノコ、豆のクリームソース、￥１０００。
Prawn and organic vegetables fritter with Tartare sauce. I asked for the Minestrone to come together with meal so that I can eat the brown rice with the soup, which is much nicer.
Oyster and mushroom, in cream sauce with beans.

築地直送魚介のトマトソース、￥１０００。
Seafood tomato sauce.

Very very nice lunch at an excellent price. The portion is big enough to fill me up and the quality is high. My favourites are Okinawa pork belly and prawn fritter; though everything is good. Too bad they only do lunch during Tue-Fri. This place is a bit hard to find but well worth the effort if you are in the area. Walkable distance from Okachimachi/Ueno.
Menu(J): 1, 2.

自家製サルシャチャ有機野菜のペンネトマトソース、１０００円。
A really old visit. Penne with Salsiccia and organic vegetables in tomato sauce. Very good! Salsiccia is Italian sausage I think. The waitor said it is the pork meat before it is made into sausages. The vegetables are very fresh, just cooked so very crunchy. The tomato sauce is sweet. Portion is just right. Definitely going back to try their brown rice lunch sets. The location is so hidden in the confusing little streets that it took me a long time to find though~

La Saetta
Add: 1-3-5 Ueno, Taito-ku
Tel: 03-3832-1311

鳥つね自然洞 (Toritsune Shizendou)

Posted on January 10, 08 by seat

特上親子丼、￥１６００。
Tokujo Oyakodon, 1600yen. Tokujo is the highest rank in the menu.
More than anything, I love the egg! Very rich taste and smooth and still runny and just perfect with the super delicious rice. The chicken meat is still pink when served and I am sure it is fresh and everything but, hard, fatless chicken is just not my thing.

上タタキ親子丼、￥１３００。
特上もつ入り親子丼、￥１９００。
Jo-tataki Oyakodon, 1300yen. The staff warned me that the chicken meat is minced, but the combination of half-cooked egg and rice and minced chicken is so heavenly.
Tokujo Oyakodon with Motsu(chicken giblets), 1900yen. Motsu seems to be very popular and runs out really quickly. It is nice but that is a lot of motsu with one bowl of rice – even though I can eat it, I can’t eat a lot.

親子丼セット、￥２１００。
Oyakodon set. The simple oyakodon is the lowest rank in the menu, but…I actually like the chicken meat better than the highest rank one! It is soft! Hoever my impression is that the egg, and even the rice are not as delicious as the Tokujo. The set is 2100yen and includes a chicken salad and two Tori-shinjo(deep-fried minced chicken). Since lowest rank Oyakodon is only 1000yen, the salad and the shinjo alone cost 1100yen!

上親子丼、￥１３００。かつ丼、￥１１００。
Jo-oyakon. Chicken is pink and soft and juicy! Like it!
Katsu-don. Fried chicken with egg.

In sum, I think for the egg and the rice, I like Tokujo the most, but for chicken meat, I prefer the middle rank Jo-oyakon and below. Jo-tataki is also a favourite. This place is very famous but there is no queue at lunchtime on weekdays.
Menu(J) here.
鳥つね自然洞 (Toritsune Shizendou)
Add: 5-5-2, Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku (Not far from Akihabara)
Tel: 03-5818-3566

よし房凛 (Yoshibourin)

Posted on December 29, 07 by seat

田舎蕎麦、￥７５０。小天丼、￥５００。
Inaka(country) soba and small tendon(tempura on rice).

辛味大根あげ餅そば、￥９５０。小天丼、￥５００。
きざみそば（焼き油揚げと薬味合わせ）、￥９５０。
Radish and fried mochi soba, and a small tendon.
Kizami soba: Aburaage and seaweed etc.

ごぼう天そば、￥１０００。磯天おろしそば、￥１３００。
Burdock root(gobo) tempura soba.
Isoten oroshi soba.

鴨南蛮、￥１６００。かき揚せいろ、￥１４００。
Kamo-nanban: duck soba.
Kakiage(mixed tempura fritter) seiro.

天せいろ、￥１６００。地蔵そば、￥９５０。
Seiro soba with tempura.
Jizou soba: Aburaage and ankake(thick starchy sauce with soy sauce taste).

梅そば、￥１０５０。
Ume(sour plum) soba.

山かけ、￥９５０。
Yamakake: Grated yam with quail egg.

そばがき、￥１０５０。
Sobagaki- kneaded buckwheat dough, served hot with soy sauce.

A soba place that I am totally addicted to. Everything is so delicious. Not only the soba noodles that is fantasic, but also the tempura, the duck, and many other toppings. For a soba place, the price is very reasonable considering the portion and the quality. Getting a small tendon(500yen) will make even a big eater like me leave with a happily stuffed belly. I tried almost everything in the lunch menu and all are so great that I don’t mind going back for another round of the menu again, especially because you can choose either hot noodles with soup, or cold ones without soup, and I want to try both!
Lunch menu(J): 1, 2.

蕎麦味噌の春巻き。越前おろし蕎麦。
Some old visits from here. Soba spring roll with miso and shiso, very good! Echizen soba: radish, spring onion and dried bonito. It is not bad but I think there is too much radish…at the end I could just taste the radish. Shouldn’t have mixed them all even though the lady staff told me to.

せいろ、７５０円。小天丼、５００円。 Mini tempura rice bowl is very good!! So good!! Mainly vegetables, also prawns, all freshly fried and light. And after devouring the rice bowl, so happy that there was still the yummy seiro soba waiting, which was sweet in a natural buckwheaty way. Even the small pickle dish and the soba-yu(the hot water used in boiling the soba, usually they give you a pot and you pour it into the leftover soy sauce which you dipped the soba with, and drink it like a soup.) were good.

田舎蕎麦、７５０円。
Inaka soba.

よし房凛(Yoshibourin)
Add: 2-36-1, Nezu, Bunkyo-ku
Tel: 03-3823-8454

美味一服めぐり (Meguri)

Posted on December 10, 07 by seat

ばあばのヘルシーランチ、￥１０００。
Organic cafe serving very good Japanese set meals. It is on the second floor of a big kimono store. Many madams in kimono during lunch time! Healthy lunch set is 1000yen. You can choose plain rice, brown rice or takikomi-gohan which is rice cooked with mushroom, vegetables etc. This place is not vegetarian as they serve fish, such as maguro(tuna), though it is in healthy amount.

ばあばのヘルシー小漬け丼ランチ、￥１３００。
黒ごまプリン、￥６５０。
Lunch set including a small maguro rice bowl, 1300yen. Sesame seed pudding, 650yen.

The veggy dishes change everyday. I usually have brown rice but this day I had rice with Japanese chestnuts. If you order the set meal, you can order a small dessert for 300yen. I had the softcream with blueberry sauce. The softcream here has won some reward apparently. It is nice but I am not sure why it is so special….

京うどんセット、￥１０００。マロンソフト、￥８００。
Kyoto udon set with one veggy side dish, 1000yen. Udon on its own is 700yen.
Marron soft, 800yen. Expensive but quite nice with whole marron on top, marron bits here and there, and marron cream at the bottom.

薬膳スープ粥セット、￥１３００。
Rice porridge with many grains and chinese medicine ingredients, plus a salad, 1300yen.

白玉ぜんざいソフト、￥８５０。
Usual lunch set. “Shiratama Zenzai Soft”(850yen) is just okay though.

冷たいごまだれうどんセット、￥１０００。
Cold udon with sesame sauce, 1000yen.

Cheese cake, 650yen. Tastes normal, and still a bit frozen.

お茶漬け、￥７００。抹茶ア・フォガード、￥８００。
Ochatsuke, 700yen. For the standard lunch set, you can ask for second helping of the rice, but that is not available for ochatsuke. I didn’t know that and I ate one bowl of rice with half of the toppings and saved half for the next bowl. Ended up having to order another bowl of rice, which is, well, 200yen only.
Softcream with freshly made matcha, 800yen. This is nice.

The standard healthy lunch set is the best, both in quality and value. Soup udon is nice too. For desserts, all the softcream parfaits and the sesame seed pudding are good. Though I think the price of dessert is too high….I still order it everytime though….

Menu(J): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

美味一服めぐり (Meguri)
Add: 2F Ueno 1-20-11, Taito-ku
Tel: 03-3834-5154

Il Sale (イルサーレ)

Posted on December 8, 07 by seat

ミンチにした魚介のスパゲッティ。
1300yen lunch course includes appetizer, garlic bread, pasta, dessert and coffee. For the pasta, there are usually 4 choices: 1 garlic and olive oil sauce, 2 tomato sauce and 1 cream sauce. I had the minced seafood spaghetti in garlic and olive oil. It is very nice! The spaghetti is perfectly cooked with the right al dente. Dessert is tea mousse which is good too.

三色ピーマンのトマトソーススパゲッティ。
Back for the 1000yen pasta lunch, which includes a simple salad instead of an appetizer. I had the Tri-colour bell pepper spaghetti in tomato sauce. Dessert is espresso mousse. Both are good.

Very popular local Italian restaurant serving cheap and high quality lunches. The atmosphere is lively and the staff are very efficient(albeit a little bit too attentive perhaps).

btw, Yanesen(Yanaka + Nezu + Sendagi) is a pretty cool area for a walk.

Menu(J): 1, 2.
Il Sale (Near Sendagi station)
Add: 3-36-11 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku.
Tel: 03-3821-8810

根津の谷 (Nezu no ya)

Posted on October 18, 07 by seat

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

Arossa Ginza (アロッサ銀座店)

Posted on July 9, 07 by seat

アロッサ式もりもりサラダ。玉ねぎとコーンのフリッタータ。
Salad. Onion and corn frittata.

地鶏と野菜の煮込み。フランボワーズのグラニテ。
Chicken and vegetables stew. Raspberry granite.

The salad is for two people but it is massive. The rest are included in the lunch course for one person and the lunch is only 1050yen!! Not just being cheap, everything is delicious, including the bread(refillable). The restaurant is on the 8th floor of a shopping building in the middle of Ginza. So many reviews(1,2,3,4) had been written about this amazingly good-valued lunch. The menu is fixed but it changes everyday and also available on weekends. Also there is a 2620yen lunch which is basically the same thing except the main dish is New Zealand roasted beef(btw this place is supposed to serve Australian/NZ cuisine).
Today’s lunch menu(J) here.
Arossa Ginza
Add: 8F Ginza Velvia-kan, 2-4-6 Ginza
Tel: 03-5524-1146

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