pig out diary

New York Grill (Park Hyatt Tokyo)

seat — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:45:22 +0000

Came back for the holiday lunch buffet(see tag for the last visit). Appetizers are great as ever.

オーストラリア産牛リブアイのグリル　根セロリのレムラード　牛テールのソース。
岩手産豚ロースのグリル　クラッシュポテトとキャベツ　マスタードソース。
Main courses are chosen from the menu and are served when you are done with appetizers. I had the Grilled Australian Rib eye beef in ox-tail sauce, with celery root in remoulade sauce on the side. My friend had Grilled pork loin, mashed potato and cabbage in mustard sauce. While the main dishes aren’t as good as the appetizers, they are fairly decent.

Desserts from the buffet. A glass of champagne is also included.
New York Grill

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテラ・バリックトウキョウ)

seat — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:01:32 +0000

Lunch was too good(see tag) so we decided to come back for dinner. This time we let the restaurant decide the menu and the wine for us with a budget of 20,000yen per person. Money well spent! The quality surpassed all our expectations. First amuse is the same as last time. The second is a cold amuse with prawn, saltwort(veggy underneath) and ricotta cheese.

We were a group of 8 and I am not sure if it was difficult for the kitchen to have everyone served the same thing at the same time, or maybe they just wanted to let us try more things, each course came in two varieties and we just shared in pairs.
Cold appetizer 1: Tomato soup. There is mozzarella cheese, tomato sorbet, tomato jelly, crab meat and dried tomato in it.
Cold appetizer 2: Hon-maguro(tuna) tataki salad.

Warm appetizer 1: Foie gras and fig tart in Marsala sauce.
Warm appetizer 2: Abalone saute.

Ayu pasta. Ikasumi(squid ink) pasta.

Main 1: Baby goat from Hokkaido.
Main 2: Igor pork. Not sure about the name. Similar to Iberico pork apparently but I haven’t had Iberico pork tasting this good.

Chocolate. Passion fruit.

The Italian wine chosen by the sommelier was amazing, especially the white wine in the picture. We had sparkling wine, white wine, red wine(two different kinds of red? Too drunk by the end to remember….). This time we sat in the main dining room with very romantic Japanese-style decor. A truly wonderful experience! My crappy writing can’t possibly convey how great this restaurant is!

btw, I thought it would be hard for my friends who were visiting this place for the first time to locate the entrance in the dark but the tiny sign was lit at night so it was in fact easier to spot.

More pics from my friend’s review here(J).

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテラ・バリックトウキョウ)
Add: 2-12-2 Suido, Bunkyo-ku
Tel: 03-3943-4928

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテラ・バリックトウキョウ)

seat — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:14:15 +0000

Lunch at this hidden and a bit out-of-the-way Italian restaurant. It is very near to Edogawabashi station and the exact location is not that difficult to find, but even you are right in front of it, you will stil hesitate if it is the right place cos the front just looks like somebody’s house and the tiny sign is impossible to spot. In fact, the building used to be the owner’s house.

This is the waiting room. We booked the private room on the second floor(used to be the study room) but the main dining room is beautifully decorated with Japanese-style screens made from paper and wood. We had the 4500yen lunch course(plus service charge 10%).
Amuse is warm mini bread with pickled cabbage and ham.

Second amuse(?). White asparagus sorbet, uni and consomme jelly.

ミントの香るトリッパのトマト煮　グラタン仕立て。
Trippa in tomato stew, gratin style. Baroro.

ホワイトアスパラガスと燻製した生ハムのスパゲッティ。
馬ヒレ肉のロースト　バローロソース。
White asparagus and smoked ham spaghetti.
Roasted horse meat in Barolo sauce. The yellow cubes on the side is polenta.

Chocolate creme brulee. Grappa.

Every single course was absolutely delicious. You just can’t imagine from the rather boring looks that the taste can be so good. The pasta looks like an ordinary carbonara, and the trippa looks like what you can get in bistro or even yoshoku places, but once you put them in your mouth, you are in for a surprise - they are nothing short of impressive. The horse meat is highly recommended by my friend who is a regular customer of this restaurant - unbelievably tender meat with very delicious sauce made from Barolo wine. To go with the meat, I also had a glass of Barolo which is amazing - completely wiped out my not-so-pleasant image of Italian wine. Apparently it is supposed to be really luxurious wine…of course I had never heard of it until that day. ^^;;; I don’t recall having an Italian meal that is so refined(not that I have been to that many Italian restaurants!). I had sparkling wine, red wine, grappa(included in lunch), and also coffee at the end - about 8000yen in total.

Lunch menu here.
More pics from my friend’s review here(J).

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテラ・バリックトウキョウ)
Add: 2-12-2 Suido, Bunkyo-ku
Tel: 03-3943-4928

神田ルー・ド・メール (Loup-de-mer)

seat — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:11:58 +0000

The chef of this curry/yoshoku restaurant used to work in Brasserie domPierre in Kyobashi which I used to visit often for its delicious European-style curry and omurice. This branch in Kanda is much more casual and cheaper in price.

ドライカレー・オムレツのせ＋スープ、￥１０００。
Dry curry with omelette. Soup comes with lunch set.

北海道産黒毛和牛カレー、￥１１００。特選ビーフカレー、￥１６００。
Hokkaido black-haired wagyu curry on the left. Special beef curry on the right. The “special” version is 500yen more expensive but the quality of the beef is much better.

メンチカツ・カレー、￥１５００。
Not your usual Menchikatsu but more like fried hamburger with melted cheese in the middle. Very good!!

チキンカレー＋サラダ、￥１０００。
Beef tendon terrine salad that comes with lunch set. Chicken curry.

ハンバーグ・カレー、￥１５００。ハヤシ・ライス、￥１６００。
Hamburger curry. Patty is solid, made of mainly meat.
Hayashi rice. The beef in it is very soft.

ポークカレーセット、￥１０００。
Pork curry.

チキン・オムライス、￥２０００。オム・ハヤシ、￥２５００。
Chicken omurice.
Omu-Hayashi. Fried rice with chicken and tomato sauce underneath the omelette. The sauce is the same as Hayashi rice.

ビーフ・オムライス、￥３０００。
Beef Omurice. This dish costs a whopping 3000yen so I was seriously hesitating whether to try it or not…but I am glad I did. It is very good! The rice is fried with soy sauce with generous chunks of juicy beef in it. Chicken omurice and Omu-Hayashi both cost 2000yen and more and although they are nice, they are nothing too special. To splurge on one dish, definitely go for the Beef Omurice.

I have only been to this place for lunch and I notice that the quality on weekdays is better than on weekends…the main chef is only present at lunch time during weekdays but not on weekends(though a younger chef is always there). I am sure that is not the case for dinner. Also, as can be told from the pictures that they give you a lot of sauce but not that much rice. I ordered “extra rice” once for 200yen but I usually just leave the extra sauce.

Menu(J): 1, 2, 3.

神田ルー・ド・メール (Loup-de-mer)
Add: 2-14-3, Uchi-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku
Tel: 03-5298-4390

Aroma-Fresca (アロマフレスカ )

seat — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:16:17 +0000

最初の一皿。空豆のスフレ風オムレツ　アロマフレスカ風。
From the 14,500yen dinner course.
Amuse is anago with a super-thin slice of potato chip on top.
Soramame(broad bean) souffle-style omelette. Fluffy omelette stuffed with lots of soramame. The sauce is a bit carbonara-ish. Very nice!

蛍烏賊のグラタン仕立て。冷たいスープを少し。
Hotaru-ika(tiny squid) in gratin style. There are white asparagus and karasumi(squid ink) risotto at the bottom.
Cold uni soup.

赤座海老のリゾット。春キャベツとイベリコ豚のキタッラ。
Akaza-ebi(langoustine) risotto. Delicious!
Chitarra with spring cabbage and Iberico pork. A bit yakisoba-ish(^^;;) but nice.

平鱸の”アルサーレ”春の香り。
Hirasuzuki(a kind of seabass) “Al Sale”(encrusted in salt). Comes with grilled white asparagus and sansai(mountain vegetables) tempura. The soup has strong butter taste. I love this dish!

柑橘のシャーベット。
Citrus sorbet is so sour that my friend actually choked on it. ^^;;

フォルマッジョを詰めた仔牛のコトレッタ。野菜(赤茄子)のココット。
Cotoletta with formaggio cheese stuffed inside. Takenoko(bamboo shoot) on the side is very sweet. Aka-nasu(a kind of aubergine） in a Cocotte that also comes with the main dish is unbelievably juicy and full of flavours…actually it left a deeper impression than the main dish itself(which is by no means bad, just a bit predictable).

Dessert is “eat as much as you like”(^^;;). There were altogether 5 choices and we ordered one of each to share(we were a group of 4). We liked the strawberry soup with cotton candy the most so we asked for one more of that too….

Can’t remember the exact names of the desserts…left pic is cheese pudding, right is chocolate mousse.

Mango pudding. Also petit fours and a selection of coffee and tea to choose from.

The food is of course good, and even though I am no wine expert, I must mention that this is one of the few Italian restaurants offering wine in glasses that I actually think is delicious and end up drinking more than I should.

Seriously I believe this restaurant(and its sister restaurant Casa Vinitalia) casts a “forget-the-time” spell on customers…The first time I visited, I missed the last train and had to crash at my friend’s place at the end. The second time I forgot the time again and had to dash to Azabu-Juban station with a full stomach and a blurry head in 5 mins(takes more than 10 mins to walk normally) to make the last train. And this time I specifically warned my friends beforehand: “Let’s watch the time and get our butt out of the restaurant before the last train.” I could NOT believe it when my friend took a look at her watch and announced that it was already midnight. I missed the last train again!!! Four hours, in a blink! Evil restaurants trying to hypnotize their customers with enchanting ambience should be banned. How nasty of them to offer free second helpings of desserts too. I ended up taking a taxi home…
Menu: 1, 2.

Aroma Fresca (アロマフレスカ)
Add: 1-7-31, Minami-azabu, Minato-ku
Tel: 03-5439-4010

Restaurant Hiramatsu Hiroo (レストランひらまつ広尾)

seat — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:57:50 +0000

Taraba crab meat and avocado with ham-flavour jelly.

春野菜と小イカ、ルージェのサラダ仕立てオリーヴのピューレとハーブのドレッシング。
仔羊のロースト　タイム風味グリュイエールチーズとジャガイモのガレット添え。
Salade de légumes printaniers au calamar et au rouget sautés, puree d’olives aux herbes.
Carré d’agneau rôti au thym, galette de pommes de terre au Gruyère.
Warm salad of spring vegetables, squid, rouget(grilled fish, only two tiny pieces though).
The lamb was soft but the expected nice smell of roasted meat wasn’t present for some reason. Polenta with orange sauce on top was nice though.

The staff brought the cheese wagon after the main dish and since we were not full and still had some wine left so we ordered some.

オレンジのムースグラッセ　ミルフィーユ仕立てチョコレートのサヴァランと共に。
“Mille-feuille” de mousse a l’orange glacée, savarin au chocolat.

Lunch was 6300yen(a cheaper 4200yen lunch was also available but the menu didn’t appeal to us) plus 15% service charge. Had a glass of wine, and cheese, came up to about 11,000yen. Food is okay….a bit bland-tasting overall, and the portion is small. Petit fours looked great but tasted disappointing. Very nice environment though, with window seats overlooking a park.

Restaurant Hiramatsu Hiroo (レストランひらまつ広尾)
Add: 5-15-13 Minami Azabu, Minato-ku
Tel: 03-3444-3967

おの寺 (Onodera)

seat — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:00:38 +0000

太刀魚と春玉葱、スプラウトのサラダ仕立て。
Tachiuo(scabbard fish), onion and sprout salad.

活〆花おこぜ（花虎魚）、穴子のお造り。
鰯つみれ椀　九条葱、茗荷。
Hana-okoze and anago sashimi.
Iwashi(sardine) tsumire with spring onion and myoga.

焼筍。いとより、筍、天豆の海老あんかけ。
Grilled takenoko(bamboo shoot). It is seasoned with dashi.
Itoyori, bamboo shoot, soramame(broad bean) and prawn in ankake(starchy sauce).

天然たらの芽フライ。あさりと筍、生のりの茶碗蒸し。
Fried taranome(buds of Aralia). Has a slightly bitter taste but very delicious.
Asari(clam) and bamboo shoot and fresh seaweed chawanmushi.

筍とわらびの炊き込みご飯、味噌汁。
Takikomi gohan with bamboo shoot and warabi. Very delicious!

There is only one dinner course which is 6800yen. Menu(J) here.

Very good washoku place on the 4th floor of an uncharacteristic building at Kagurazaka. Small restaurant with only one semi-private zashiki, and about 6 counter seats. The chef is still quite young I think. Even though he was so busy cooking everything by himself, he still managed to throw a joke or two at us - funny guy! The food is nice and the atmosphere is casual and relaxing.

おの寺 (Onodera)
Add: 4F, 2-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku
Tel: 03-3260-2066

I got to Kagurazaka a bit early and had a nice ice-cream at Gelateria Theobroma. 630yen for two flavours. I had Marron and bitter chocolate. The price is for take-out. There are a few chairs and a small table next to the door where you can sit and eat the take-out ice-cream, but if you want to sit inside at the cafe space, you need to pay 100yen more.

Bon Chemin (ボンシュマン)

seat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:58:12 +0000

Delicious and hot homemade bread which kept coming. Must have had about four…
Chilled carrot potage.

Panfried fresh foie gras and foie gras terrine. A slice of toast at the bottom and homemade fig jam on the side. The terrine is soooooo good, even better than the fresh foie gras.
Baby lamb in Anchovy cream sauce. The lamb is very tender and soft. Surprisingly huge portion for a cute restaurant like this. Moussaka(lamb and aubergine) on the side is also good.

My friend’s pork cassoulet.
Matcha rollcake with black beans in black honey cream sauce. Just a piece of rollcake for dessert was a bit disappointing at first but it was very smooth and delicious so I was satisfied at the end.

Lunch course is 3000yen but the foie gras appetizer has a 1500yen additional charge. Glass wine is about 800yen. Cheaper 1800yen lunch course is also available. I like the food, the interior which makes you feel very at home and the friendly service here.

It is located halfway between Gakugeidaigaku(学芸大学) and Yuutenji(祐天寺). There is a very cute cake shop called Patisserie SOURIRE in the same block and is a must check.

Bon Chemin
Add: 2-40-5 Gohongi, Meguro-ku
Tel: 03-3791-3900

The Seven’s House (セブンスハウス)

seat — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:25:35 +0000

An Irish pub inside Gakushi Kaikan(学士会館) which serves yoshoku at lunch time.

牛フィレ丼、￥１４００。しらす明太子丼、￥１２００。
Beef fillet rice bowl. Very good! The braised beef is lean and non-greasy yet very soft. The sauce(probably the juice from the beef?) is tasty to eat with the rice. Comes with pickles, and very nice clam miso soup and coffee.
Boiled shirasu and mentaiko rice bowl. Eaten with ponzu and raw egg. Simple but good.

カキフライ、￥１２００。カレーライス、￥１０００。
Fried oyster - seasonal menu.
Curry rice - the old fashioned Japanese kind which is thick, sweet(from melted vegetables) and not a bit spicy.

ハンバーグランチ、￥１２００。的鯛のムニエル、￥１２００。
Hamburger is just okay. Meuniere of Matoudai. The fish is a bit dry and salty, and soaked in too much butter.

ハヤシライス、￥１０００。
Both are Hayashi rice. For some reason the weekday version(left) has more ingredients than the holiday version(right)…

海老フライと昔コロッケ、￥１２００。パスタランチ、￥１１００。
Fried prawn and potato croquette lunch is very good! Quite huge portion too. Pasta lunch is just ordinary tomato sauce with clams.

Very busy with salarymen and OLs during lunch hours. Drink is included in the price. The service is good and I like the comfortable window seats a lot, except for the one time I sat next to a chain-smoker…
Lunch menu(J) here.

The Seven’s House
Add: 3-28 Nishiki-cho, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku
Tel: 03-3292-0881

Restaurant Latin (レストランラタン)

seat — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:45:44 +0000

A French restaurant inside Gakushi Kaikan(学士会館).

サーモンマリネサラダ。仔羊の煮込み。
First lunch visit. Appetizer: Salmon marinade salad. Main: Simmered lamb.

With dessert and coffee, 1500yen.

サーモン腹身の燻製サラダ　バルサミコ風味。仔羊の香草パン粉焼き。
Second lunch visit. Appetizer: Smoked salmon salad with Balsamic sauce. The salmon belly is hot and very fatty. Main: Grilled Baby lamb chop(very tender) with herb and breadcrumbs. Unfortunately both dishes are a bit too salty.

By coincidence the lunch menu was salmon and lamb for both times(one whole year apart) I visited this old-fashioned style French restaurant. Customers were mostly old ladies and old gentlemen. Service is formal and extremely attentive.
Lunch menu(J) here.

Restaurant Latin
Add: 3-28 Nishiki-cho, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku
Tel: 03-3292-0881

pig out diary

New York Grill (Park Hyatt Tokyo)

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテ ラ・バリック トウキョウ)

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテ ラ・バリック トウキョウ)

神田ルー・ド・メール (Loup-de-mer)

Aroma-Fresca (アロマフレスカ )

Restaurant Hiramatsu Hiroo (レストランひらまつ広尾)

おの寺 (Onodera)

Bon Chemin (ボンシュマン)

The Seven’s House (セブンスハウス)

Restaurant Latin (レストラン ラタン)

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテラ・バリックトウキョウ)

Ristorante La Barrique Tokyo (リストランテラ・バリックトウキョウ)

Restaurant Latin (レストランラタン)