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

Posted on July 17, 08 by seat

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

shigotouma (仕事馬)

Posted on May 26, 07 by seat

Many visits to one of my favourite lunch spot! Specialised in horse meat but their lunch menu has a large variety.

新鮮桜肉のユッケ丼、コチュジャン風味のピリ辛スープ添え、￥９００。
Fresh (raw) horse meat rice bowl. Very nice with sesame oil seasoning and lots of Korean Namul. Comes with Korean spicy soup that you pour into the rice after you finish half of it.

窯焼き250gステーキ味噌ダレ丼、￥８５０。
Donburi with steak and miso. Many slices of beef which are soft but a bit tough to chew. Though the miso soup(100yen) is very good with lots of veggy in it.

馬肉ボロネーゼ、￥８５０。
Horse meat bolognese. Huge portion! The pasta is a bit soft but the sauce has a generous amount of meat. The Japanese-style minestrone(100yen) is good as ever. Also comes with a big salad(same as above), pumpkin pudding and coffee.

馬肉のレアハンバーグ和風香味ソース、￥８５０。中華スープ、￥１００。
Horse meat rare hamburger. Chinese soup. Both very good and healthy-tasting.

具たくさんハヤシライス、￥８５０。けんちん汁、￥１００。
Hayashi rice. Kenchin-jiru. Even a simple Hayashi rice tastes so good in this place~~

Chocolate pudding.

Fresh (raw) horse meat rice bowl with grated mountain yam.
Menu here.
shigotouma

桜なべ中江＠三ノ輪 (Sakura-nabe Nakae)

Posted on December 4, 06 by seat

Dinner party at a traditional Japanese restaurant more than 100 years old. Speciality is horse meat, also called “sakura meat” in Japan.

馬肉の佃煮。
Horse meat Tsukudani.

馬刺し：霜降りとロース。タルタルステーキ。
Two kinds of horse meat sashimi – more expensive shimofuri(meat marbled with fat), and loin meat. Somehow the cheaper loin meat is actually nicer. Both are sweet and tender.
Tartar steak – ground raw horse meat, with sesame oil, and a raw egg yolk. Very good. The sesame oil and the egg yolk combined to give the lean meat a smoother texture and a nice fragrance.

馬刺しにぎり寿司。馬肉串焼き。
Horse meat sushi is incredible, while the grilled horse meat skewer is no good – the meat is too hard.

桜鍋。ザク：ねぎ、しらたき、麩。
Sakura nabe: horse meat sukiyaki. Tender and juicy, no need to cook too long, dip into a bowl of raw egg before you eat. Also added to the nabe are leek, shirataki and fu. The warishita is miso and soy sauce and zarame sugar.

ステーキ。お新香。
Steak. Thick cut and tender. Homemade pickles are so good you can eat them alone.

Eggs are added to the leftover soup, and you are supposed to scoop the sweet full-of-meat-flavour egg and add onto the rice. It is so yummy!
Dessert is Matcha ice-cream.
中江