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

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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.
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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.
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Warm appetizer 1: Foie gras and fig tart in Marsala sauce.
Warm appetizer 2: Abalone saute.
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Ayu pasta. Ikasumi(squid ink) pasta.
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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.
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Chocolate. Passion fruit.
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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)

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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.
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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.
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Second amuse(?). White asparagus sorbet, uni and consomme jelly.
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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.
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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.
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0804260074Chocolate 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

La Porta Felice

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060118 010カキとほうれん草のガーリックソーススパゲッティ+トマトソースで煮込んだソーセージのラグーソーススバゲッティ、1260円。
Oyster and spinach garlic sauce + sausage in tomato ragu sauce. Comes with salad, bread and coffee. Just your regular pasta lunch.
La Porta Felice

石ばし(Ishibashi)

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060116 013うな重(上)、2800円。香物・肝吸い付き。
Unaju – eel on rice in a box. Comes with veggy pickles and kimosui(a clear soup made from eel livers). My gosh the unagi is so nice! Very soft and fatty. The sauce is light and elegant in taste. Unagi is usually preferred to eat in summer because it is nutritious hence provides strength to beat “summer weariness”, but as the lady staff was telling other customers, Unagi is the most delicious in winter because it has the most fat. This place is very famous – established in 1908. I sat in a small room next to the genkan, but I think there is zashiki(tatami-floored room) inside. Whether you have reserved or not, they will only start preparing the unagi after you sit down, so even at lunch time, prepare for a 40~50 mins wait. I wasn’t prepared and almost fainted from hunger, no kidding. But it is really worth it!
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Southern Kitchen BORA BORA

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タケノコとひじきのレモングラス炒め、豚野菜のブラックペパー炒め、レッドカレーのランチ、995円。Curry, fried pork and veggy with black pepper, fried bamboo shoot and hijiki(that black seaweed thing) with lemon grass. Hmm, tasted so-so, just a quick lunch.