Tag Archives: couscous

The French Kitchen (フレンチ　キッチン)

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From the 5800yen(+10% service charge) lunch buffet.
Egg Benedict. A glass of champagne that is included.
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Appetizer. Omelette with your choice of ingredients.
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Second round of appetizer…
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Main dish is chosen from the menu at beginning and is served when you are done with the appetizers. Braised lamb shoulder, merguez sausage, couscous and harissa.
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Desserts. French toast.
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You can choose the fruits from the counter and they are cut nicely and delivered to your table.
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Refillable coffee or tea are also included.

Very good-value lunch buffet. I especially like the French toast, egg benedict(though not the usual fare with English muffins) and omelette. The restaurant is inside Grand Hyatt Tokyo in Roppongi Hills. Compared to New York Grill, I like all the hotel-breakfast menu here, but I think the appetizers and the desserts are better in NYG(the salad and appetizers are slightly on the oily side here). FK is cheaper though.
Menu here.

0908170068(Aug 17, 2009)
Went back on a weekday for the lunch buffet. It was much cheaper(Y3800) but there wasn’t as much variety of dishes as the weekend buffet – all the breakfast items(omelette/french toast) were not available. Also it didn’t come with champagne. I had the fish for the main this time, which was just okay.

CICADA (シカダ)

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モロッコ風クラブケーキ。 カラマリロースト、プロシュートと香草パン粉詰。
Spicy moroccan crab cakes. Roasted Calamari stuffed with prosciutto.
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ラムタジン。 魚介のタジン。
Lamb tagine with cous-cous. Seafood tagine with cous-cous.
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ピスタチオクレームブリュレ。 ヴァローナチョコレートケーキと生チョコレートジェラート。
Super-rich and warm Valrhona 70% cocoa chocolate cake with chocolate gelato. Pistachio crème brulee.

I read a review here and got curious about this place. It looked very foreigner-oriented, having a couple of sister restaurants offering American food like hamburger so I wasn’t so sure. But I was pleasantly surprised that the food was great! Supposed to be Mediterranean cuisine: Greek, Moroccan, Portuguese, Italian etc. 2800yen lunch course includes appetizer, main dish, dessert and coffee, with tax included and no service charge for lunch, even on weekends. All the stuff we ordered were delicious – every dish of them! The portion is huge. I have never seen a creme brulee that big in a Japanese restaurant, and it is not just big but delicious and rich with pistachio flavour. The waiter came to recommend us olive oil with the bread, and he didn’t say anything about additional charge for the olive oil, fortunately I had read the review…^^;; But apart from that the staff are very friendly. English-speaking staff available.
CICADA

Asterix (アステリックス)

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We had the 4725yen dinner course. The Bread is very good!
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鴨のフォワグラと蕪のキャラメリゼ パルサミコソース。
スープ・ド・ポワッソン ルイユ添え。
Foie gras saute with turnip Caramélisée in Balsamico sauce. This is quite good.
Fish soup with Rouille(a paste made from olive oil and breadcrumbs and hot chile peppers apparently), grated cheese and croutons. Too many slices of croutons! They absorbed most of the soup and were simply too stomach-filling. The little amount of soup left to drink was too salty.
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仔羊のロースの炭火焼き。
クスクスと仔羊のナヴァラン アリサ添え。
Charcoal-grilled lamb chop. The meat is soft, great charcoal smell.
Couscous and lamb. My friend’s choice is a good one. The ratatouille is sweet and very nice with the couscous. A big plate too. The two guys sitting next to us both ordered this dish so probably quite popular?
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バナナのラム酒風味フランベとバニラアイス 温かいチョコレートソース。
フランボワーズのキャラメル クレープ包み。
Banana Flambées with rum, vanilla ice-cream and hot chocolate sauce. This is nice. Love the cookie around it, which goes perfectly well with the banana and the rum sauce.
Framboise caramel crepe. The custard cream inside the crepe is too sweet already, plus the caramel and raspberry sauce….I could only eat one.
A lot of customers were foreigners, and there was English menu available, though not as complete as the Japanese one.
Menu: 1, 2, 3.
Asterix

L’assiette Blanche (ラシェット・ブランシュ＠白金高輪)

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鰯のマリネ、クスクスサラダ。
Bacon and cheese toast. Marinated sardine and couscous salad.
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060910 001.jpgブルターニュ産仔鴨胸肉のロースト アンディーブ添え 柑橘ソース。ココナッツのブランマンジェ、マンゴーソース。ランチコースは３５００円。メインはアラカルトメニューからチョイスして、＋１５００円。グラスワインは８００円。
Roasted duck breast with endive in citrus sauce. Coconut blanc manger in mango sauce. Every dish was very good! The cheapest 3500yen lunch had 3 choices for the main dish but they were all very standard and I had similar stuff many times before, so I picked the main dish from the a la carte menu, which was an extra 1500yen but the waitor said the portion would also be bigger – turned out it was the right choice cos the duck was so tender so soft so juicy and so big! Like my friend said, this place doesn’t have a creative menu to tickle your curiosity but instead the standard dishes are all very refined. The service was fantastic yet there was no service charge!
L’assiette Blanche

Aux Delices de Hongo (オ・デリス・ド・本郷)

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Back again! (see tag)
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カジキマグロ、いわしのマリネ、半熟玉子入りのサラダ。羊のクスクス。
Marlin and sardine salad. Lamb couscous. Both fantastic!
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ラムチョップ、メルゲーズ、羊の串焼き、ローストチキン。
プロフィトロール。
Lamb chop, merguez sausage, lamb skewer and roasted chicken. The lamb chop and sausage were so good! I got sooooooo full that I could only eat one piece from the skewer and couldn’t even touch the roasted chicken.
Profiterole with vanilla ice-cream and praline cream. Warm chocolate sauce on the side.
Aux Delices de Hongo

La Casquette(ラ・カスケット＠初台）

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Bread was served warm, with butter and pork rillette.
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My friend’s appetizer: White asparagus bavarois with broccoli sauce. Mine: Smoked duck and persimmon salad.
ホワイトアスパラのヴァバロワ、アヴルーガ添え、ブロッコリーのブルッテ。マグレ鴨の燻製と柿のサラダ仕立て。
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My main dish: Roasted quail stuffed with wild rice and mushroom pilaf. My friend’s: Lamb cous cous, La Casquette style.
ワイルドライスと茸のピラフを詰めたウズラのロースト、カレー風味。仔羊のクスクス　ラ・カスケット風。
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Strawberry milk La Casquette style. Some kind of huge grapefruit terrine and mango sorbet.
イチゴミルク、ラ・カスケット風。晩白柚のテリーヌとマンゴーのシャーベット。
060406 009.jpgHuge portion simple bistro food with full dinner course only about 4000yen and house wine ~700yen per glass. Very cheap! The quail was not bad, I have had better though not as cheap as this place. My friend’s cous cous and lamb chop came with an impossibly massive family-size bowl of vegetable soup with chunks of vegetables and more lamb and sausages inside, she couldn’t even finish one-third of it and I ended up helping her and stuffed with a bursting stomach. The waitor recommended “strawberry milk” to us for desserts and we were rather skeptical but ordered it anyway, turned out to be a slice of frozen strawberry with ice-cream underneath and the waitor poured hot milk onto it; quite a big pretentious fuss but it tasted good. ^^;; The atmosphere was not exactly that friendly….actually quite gloomy, but the waitor was certainly polite and helpful. Other tables’ food looked really good…don’t mind going back again and try other menu.
La Casquette