A culinary report on a few months in Tokyo
 

For posterity, all done in the name of science... ;)

EPICUREAN DELIGHTS IN TOKYO and KYOTO
During my stay in Tokyo I visited numerous restaurants and cafes. Here is my very subjective summary of the places I went to that in some way or other I found noteworthy. This may give you some ideas for when you visit Tokyo yourself. There are different categories: high-end, cheaper places, bars, other food places, and places to avoid.

Restaurants: high-end stuff (5,000 and up without drinks)
For fantastic French food go to Robuchon in Ebisu. There are two restaurants here, one cheaper (La Table) and one expensive. Dinner is a whopping 35,000 but lunch 7,500 and it is a very good value deal for the seven wonderful courses you get. Excellent service, presentation, and taste.

La Table's lunch is very good value at 2,800 but don't go for dinner. It's not worth the premium. While you're there visit their boutique and try the anchovies croissants....

For a wonderful kaiseki meal that is actually relatively affordable (from 12,000) try Daigo. It's in a temple annex, is vegetarian, and an unforgettable experience.

For a more upmarket kaiseki affair try Nadaman in the New Otani hotel. This is the summum of luxury and service. The food is incredible. This level of quality comes at a price: we paid 40,000 per person with limited alcohol. It was worth every yen.

People rave about sushi at the Okura hotel and I really enjoyed it too. Not sure if I would return though, considering the prices. Tsukiji's Sushidai was better and a third of the price.

Kogou Osendo is an amazing place - it is like a hidden bunker (no visible signs on the outside) off Aoyama dori. You descend down a flight of stairs with candles on either side into a huge underground chamber with a large pond and a bar. After your pre-dinner drinks you take the elevator up to an elegant, small dining room. The food is Italian and it ain't cheap. Very romantic place, though.

Wakiya is a Chinese/Japanese restaurant. Lunch starts from 4,000 and is an interesting affair. These people take pride in the food they serve and the mix of Chinese dishes presented in a slightly more Japanese way is interesting.
The New York Grill has some of the best views in town. We had the brunch menu (6,200) and were not impressed with the buffet appetisers. The main course (grilled beef) was absolutely amazing though. Perfect beef. The buffet desserts were good. If I were to go back here I would order off the main menu and choose meat dishes.

Kyoto
If you can afford it, spend a night at Hiiragiya, even if only for the food. The kaiseki meal served in the room was of the highest quality. The full Japanese breakfast was a true delight. If you consider that a meal at Nadaman will set you back 40,000 then 45,000 at Hiiragiya for two meals plus (wonderful) accommodation suddenly seems like very good value.

Hanbe Fu offers the best value deal in Japan as far as I know. 3,000 gets you an incredible assortment of dishes of the highest quality in beautiful, elegant surroundings, with great service. Very Kyoto, very delicious, top recommendation.

Giro Giro is a fun place. Small and funky, and afforable. Mostly younger customers. This place is hard to get a reservation for.

Restaurants: cheaper meals (under 5,000)

Girandolle is the name of the French restaurant in the Park Hyatt hotel. Dinner specials start from 4,000 for 3 courses and mains from as little as 2,500. Get at table at the window for awesome views. This is not the best French restaurant in town but I do rate it highly. The food is good, the service very good, and there is good live French (background) music. This is 4,000 well spent.

If you're on a quest to find the best izakaya meal in Tokyo, go to Morimoto in Shibuya and see what you think. It's 5 mins from the station. Go to Hachiko but don't cross the street - walk past the dog around the corner of the station and cross the road there. Keep to the right of the mall and ask. It's on a corner. My Japanese dinner partner was convinced they had the best tskune she'd ever had.

On the top floor of the Ebisu Garden Tower there is an okonomiyaki restaurant. It's affordable (from 700) and has good views.

Also in Ebisu there is a restaurant called l'espace in the French Insitute - 2,000 will get you a small menu of fine French food.

Hanezawa Garden has a sushi restaurant with excellent menus starting from 2,500. Great value. The Italian restaurant there is affordable too (mains around 2,000). The ambience in this place is unbeatable.

Bars
I really dig the bar in the Park Hyatt hotel on the 40th floor. The views are unbeatable (360 degrees) as is the service and the atmosphere. Price are certainly not atmospheric, more stratospheric. Coffees are about 1,500 when you include taxes - the most expensive I have found so far. They do give you some nice chocolate thingies or very nice Japanese cracker snacks with alcoholic drinks. Tip: if you're with someone else you get both if you order both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks ;-) They also serve small food stuffs but I haven't tried these yet. Afternoon tea looked really nice and is pretty good value (comparatively speaking) at 3,000.

There is also a cafe on the 52nd floor next to the New York Grill. This is where a famous scene from Lost in Translation was shot. There is a 2,000 cover charge for the live jazz (pretty good) which kicks in from 20:00. If you come in earlier you will have to pay if you stay after 8.

Rouge Bar in Robuchon's 'castle' in Ebisu is a hyper-cool and tiny red (what else) bar. Great service in this place overall. You will be escorted from the front door of the restaurant up the stairs to the bar. Okay coffees (900), no nibbles offered. Good Singapore Sling.

In summertime the terrace outside the restaurant becomes the 'champagne garden'. 2,000 gets you a glass of Pommery or Gosset with a small plate of tasty hors d'oeuvres and the usual impeccable and friendly service.

Hanezawa garden has the most amazing bar in town in an early 20th Century private house. The gardens are a delight. Service is spotty though.

The Westin hotel has a good lobby bar with nice cigars and a bar on the top floor with jazz (but too slick to my taste), with a 1,300 cover charge pp.
Xex in Daikanyama is mega cool - you can sit outside around the Thai style ponds on the top of this building and listen to the jazz coming from inside. Do not order snacks here (overpriced, small portions, poor quality). There is a 1,000 pp cover charge.

Soho in Omotesando/Harajuku is a cool bar with some decent views. They also serve affordable Italian food.

Maduro is the name of the bar in the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi Hills. Great bar, lovely music and no cover charge if you sit at the bar.
Other food-related tips

All upscale department stores have great food sections but Takashimaya at Futako Tamagawa seems to top it all for quality and quantity.

In Ebisu there is a very nice deli called party and wine. Don't be put off by the name of this place inside the Mitsukoshi mall.

Places to avoid
Tokyo has great food and the quality is very high overall. I did have a small number of disappointments. One of them was Amalfi, a supposedly Italian restaurant in the mall opposite Tokyo station (Marunouchi Oaze). It's on the third floor, had run out of Italian liqueurs, had poor bread, very average service, plonked our main courses on the table when we hadn't finished entrees, then kept us waiting for our desserts. All very average food and at 4,000 simply way overpriced.

Nobu I only visited for lunch and I was not impressed. The place is decidedly ugly so do not take your date there. The food was alright but not outstanding and the prices are high.

That's it. More to come next time :)

Could you do a quick currency translation?

Thanks for a wonderful overview. You've given me some ideas for the next time I return to Japan!! Domo Arigato gozaimasu!!

From Oanda.com FXCheatSheet

Japanese Yen / US Dollar
100 = 0.88
200 = 1.77
300 = 2.65
400 = 3.54
500 = 4.42
600 = 5.30
700 = 6.19
800 = 7.07
900 = 7.96
1000 = 8.84
2000 = 17.68
3000 = 26.52
4000 = 35.36
5000 = 44.20
6000 = 53.04
7000 = 61.88
9000 = 79.56
10000 = 88

After 7 months in tokyo i can share some thoughts as well. Every bar i go to has a cover charge.

Oak Door at Grand Hyatt Roppongi Hills
Excellent meat selection for a good japanese cut beef american style. Nice drinks and the bar can be quite happening on a friday evening. Expensive wine selection. Their seafood is really nice (i've been there often enough that the chef cooks a special meal not on the menu for me when i show up).


XEX in Atago tower. nice italian food but what makes this place stand out is the bar. The singer isn't quite as good now as during the summer, but this is the place to take a girl out for drinks.

in Tsukiji i like Kaizen-sushi. They have an outlet in Ginza as well close to the imperial hotel which looks so-so but is really good. Good prices and excellent quality. Very rare to see foreigner her (no english menus except for the most basic fishes like tuna, salmon & shrimp). Very moderately priced. for an experiene which will make the other tourists/japanese look at you order Kuruma-ebi and ask for the head to be grilled. Looks nasty but tastes really good.

Okonomi-yaki is nice but for a true piece of tokyo history go to the streets behind Tsukiji for Monjia-yaki. This is the tokyo version of okonomi-yaki and it's been served on these streets for 50 years. Quite an experience altough in the taste department i'm not a huge fan of either... But the experience is worth it.

For the cheap eats, go to the streets behind yurakucho (close to Imperial hotel, near ginza under the rail road tracks). Here you have small food stalls with each vendor serving their barbequed chicken and pork for incredibly cheap. Used to be the blackmarket area after WWII and has retained a lot of that old charm and isn't quite as sterile as tokyo can be. Very, very cheap -no english and cash only. But with a smile and pointing fingers you'll get by.

Also the stalls behind Asakusa serves the same thing. Quite enjoyable to spend an afternoon with various grilled meats and fish paired with beer. very few tourists/foreigners and many people wearing the traditional outfits in these neighborhoods.

Back to upscale again... Not a fancy decor but the absolutely best korean bbq in tokyo can be found in shimbashi. It's a place called Tokyo BBQ and it's one block from shimbashi station (on the other side of the tracks from ginza). Reservations are often necessary. for specific diretions the concierge can help out (at least at the imperial hotel). Cuts of meat can run $50 or more but they are wonderful. The focus here is on food quality and they do have simple menus in english. It's hard to do this place for less than $150 per person (no alcohol) if you like to sample many things.

Finally, i got to admit that i tried the new Conrad hotel in shiodome and it's bars. They have a gordon ramseys here as well. I booked he gordon ramsey but a collegue of mine went there before me and told me he didn't think it was particularly good. I cancelled based on his review so i haven't personally been there. The bar is quite alright though with a wonderful view and a decent brazilian jazz band in the evenings. The layout of the bar is so-so and it doesn't feel so intimate as one would have liked. But the view makes up for it.

Finally (showing my heritage) for a completely authentic scandinavian meal with a decor that is a trip back to the seventies sweden... Go an pay a visit to restaurant Stockholm in Akasaka. This is my mothers cooking and it's reallly good for this traveller who has been away from his home country for the past decade. Really, really great vodka selection and everything but the desserts are just the way its supposed to be done for a traditional smorgasbord swedish style. Inexpensive and worth it (the buffet is like $60 which i think is definately worth it). I should mention that buffet is a traditional way of eating food in sweden (smorgasbord is a type of buffet). As a matter of fact i'm taking my japanese staff out for dinner there tonight!

cheers everyone!

Great tips, thanks par!