The post was a little confusing.

Karubi is ribs (usually without the bone) served at Korean restaurants in Japan. Not exactly steak. If you want authentic Korean, there are quite a few restaurants in the Akasaka area. If you want Japanized Korean, Sankoen and Juju are popular spots.

If on the other hand the poster actually wants wagyu (literally Japanese beef.. but it actually refers to specific breeds) steak, there are quite a few choices. Steakhouse Hama is maybe the most well known... but very pricey ($4k for 6) last time I went.

Sure, you can find pretty much every kind of cuisine in Japan to varying levels of accomplishment. In that continuum, with French and Italian towards the more accomplished, at the bottom of the barrel are, to me, Chinese and Mexican food. Is there any place to have decent or good Chinese or Mexican food? Yes, there is, but it isn't something I would seek out willingly, or recommend to anybody else that they do. In this category lands the Chinese restaurant in the Peninsula.

In the same way, in New York, you can find some damn fine Italian and French, some pretty good Mexican, some excellent Chinese, and besides one or two select places, some incredibly mediocre and expensive sushi.

I don't eat sushi in NY, I don't eat Chinese food in Tokyo. Life's too short to drink bad wine, and I'd rather stick to what's truly good in a particular place rather than "broaden" my palate and end up pissed off because of a subpar meal. And yes, what you're advocating is to accept the subpar.

^^^ Half order of French Toast with fruit.

Speaking of bad Mole in Tokyo, it is all bad, except for the prune Mole at La Fonda de la Madrugada I had a long time ago. I haven't been in years, so don't know if it has gone to pot. Wouldn't surprise me if it had, but during the bubble era it was definitely excellent. By the way, and surprisingly, one can find some pretty decent tacos in Hong Kong. Good enough to repeat the experience.

As I said in an earlier post, for Chinese I recommend the Chugoku Hanten restaurants, such as Fureika in Higashi-Azabu, the Original Roppongi Location, or Amber Palace at the Palace Hotel (Also check out Wadakura and the other Japanese venues within Wadakura). I also stand by my recommendation of Hei Feung Terrace, notwithstanding comments from detractors of the restaurant upthread. If your previous experience with Chinese food has mostly been in the US, you will undoubtedly be very pleased with these restaurants or virtually any other well regarded Chinese restaurant in Tokyo.

As you have breakfast included in you rate at FS Marunouchi, I think it makes little sense to go elsewhere for breakfast.

I respectfully disagree here. I have not suggested that anyone tolerate subpar food, and do not think anyone else has either. No rational argument can be made that all Chinese food in Tokyo is sub-par.

I agree with this view.

As a reality check, according to the OP's description of her past experience with Chinese food, it is safe to assume that she has no experience whatsoever with high-end Cantonese cuisine. Any of the better Chinese restaurants in Tokyo will be more than adequate as an introduction to this type of food. Location is totally irrelevant for the OP's purposes at this stage.

Pickles
How can you be so right about breakfast and so wrong about Chinese :confused:

Excellent Chinese in NYC but not worth eating in Tokyo? You must have ODed on MSG at some point.

The first sentence is not exactly true. We've traveled/dined extensively on the west coast of north America (Vancouver to Los Angeles and just about most points in between). Also in other cities in north America with good Chinese food. I'm looking forward to having some in Toronto in June (don't know the caliber of the restaurants there though - haven't been to Toronto in decades).

OTOH - the Chinese food where we live is totally awful - won't eat it at a restaurant (except for one take-out place near our house which does an acceptable job - gentlemen's C at best - and that is being generous). So I'm not holding out for China in terms of eating Chinese food. Note that the last time I recall having Chinese food outside north America was in Paris (maybe 20 years ago) - and it was as dreadful as the Chinese food at home (although a lot more expensive).

BTW - are there any good dim sum restaurants that anyone can recommend (preferably with carts to eliminate language problems)? We enjoy having lunch at good dim sum restaurants. Robyn

Especially since you are not sure you will travel to China in the future, I really think having Chinese food on this trip is something to seriously consider. Even if these restaurants are "sub-par" according to some of the cognoscenti on this forum, I am sure you will enjoy them as I do.

Also I notice you said you might eat at the hotel a few times. If so, then you really would have nothing to lose by forgoing one of those meals in favor of having Chinese food. Some of the Chinese restaurants I have recommended as well as others are a very short cab ride from FS Marunouchi. Having Chinese once on a week-long trip does not have to come at the expense of any of your important Japanese meals. I think 5khours' checklist would be an excellent plan.

I looked these up and both look promising. The second seems more "discovered" than the first. E.g.,:

http://www.andyhayler.com/show_restaurant.asp?id=1089

http://www.tinyurbankitchen.com/2011...an-harumi.html

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/838820

BTW - I enjoy reading the Tiny Urban Kitchen writings about Japan (there are numerous posts about several trips). They are written by a younger person - very non-jaded and refreshing.

Robyn

Getting back to my original list - which of these restaurants does anyone give a ^ or :td: to in the Kaiseki or contemporary Japanese categories? Any additional ideas?

Esaki (Japanese Contemporary)
Ginza Okuda (Japanese)
Hishinuma (Japanese)
Ichirin (Japanese)
Kikunoi (Japanese)
Les Creations de Narisawa (French/Japanese? Contemporary)

Note that Narisawa has a special lunch offering in 2013:

http://www.narisawa-yoshihiro.com/en/menu.html

Robyn

We'll only be having room service at the hotel perhaps a couple of nights if we're dead on our feet with jet lag.

BTW - I can understand the differing points of view people here have about non-Japanese food in Tokyo. OTOH - most of you seem to be regular travelers to Japan. Some of you may even live in Japan. And Pickles seems to have a base in China too (which may tilt his opinion in a different direction than yours).

I'm in a totally different world. I live in a place with no edible Japanese food and travel mostly to places with Japanese food that isn't so terrific (or that is extremely overpriced for what it is). Only exception was a trip to Hawaii a (long) while back - I thought the Japanese food there was really good. The last time I had sushi was at a restaurant in Los Angeles that a friend of ours took us to. It is one of the "famous" ones in Los Angeles - but I didn't think it was any great shakes (the best course was a small salad containing some terrific "Japanese" tomatoes - don't know what kind of tomatoes they were - but they were the best tomatoes I've ever had). And this will be only my fourth (and quite possibly my last) week in Japan during my whole life. Plus - I really like Japanese food - although sushi isn't at the top of my list when it comes to Japanese food (and I especially dislike "American style" rolls and similar that are loaded with things like flavored mayo that overwhelm the taste of the fish).

OTOH - although I've never been to China (and will likely never get there) - my husband and I have considerable experience with Chinese food in north America (both high and low end) - especially in places like Vancouver (we've been there maybe 5-6 times) and other cities with large communities of Chinese people and people of Chinese descent (Los Angeles/San Francisco/etc.). A lot of the Chinese food I've had is pretty good - quite probably because there are so many large ethnic Chinese communities in north America. So it's not a "must-try" cuisine for me on this trip.

FWIW - the only things I really miss when it comes to Japanese food are great bread and extravagant desserts. Which is where a French restaurant comes into play :).

One kind of restaurant I would be interested in trying (if one existed - and it doesn't seem to) is a "southern US" restaurant - "Japanese style". Because the Japanese seem to eat things like okra (we do fried - pickled - stewed - whatever) and sweet potatoes - they are wonderful at frying things (we fry everything from chicken to fish to green tomatoes) - and they have terrific seafood (fish/shrimp/crabs/etc. - we eat a lot of those things). About the only ingredient that's missing is grits (which doesn't have to be "fresh and local"). I'd love to see a Japanese take on shrimp and grits :D. Robyn

Have you been to Narisawa? They seem somewhat similar - although Narisawa is open for lunch. Robyn

Narisawa is the quintessential food-porn star-fecker restaurant. Go there if you want to be surrounded by a bunch of people from all over the world who read that Narisawa was one of the top 50 restaurants in the world according to the "Pellegrino" list, whatever that means, and just had to go.

The food is vastly over-rated, and in some instances, just plain weird. Restaurants in the same flavor, but ones I would certainly recommend over Narisawa are Ryugin, Takazawa, and Emun.

San Francisco and Vancouver have some fine Chinese restaurants, so if you've had the good stuff there, I wouldn't try to repeat the experience in Japan. You went to Chef Chin Kenichi's restaurant in Japan, and you thought it wasn't all that. Now imagine a more refined setting, much higher price point, and a more "accomplished" presentation and execution. But you'll still come out of there wondering what the hell you were thinking in going there in the first place. That pretty much describes the vast majority of high-end Chinese restaurants in Japan. It's not "authentic", it's generally tasteless, and it's the last thing I'd eat if I was in a culinary trip of Japan.

Now, if you must insist (and I sense you won't, but just in case), there are places in Japan that turn "Chinese" food into something truly different. It isn't "Chinese" food, but it is eminently edible and a new experience. In that vein, my favorite is Wakiya in Akasaka.

I've spent the last 20 years of my life shuttling between Hong Kong and Tokyo. I have yet to find a single Chinese restaurant in Japan that has some claim to authenticity that I would consider going to more than once.

Now, the Japanese do their own deal with Chinese food, and some of it is quite tasty, at many price points. But saying that what they do to Chinese food is somehow a substitute for the real deal is just daft. Places like the Hei Fung Terrace are an insult to Chinese food, especially at those price points and under a claim of authenticity that doesn't hold water.