Indian cuisine was unfamilar for many of Japanese 10 years ago. But like in other countries, globalization has brought many Indian nationalities mainly for IT and financial industry to Japan for this several years.
Now we can find more and more Indian restaurants in Tokyo. We could find at least one Indian restaurant for each subway station area. Even in residential area, it is not rare to find one any more. So we already tried many Indian restaurants in Tokyo and many of them, prepared by chef coming from the origin country, are well enough.
But recently, we got recommendation from an Indian living in Tokyo for long years, in our network. So we assume that it is the best Indian restaurant selected by the nationality. The restaurant Nirvanam has already been spotted by Japanese local gourmet people in spite of the non-major location, Kamiyacho (神谷町).
Well, first about the town Kamiyacho, the subway station is on Hibiya line running through Ebisu, Roppongi, Hibiya, Ueno etc between noth to/from south in Tokyo. It is a calm business district locating one stop from night entertainment spot Roppongi and also not far from Tokyo Tower and a luxury Japanese brand hotel, Okura. Not many local people have a chance to visit the town, apart from those working in the area, because there is no commercial, art, leisure or tourist spots etc in surrouding area.
In the calm location, the Indian restaurant was filled with diners, when we visited on a weekday evening. It is on the second floor of a small multi-tenant building accommodating "Sukiya", a beef bowl fast food chain restaurant on the ground floor.
Entering into the restaurant, we felt full sense of the South Asian country, welcomed by smiling Indian staff and local folk decoration everywhere.
As for the menu, a plenty of choices not only for curry categorised by Chicken, Mutton, Seafood and Vegetable, but also we did find for a kind of bread and crape, which are called "nan", the most familiar one for Japanese, "dosa", "poori" etc etc. We have never seen such variation for Indian bread and crape in Japan. Surely Nirvanam is an authentic Indian restaurant.
We selected two kinds of curry and two kinds of breads from the attractive list, after some thoughts, as followings...
Butter Chicken Currey (we believe it "typical" and our favourite) and
Mutton Stew cooked with mild coconuts sauce
Both curry sauce are very rich and thick.
We have never had the richness.
We soon agreed that this is the best Indian restaurant in Tokyo.
Also we tried bread menu which we have never head but is a specialty of Kerala state.
Kerala Porota (roll and layered bread)
each layer is well burned and crispy, while it is soft inside.
Another bread we tried
Cheese Nan
The taste is much better than we imagined.
One reason may be because it was served just after cooked and well heated. The tender cheese flavor is finely matched with tne soft nan dough. We wanna take a whole piece of the Cheese nan solely, even without curry sauce.
In other words, we love the unforgettable item!!
Again we confirmed that this is the best Indian restaurant in Tokyo.
After dinner, we ordered chai.
Chai is not rare item at Indian restaurans in Tokyo. But non of them, we visited, serves by such a traditional cup like this. It seems to be very traditional and authentic style.
Nirvanam offers buffet style meal for lunch and, course and a la carte for dinner.
All staff are Indian, as long as we saw. They are polite and friendly.
Surely it is a quite recommendable restaurant in Tokyo, when you like to take Indian food.
We will come back here to try another kinds of curry and breads!!
Restaurant name: Nirvanam
Website: http://www.nirvanam.jp
Link to access information and map: http://www.nirvanam.jp/map
Nearest subway station: Kamiyacho (Hibiya line)
