About food in Japan

Affordable dining choice No.4 Family restaurant - Gusto(ガスト)

Family restaurant is one of the most popular food service category in Japan, as same with some other parts of the world. There are some chains in the category where any kinds of diners are welcomed, from very young children, students, business people to elders. 

Among them, as one of our series posts of "affordable dining choice", we recommend "Gusto."

Gusto is more casual and inexpensive version of a major family restaurant chain "Skylark." The chain may provide less numbers of meal choices and lower standard of services, while offering at lower prices. 

For example, the casual family restaurant chain offers one of the most popular typical menus for family restaurant, Hamburg steak from Yen418 and Spaghetti with shrimps and tomato sauce at Yen 523. Those prices must be almost a half of prices at ordinary family restaurants.

Especially for lunch time, two types of lunch set are offered at very reasonable price. Hamburg lunch set costs at Yen 499 and includes with two kinds of side dish changing on daily base as well as today's soup. Japanese lunch set does at Yen 599 and different main dish such as grilld fish, fried chicken etc is offered day by day. 

Let's see what we had as the lunch set at Yen 499.

Today's Hamburg lunch set includes

vegetable spring roll and chicken cutlet

served with rice and soup.

 

Today's soup, wakame (seaweed) soup is

almost filled with wakame, healthy food.

 

Good news for big eaters, 

Large size can be ordered for rice plate at free of charge

and soup is offered as self-service style and can take as much as you want.

 

As same with some other restaurant chains like Saizeriya which we introduced in this series of posts, "Affordable dining choice, " Gusto offers a kind of "Drink bar" which it calls "Premium Cafe. "  At Yen 339, you can take several different kinds of soft drinks whether it is hot or cold from cafe au lait, darjeeling tea, to coca, ice oolon tea etc etc, as much as you want.  

 

Restaurant name: Gusto (ガスト)

Official website:  http://www.skylark.co.jp/gusto/

 

Shinjuku Kotakibashi-street branch

Address: VARCA Nishi-Shinjuku build. 2nd floor, 7-16-11 Shinjuku, Tokyo

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Nihonbashi (near JR Tokyo station)

Address: 1st floor Nihonbashi Plaza Build. 2-3-4 Nihonbashi, Tokyo

 

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Shibuya Udagawa-cho (in front of Tokyu Department store Honten)

Address: 2nd floor Saito build. 34-5 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

 

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You will find many other Gusto units in major locations.

 

 

******************  Find accommodation in Japan  ***************

OSAKA / NARA / SAPPORO / TAKAYAMA / TOKYO/YUFUIN 

YAKUSHIMA / NOZAWA ONSEN / NISEKO / NIKKO /

HIROSHIMA / MATSUMOTO / KYOTO / KANAZAWA / ISHIGAKI ISLAND /

HAKUBA / FURANO / BEPPU /

 

Affordable dining choice No.3 Chinese - Hidakaya (日高屋)

Following Sushi and Italian, today we recommend another "affortable" dining choice in Japan. The casual restaurant chain is called "Hidakaya" (日高屋). Its units are scattered across Greater Tokyo area and all are in town's central area near a train station. Many of them open for 24hours or until very late evening. 

The restaurant's main concept is its openess to any kind of people from young students to elder guests, sole female diners at the reasonable price and with clealiness. The entrance and face are usually transparent in glass and we can easily look inside, how the restaurant's atmosphere is like. You will also find major plate sample next to  the entrance door. 

As same with other casual restaurant chains like Yoshinoya, staff are friendly and brings welcoming atmosphere. That makes female diners feel comfortable. 

 

The menu are with each large size photos and price.

That must be helpful for non-Japanese speakers.

By the way, for some of you who are wondering, ramen and gyoza (餃子) are Chinese food originally and they are basically available at Chinese restaurants in Japan.

Gyoza (Chinese dumpling) is one of Hidakaya's specialties. The restaurant offers the menu for take-out as well. 

Well, we introduce two plates as our recommendation.

 

Frid rice (チャーハン) at Yen 420

 

Tantanmen (担々麺) at Yen 580

  

In addition the least expensive noodle menu "Chuka-soba(中華そば)" or

simple standard ramen costs only at Yen390.

 

During lunch time, Hidakaya are busy with business people who seek for quick bite. On dinner hours they welcome again business people with beer and food plates as a relaxing time after hard work like Izakaya but at much more reasonable prices.  

What is quite interesting about Hidakaya is the president's comment.

He never aims to provide "the best" or very tasty food at all. He says at some interviews "I believe our food are not very good, are they?" We agree that Hidakaya plates are good but surely not the best in town.

What Hidakaya indends to create is "mom's home-made cooking" taste. They are not perfect taste like ones made by professional cooks. The president knows that is what people want to have everyday and which they would never get tired of. The casual restaurant chain also assumes their repeater guests use also other casual chain restaurants like McDonaldo's and Yoshinoya day by day. So Hidakaya unit is likely to be similar location with these competitors. 

 

Restaurant name: Hidakaya (日高屋)

Official homepage: http://hidakaya.hiday.co.jp

Their units are available at major locations in central Tokyo such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Roppongi, Ueno etc.

 

Affordable dining choice No.1 Sushi - Sushizanmai

We often hear comments from international travellers who traveled in Japan that prices in Japan have not been so higher than they had thought before visiting Japan. We are sure it is true especially if we consider the value and quality provided vs the price. The good example is UNIQLO. Clothing items in UNIQLO are inexpensive as much as other Fast Fashion global brands. But for the quality as cloth (not the aspect of fashion), we believe, UNIQLO is much better than others. Or McDonald in Japan offers good level of hospitality and cleariness in addition to global standard hamburger at Yen100.

Not only McDonald, we can find some dining options whose prices are inexpensive but the quality is enough good and exceeds the price value. As a series of consecutive posts, from today, we will introduce several casual restaurant chains that are recommendable as "affordable choice".

Well, the first choice is SUSHI, one of the most famous Japanese food.

Sushizanmai (すしざんまい) is one of the most popular sushi restaurant chains in Tokyo and surrounding. Having its flagship unit in Tsukiji outermarket area, Sushizanmai restaurants are scattered across major spots such as Roppongi, Asakusa and Shibuya in Tokyo.

The president Mr Kimura is well-know for his winning record at new year tuna auction of Tsukiji market. The company not only runs Sushi restaurants also has a school of Sushi cook.

We visited Sushizanmai Yurakucho-ten(branch) which is underneath the railway tracks between Yurakucho and Shinbashi stations on Yamanote line. In the area along the railway and highway, casual and interesting restaurants gather and attract local business people, while it is adjucent to a largest luxury shopping spot Ginza and not far from Imperial Palace and Imperial Hotel.

Entering into Sushizanmai Yurakucho unit, we found that a few of sushi cooks in white coat welcomed us over Sushi counter. If you would, the restaurant can provide a place at the sushi counter or if you visit it with a small group, large tables are also available. Apart from sound of Shinkansen "running over" us, it is a typical comforable Japanese restaurant and we can forget that it is underneath the railway.

 

The price of sushi starts surprigingly from Yen 103 per piece, Tuna from Yen134.

 

When we went there for lunch time,

Maguro-don (Tuna on rice bowl) with miso soup is offered at surpriging price,

Yen 500!!!

 

Assortment Sushi set from Yen 840 for lunch time

and from around Yen 2000 for dinner.

 Surely they are prepared by Sushi masters 

with selected high quality ingredients.

So the price is incredibly reasonable...we believe.

 

Prices could be slightly different unit by unit but still they are good reasonable prices.

 

Restaurant name: Sushizanmai (すしざんまい)

Official website (in Japanese): http://www.kiyomura.co.jp

 

Yurakucho unit

Address: 2-1-3 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

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Honten (main branch)

Address: 4-11-9 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

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Roppongi unit *opens for 24hours!

Address: Sankei28 building, 3-10-9 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

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Shibuya Tokyu Honten-mae unit *opens for 24hours!

Address: Saito III Building 34-5 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku Tokyo

 In front of Tokyu Department store Honten

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Asakusa unit

Address: 1-43-9 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo

 

 

 

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******************  Find accommodation in Japan  ***************

OSAKA / NARA / SAPPORO / TAKAYAMA / TOKYO/YUFUIN 

YAKUSHIMA / NOZAWA ONSEN / NISEKO / NIKKO /

HIROSHIMA / MATSUMOTO / KYOTO / KANAZAWA / ISHIGAKI ISLAND /

HAKUBA / FURANO / BEPPU /

 

Yakitori tasting park with 7 different local styles, Zen-Ya-Ren(全や連) Tokyo

Many of you may already know the word "Yakitori"(焼き鳥 or 焼鳥). It is Japanese casual food, skewered and char-grilled chicken, which can be often found at Izakaya(Japanese casual bar & restaurants.)

Actually the styles of Yakitori vary interm of ingredients(parts of chicken used), seasoning(salt, special sauce, soy sauce etc). They are different by region and by individual restaurant across Japan. Zen-Ya-Ren(全や連), which we introduce here, is a place where we can taste such different types of local Yakitori across Japan, while we stay in Tokyo.

The restaurant's name "Zen-Ya-Ren(全や連)" implies Zen(All), Ya(Yakitori), Ren(rengo or renmei in Japanese, anyway "an united group"). It means united Yakitori providers across all Japan. 

 

On the underground floor, direcrly connected from subway passage in Otemachi central office district near Tokyo station, 7 Yakitori restaurant operators in Japan from noth to south are gathered in a restaurant called Zen-Ya-Ren with spacious high ceiling space surrouded by glass walls. 

 

Inside, in addition to a large open space in center, the restauran has 7 small rooms each with noren(short curtain with restaurant's logo), as if each room was a small local Yakitori restaurant. 

 

 

 

Wherever you have a table, food & drink menu are same and you can find a variety of choices from 7 different local regions.

Well, let's see what are the 7 different regions and their Yakitori.

First we had non-skewered Yakitori from Imabari, Ehime, Shikoku region.

The crispy chicken "skin" became my most favourite plate there.

 

For 6 other regions, from right bottom to left upper side,

they are ... 1. organ with onion from Bibai Hokkaido,

2. dipped in special sauce with homemade receipe from Muroran, again Hokkaido,

3. the region's chicken brand "Date-dori" from Fukushima, Tohoku,

4. Served with "Monde Selection" award-winning miso sauce from Higashi-Matsuyama, Saitama, East Japan, 

5. Chicken Wing from Nagato, Yamaguchi and

6. With local specialty condiment "Yuzu-kosho" from Kurume, Fuokuoka Kyushu region.

 

 

Although we had much focused on having different Yakitori, wide choices of side dishes from these 7 regions are also available.

Such as 7 different versions of tofu plate, gyoza, local specialties of seafood, chicken rice bowl etc.

 No exception for alcohol drink selection!

The restaurant offers local brands Sake from the 7 regions.

 

 

Try different types of Yakitori from each differnt parts of Japan, even without traveling out from Tokyo.

 

Restaurant name: Zen-Ya-Ren (全や連) Tokyo

Address: Tokyo Sankei Building B2 floor, 1-7-2 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Official homepage (in Japanese): http://www.zenyaren.jp

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Easy Japanese SAKE tasting at Meishu Center(名酒センター), Hamamatsucho, Tokyo

Japanese traditional type of alcohol, SAKE, must be an item that many of international travelers wish to try in Japan. Sake is made from rice and the flavour can be more or less similar to white wine made from grapes. 

In Japanese, the Japanese traditional rice wine is called "Nihonshu"(日本酒, Japanese sake), while the word "sake" represents all sorts of alcohol drink regardless of the origin, Japanese or other countries.

Some of you may have had "Shochu" (焼酎) already. Shochu is also a traditional Japanese alcohol drink mainly produced in Kyushu region. It is distilled alcohol drink made from either of sweet potato, wheat or rice, having higher percentage of alcohol compared with Sake or Nihonshu.

Where we recommend to go to taste several types of Sake easily and surprisingly at very reasonable cost is Meishu Center (名酒センター) in Hamamatsucho (浜松町). It will be a good idea to drop by the center after visiting two major tourist spots in the area, Tokyo Tower and Zojoji-temple which are 10-15 minutes walk from the station.

Meishu Center offers over 100 brands of Sake across Japan, proposing an opportunity to enjoy Sake easily. At the small bar style boutique, we can taste each of these brands at minimum Yen200 per tasting glass and some of brands are also available by bottle for purchase. 

 

 

 

 

Here the system of Meishu Center as following.

First, after entering the bourituque, find your place with 3 clear tasting glass on a standing counter or high table. It might be crowded between 19h00 - 20h00 on weekday. 

Then from two refrigeated cases in the shop, select bottles you would like to try and BRING them to your place by own. 

Ask a staff walking around the room. He or she will pour the sake into glass for you and will tell you a price for settelement.

When 3 kinds of SAKE are ordered at a time, your charge amount will be reducted by Yen 100.

  

If you have no idea which brand to choose, to be very kind, Nihonshu Center puts a tag not only in Japanese but also in English. Even if we do not know well these brand names, some information on a tag, such as origin prefecture (where you visited for example), types of sake, alcohol % or acidity will be helpful to find your favourite one. 

Ttypes of Sake is categorized by whether alcohol is artificially added or not and the level of rice polishing. To know more detail about Sake, it will be better to check an amazing website by an English-native Sake specialist, John. He well gather contents in the field on his website. Click here.

Some kinds of snack selected to enjoy with sake are also provided at very reasonable cost from Yen50 (not Yen500!) for a small pack of rice cracker. Take one or two plates as you like and ask a staff for payment.

We chose a plate of sashimi konjac (fresh konjac potato, like cool jelly). 

 

What we have to keep in mind to visit Meishu Center is...

as Sake has so good flavour and prices are very reasonable, 

Be careful not to drink too much!!

 

Shop name: Meishu Center (名酒センター)

Address: 2-3-29 Hamamatsucho, Mitato-ku, Tokyo

Official Homepage: http://nihonshu.com/

大きな地図で見る

Japanese beef & pork BBQ at restaurant Pure(ぴゅあ)

Japanese beef is especially appreciated not only by local people but also by international travelers for the quality, taste and tenderness. We are sure that some of you plan to have good quality Japanese beef while you stay in Japan.

So here we introduce one of the best options to taste Japanese beef and also pork meat in Tokyo.

Yakiniku (焼き肉, grilled meat) or BBQ restaurant "Pure" (written in Japanese Hiragana as ぴゅあ) is operated by a professional meat distributor under the group of "JA" Japan Agricultural corporative association. At its 4 units in central Tokyo such as Shinagawa or Shimbashi, it offers high quality meat with traceability information at reasonable prices, making the most use of its network with livestock producers across Japan.

Of course, because of their meat dealer business in charge, the company knows the best ways to have Japanese beef and pork. They are the reasons we recommend BBQ restaurant Pure as a place to enjoy Japanese meat.

We visited Pure Shinagawa branch which is 5 minutes walk from JR Shinagawa station. The restaurant is situated on the second floor of modern Shinagawa Front Building.

 

Find it with the mark of "JA" at the entrance.

 

 BBQ grill with smoke control system is equipped on each table.

That allows you to prepare meat at your favourite condition and at your own pace.

Will be nice to keep watching your meat cooked in front of you with yummy sound and aroma.

   


 

On each table, BBQ sauce, which is prepared with original recipe by each restaurant unit, and lemon juice are provided as dipping sauce for meat. If you are not sure which is good for a specific kind of meat, the restaurant staff will be happy to give you the best advices.

The restaurant offers a few types of assortment dishs

 with selected popular and recommendable meat. 

Although it has not been recognized widely yet out of Japan, Japanese pork meat is also recommendable to try in Japan.

Or If you are very curious about Japanese meat and wish to try something unique, why not try the assortment of "horumon(ホルモン, offal meat)".

 

  

The assortment plates includes beef heart, tripe and gut meat. 

The unique parts of meat is chewy and no strong smell, because of selected high quality ingredient by the professional distributor.

 

After have enjoyed a great amount of nice Japanese beef and pork cooked on a grill, the restaurant offers other ways to enjoy these meat products.

Reimen (冷麺, cold noodle) and Gukbap(クッパ, soup with rice) in Korean BBQ style.

  
With both menu, we can also taste beef in soup with noodle or rice.

 

The restaurant group opened its unit in Hong Kong in early 2013. If you are based in the city or have a chance to travel there, try some good quality meat imported by JA group without traveling to Tokyo.

 

 

Restaurant name: Yakiniku Pure

Shinagawa branch

Address: 2nd floor, Shinagawa Front Building, 2-3-13 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo

English homepage: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g262202/lang/en/

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Shimbashi branch

Address: B1 floor, Yokoyama building, 3-16-12 Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

English homepage: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g262200/lang/en/

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Otemachi branch

Address: B1 floor, South Tower 1-9-7 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

English homepage: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g262203/lang/en/

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Hong Kong branch

Address: 15F Henry House, 42 Yun Ping Road Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Openrice page: http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=125244&region=0&s=3

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Italian Ramen?! Taiyo no Tomato Men (太陽のトマト麺)

Following our last post reporting a unique casual restaurant extremely specialized in fried rice, Chanan Ou or the kind of fried rice, today we introduce another unique experience that can be described a kind of B-grade gourmet (B級グルメ) by locals. 

The flagship restaurant is in Kinshicho (錦糸町), a residential town situated East Tokyo. Some of you might stay in the area, as the town has a few of international-standard hotels. Kinshicho is a vital town with a plenty of casual restaurants & bars. It is a 10-minute ride from JR Tokyo station or less from Akihabara, further more it is about 20 minutes walk to Tokyo Skytree Tower. The restaurant is about 5 minutes walk from the JR train station. 

 The unique Ramen restaurant is called "Taiyo no Tomato men"(太陽のトマト麺), representing "Sunny tomato noodle".

YES!!!

Can you imagine?! Ramen + Tomato!! the food often used for Italian dishes.

Tomato is quite popular food ingredient for Italian pasta, salad even in Japan.

Needless to say, Ramen is too. But can Tomato go with Ramen ?!

 

The anwer is here,

my order, Cheese Ramen

They go well and matched!!

Surprisingly!!!

As seen, the soup is in rich with tomato,

while the noodle is surely ramen, not spaghetti.

 

What may be better than tomato sauce spaghetti is that we can enjoy more the tomato flavor in such large volume of soup. As a kind of Ramen, it must be healthier than ordinaly ones whose soup is likely to be made from pork, beef etc.

Tomato is said to have strong antioxidant effect, which is very attractive especially for all ladies seeking for more beauty. Because of that, Taiyo no Tomato men has more female guests compared with ordinary ramen restaurants. According to the restaurant official website, the soup contains thick Tomato juice from 3 pieces per bowl. After trying with many kind of spieces, the restaurant owner decided to use only San Marzano made in Italy for the soup, as he believe that it is the best for their menu.

 

If you wonder, try the bowl by own to know how much Ramen and tomato go well together!!

Unlike an ordinary ramen restaurant but like an italian restaurant,

we found TABASCO sauce and chilli oil on the counter.

 

Season by season, time by time, we can find some special menu for limited period.

This is for summer version, with shrimps.(Description and photo added on August 2014 )

 

 If tomato is not your taste, alternative menu is available.

Chicken paitan (white soup) noodle

 

Other menu recommendable at the Italian-inspired Ramen restaurant are

Rice: Here it is called "Ra-Riso". It is served to put into the noodle soup, after you finish noodle. As we can imagine, it become closure to Italian menu Risotto.

Gyoza (Chinese dumpling) : It is a typical menu at a ramen restaurant. Here tomato is used even for this Gyoza filling.

Chicken Paitan noodle: for those who would not like take Tomato soup, the restaurant offers also Ramen in thick chicken stock soup.

Fried cheese: It looks like "Gyoza" but cheese is inside with sweet honey sauce.  

 

In addition to the flagship restaurant in Kinshicho, the ramen restaurant, Taiyo no Tomato men, serves you at some central locations in Tokyo, such as Suidobashi (Tokyo Dome stadium area), Shinjuku, Kayabacho (Nihombashi).

 

 

Restaurant Name: Taiyo no Tomato men (太陽のトマト麺)

Official website (In Japanese): http://taiyo-tomato.com

 

Kinshicho flagship shop

Address: 1-11-8 Kotobashi, Sumidaku, Tokyo

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Shinjuku 

Address: 7th Floor Odakyu MyRoad, 1-1-3 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

 

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Suidobashi

Address:  2-17-8 Misaki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

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Kayabacho

Address: 7-7 NIhombashi Kabutocho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

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Shin-Ochanomizu

 Address: A.PLAZA1F, 3-2-6 , Kanda Suruga-dai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

We found some cute decorations at the entrance of Shin-Ochanomizu unit.

 

 

Farm restaurant in the biggest night sport, Roppongi Nouen (六本木農園)

 

Many maybe know "Roppongi"(六本木) as one of the largest night spots of Tokyo or Japan. Otherwise Roppongi may remind you luxury facilities such as Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown or Ritz Carlton Hotel. What we introduce today is very far from all of such images of Roppongi, even though the restaurant is just a couple of minutes walk from Roppongi Hills.

Nouen(農園) represents "farm" in Japanese as the restaurant has it on its site.

 


The restaurant was founded by a group of sons and daughters of farmer families, aiming at wiping negative images of agriculture business (hard, not cool, unprofitable etc) out.

So through the menu, the restaurant is really focusing on fresh vegetables and other gifts from the land and nature like river or sea, sourced directly from farmers day by day and season by season.  

If you feel lacking of vegetable, this is the place where you have lunch or dinner. Here it has never be possible to avoid a piece of vegetable and you will find various kinds of vegetable on a plate. They are surprisingly fresh, sweet and much more tasty than what we have had in other places. And some of them can be found only in Japan.

This is some examples of dishes served for a lunch course.

 

Soup of seasonal vegetable

Cold pumpkin soup for a summer day.

 

A plate of seasonal vegetable and poached egg

impressive iconic plate!!

 

 

Healthy cooked rice with cereal grains and beans is also offered

and served as much as you are satisfied.

Finally dessert, made of fresh fruites from farms

to be served with a cup of coffee, or green or herb tea

that may be also available and could be more suitable for the place.

For dinner, it offers some courses with vegetable and meat or fish as a main dish, rice cooked in an earth pot. These are great harvests of Japan.

 

The private rooms also remind us that this is "the farm".

We had the lunch at a green house!!

was nice environment, close to outside

 

Restaurant Name: Roppongi Nouen (六本木農園)

Address: 6-6-15 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Official site: http://www.roppongi-nouen.jp

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Hirata Bokujo (平田牧場), specialist of pork dishes

High quality Japanese beef is already well-known in the world. But we believe that it is not only beef to be tasted in Japan. So we introduce a specialist of Pork meat (豚肉, butaniku) today.

Hirata Bokujo (平田牧場) is originally a big farm to breed pigs in Yamagata, Tohoku region for decades. The farm keeps producing high quality pork meat based on their continuous study. It is also knows that Hirata Bokujo feeds pigs on "rice". That results in producing healthier pork.

The specialist of pork meat runs some restaurant units providing pork dishes in the best ways.

We visited one of their unit, Nihonbashi Hirata(日本橋平田) in Coredo Muromachi, Tokyo. With other interesting dining facilities from ramen to luxury Japanese, the shopping complex is situated near by Mitsukoshi-mae subway station, just in front of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Tokyo.  

The modern but with a slight Japanese flavor interior is not too casual nor too sophisticated, where we can enjoy dishes with comfortable and relaxing atmosphere like a good Izakaya.

Beer is served by an elegant glass.

 

Let's see what were served or specialities of the pork specialist.

 

 

 

 

 

Starter salad: also includes Hirata Bokujo's pork product "raw ham"

 

Salad with raw ham

 

Second dish: assoted bacon & sausage

 Both rich in flavor and crunchy sausage!

 

Two main dishes we selected. 

cheese cutlet mille-feuille (left) - tender pork very thinly! sliced and piled with cheese and

pork grill with miso (right) - sweet miso paste well matched with pork

 

 

It was interesting opportunity to taste pork meat in different but all good way!

 

Restaurant name: Nihonbashi Hirata (日本橋平田)

Address: Coredo Muromachi, 2-2-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Restaurant official website (Japanese version): 

http://www.hiraboku.info/shop/butaniku/nihonbashi-hirata.html

Coredo Muromachi English website: http://mi-mo.jp/lng/eng/muromachi.html

 

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Tetoshio(テトシオ), Japanese dishes in a modern cafe, Shinjuku (新宿)

In this modern days, even in Tokyo, actually it is not easy to find a cozy and modern cafe "providing Japanese dishes". As same with many other parts of the world maybe, main guests of modern cafes or girls are likely to prefer fancy Western plates like pasta, sandwiches or French-like food rather than traditional local plates. Tetoshio knows that is not always the case.

Tetoshio is located on the 6th floor of LUMINE 1 Shinjuku, a shopping complex adjacent to JR Shinjuku station. On the upper floors of the popular shopping complex, attractive restaurants such as Spanish, Thai etc. or cafe are gathered in a place. Tetoshio is one of such restaurants. 

During lunch time, like other units on the floor, it is likely to be full and visitors are asked to wait for a while. It will be better to arrive earlier than noon or after 13h30 in order to save your time.

Inside it is a bit less lighted with dark colored fabric and funiture but it is cozy with large size sofa seats or cushion chairs. The space is suitable even for a family with young kids.

How often can we be sereved a cup of Japanese green tea?

      

 

 

Lunch set is a good opportunity to taste real Japanese food at a reasonable price. 

 

 

 

My choice - Lunch set with two rice balls.

 

 

With three side dishes of vegetables and soup.

It's healty meal presented in cute style, not only tasty.

As alternative choices for lunch, Tetoshio special 3-story lunch box (bento), fish plate, donburi (rice with main topping in a bowl), udon noodle etc are available.

For dinner, Tetoshio provides small dishes like Izakaya for a-la-carte or a few Japanese cuisine courses with cooked rice.

It will be a good choice when you would like to try real Japanese food but not feel like being deeply in entire Japanese world. Also it will be a safe and comfortable option to have Japanese dishes at reasonable cost in the busiest Shinjuku area. 

 

Restaurant name: Tetoshio

 Address: 6th floor LUMINE 1, 1-1-5 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

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