About food in Japan

Michelin Guide Kansai(Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Nara) 2014

Last month, Michelin restaurant guide was published for Kansai region (関西) consisting from Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and Nara. 

We found two more restaurants awarded 3-star in Kyoto!! Congratulation to those restaurans!! It must be a good news for food lovers as well so as to have more choices in Koyoto.

Well, let'see the line-up.

All 7 Michelin 3-star-awarded restaurants in Kyoto provide Japanese cuisine and firstly those 5 below are regular ones on the list.

 

Kikunoi Honten (菊乃井　本店) - Japanese Kaiseki

    http://kikunoi.jp/store/

Kitcho Arashiyama (吉兆　嵐山本店) - Japanese

    http://www.kitcho.com/kyoto/shoplist_en/arashiyama/index.html

Chihana (千花) - Japanese Itamae cappo (chef's cuisine)

    http://kyotochihana.com/e/

Nakamura (なかむら) - Japanese Kyoryori (京料理, Kyoto local cuisine)

    http://www.kyoryori-nakamura.com

Hyotei (瓢亭) - Japanese Kaiseki

    http://hyotei.co.jp/

 

Then two new faces for 3-star list are,,,

 

Kichisen (吉泉)　- Japanese Kaiseki

    http://www.kichisen-kyoto.com/

Adjacent to the woods of Shimogamo Shrine, the Ryotei (料亭) is produced as an exclusive space with the chef's deep knowledge on tea ceremony, Japanese flower arrangement, incense and calligraphy schools as well as Japanese cuisine.  

 

Mizai (未在) - Japanese Kaiseki

    No home page

The restaurant was listed as 3-star actually even before it was moved to the new place within Maruyama Park in 2012. Only one dinner time slot will be offered for all guests as the chef would like to serve to all guests at same timing as it is done in Tea Ceremony style. It could be considered as a kind of entertainment show serving plates attracting diners not only for the taste but also for the visual presentation. The experience reminds us real traditional Kaiseki meal.

 

No change on the 3-star restaurant list for other Kansai cities, Osaka, Kobe and Nara.

As a new attempt of Michelin Guide in Japan, total 92 restaurants with "Bib Gourmand" are also listed, all of them are either French or Italian cuisine.

 

For more information, please check Press Release in English

http://www.michelin.com/corporate/EN/news/article?articleID=N2-new-three-stars-for-Kyoto-in-the-MICHELIN-guide-Kansai-2014

 

 

 

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

 

View Larger Map

 

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

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

 

View Larger Map

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.2 Italian - Saizeriya

Following our first post as a series of "Affordable dining choice" Sushi, today we are going to introduce an "Italian" restaurant chain in Japan.

We understand that you would not consider visiting Italian restaurant, while traveling in Japan. Not only French cuisine, Italian cuisine in Japan is also kept at good quality. Some people say that it is the second best after the origin country. Today's topics is not about such high-end Italian restaurants but we can say that Saizeria is still one of the best choices among very casual inexpensive restaurants in Japan. 

What is amazing for Saizeria is the balance between price and value or quality of food provided. 

Anyway, let's see how they are... 

The most popular menu Milanese Doria(rice gratin with meat sauce)

at Yen 299!!

with poached egg (+Yen69) = Yen 368

 

Pizza with salami & bacon(left photo) and

Shrimp risotto with tomato cream(right) each at Yen 399 !!

  

 

Hamburg steak with cheese and tomato sauce at Yen 499/plate

As side dishes, rice plate or garlic toasts each at Yen159

can be ordered together with the main dish.

 

Not only the food but also drink prices are also surprising.

Glass wine at Yen 100 !!

It is less expensive than a bottle of tea purchased

at a convenience store or vending machine.

We believe now you understand the reason why we recommend the Italian restaurant chain in Japan. Sometime, it is a good idea to save money for one day and to spend more on another day. 

Not only for meal, Saizeria is an option for taking a break with coffee or tea.

It offers "all you can drink" , called "drink bar" in Japan at Yen 270. The price will be discounted to Yen 180 when ordered with meal. The system includes self-service all you can drink for several kinds of soft drink, such as soda, juices, coffee and tea. Of course, it will be good with Tiramisu, a half cut at Yen189!!

 

Saizeria Italian restaurant chain offers almost 1000 units across Japan and in Tokyo it has 200. It will not be so difficult to find one. Many are open for lunch time to dinner time without break.

 

Restaurant name: Saizeria 

Official chain website: http://www.saizeriya.co.jp

 Followings are some of their units in central locations.

 
Ginza
Address: Ginza Ins 2nd floor, 3-1 Ginza-Nishi, Chu0-ku, Tokyo

View Larger Map

 

Shinjuku

Address: Fuji building 2, 1-16-4 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

View Larger Map

 

Shibuya (near Tokyu Hands)

Address: 2nd floor Village 80, 39-2 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

View Larger Map

 

Asakusa　Shin-Nakamise street

Address: B1 floor, 1-21-8 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo

View Larger Map

 

 

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

View Larger Map

 

Asakusa unit

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

 

 

 

View Larger Map

 

 

 

 

******************  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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Newest relaxing Denmark cafe in Kyobashi, Tokyo

An interesting dining area was recently opened in Kyobashi (京橋), Tokyo. The area name may not be so familar for many international travellers. Kyobashi is an office district between Ginza and Nihonbashi. It's 5 minutes walk both from Ginza and Tokyo station. Recently a new high-rise building was opened along with commercial complex "Tokyo Square Garden" accommodating various attractive food & beverage facilities. Here we would like to introduce one of them. For others, definitely we will have another chance to cover them near future.

Denmark The Royal Cafe Terrace is located on B1 (basement 1st) floor of Tokyo Square Garden, which is directly connected to/from Exit No.3 of Kyobashi subway station on Ginza line.

Furniture and wall are decorated in various colours.

Even from outside, it looks to be a fun and cosy place. 

 

 

Physically it is on the basement floor but the cafe is located in front of a large courtyard where sunlight directly comes in. When the weather is fine, seats on the outside terrace must be the best place!

 

 

When I ordered "Royal milk tea", it was provided with cute latte art!

 

 

For lunch, Denmark style open sandwich is also available and on weekday it opens for breakfast from morning.

 

Cafe name: Denmark The Royal Cafe Terrace

Address: B1 floor, Tokyo Square Garden 3-1-1 Kyobashi,

Chuo-ku, Tokyo

 Official site (in Japanese): http://www.tokyo-sg.com/shop/b1_01.html

大きな地図で見る

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

 

View Larger Map

 

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.