Roti Roppongi

I've posted an entry previously about brunch at Roppongi, but felt like a review of their dinner offerings was long overdue. I am a huge fan of Roti. Good food in good portions at good prices. Except for their salads, which are laughably small (but quite delicious).

I was initially led astray by the name "Roti," which I thought referred to the Indian bread, but I believe it's short for "Rotisserie," as one of their specialties is rotisserie chicken. Their classic rotisserie chicken is delicious, but I prefer the Peruvian chicken with cilantro-infused rice and beans (made with garbanzo beans), served with an addicting cilantro dipping sauce.

On a recent visit, I discovered a dish that in and of itself is reason alone to make a trip to Roti Roppongi: the truffle fries with grated parmesan cheese. Now, let me provide a little background. Despite my love of eating, I am a vain female and contrary to appearances on this website, DO watch what I eat, and run regularly to offset what I do eat. There are some foods that I generally think are not "worth the calories." And the humble potato is one of them. I almost never eat potatoes - fried, mashed, baked or steamed, I usually don't find potatoes delicious enough to waste on my daily intake of calories (to be fair, I will usually take a teeny bite to test a potato dish, but will almost never find it good enough to keep eating). I will occasionally make an exception for delicious french fries.

And let me tell you, my standard for what constitutes delicious french fries is pretty damn high - McDonald's and In N' Out fail my test (the latter, quite miserably). In fact, prior to my recent discovery of Roti Roppongi's truffled fries, the only fries that passed my taste test were the pommes frites at Chez Papa Resto in San Francisco - tossed with salt and rosemary and served with aioli, Chez Papa's fries are absolutely scrumptious - definitely worth the calories and the miles I have to run to make up for them. Roti Roppongi's truffled fries also pass my taste test. I will gladly run a few extra miles so that I can inhale more of the perfectly seasoned potatoes that somehow, magically taste so perfectly of truffles that I want to cry with joy. There you have it - I was so inspired by Roti Roppongi's fries that I've basically written an entire post about them.

P.S. Take advantage of their Tuesday wine club - 25% off any bottle of wine!

Truffle oil-fried french fries with parmesan

Garlic mushroom popovers

Bang Bang chicken salad

Food rating: ****
Bang for buck rating: 4

The essentials:
http://www.roti.jp/en/index.php
Location: Piramide Building, 1F, 6-6-9 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Average price of dinner for two (with drinks): 7000 yen (~$75)