Roan Kikunoi

One of the perks of living in Hong Kong is the opportunity to travel - Hong Kong International Airport is fantastically well-connected to hundreds of international locations, and getting in and out of the airport is the easiest I've experienced the world over. Also, it helps that the husband works for an airline, which offers some travel perks.

This past weekend, we did a weekend trip to Kyoto, one of my favorite spots in Japan. Kyoto is so lovely and serene - it's a city where you still get to see geishas dressed in kimonos walking around in the Gion district, where you can spend a relaxing night in a ryokan eating an exquisite kaiseki meal and bathing in onsen and where there are endless opportunities to eat delicious soba, tempura, tofu, green tea desserts, kaiseki and street snacks.

Our final meal in Kyoto was kaiseki at Roan Kikuno, a 2-Michelin starred restaurant featuring traditional Japanese cuisine.

Hassun (appetizers): "horse reins" sushi (no horse involved, supposed to be shapes to look like horse reins), cod roe terrine, marinated tofu in pickled-ume (Japanese plum), broccoli rabe with mustard, sweet black beans, whitebait with yuzu, steamed kabocha pumpkin, marinated Fuki buds in miso

Amuse: steamed snow crab with grated red turnip, ginger and crab roe

Sashimi (first course): hirame (flounder) and botan-ebi (sweet prawn), grated wasabi and nori, served with soy sauced and flounder liver sauce (not pictured). The hirame dipped in a sauce made of hirame liver was amazing - rich, savory, brimming with umami

 Sashimi (second course): koshibi (baby tuna) served with marinated egg yolk sauce

Soup: minced duck meatball, yomogi (mochi made of Japanese mugwort), arrowhead root, leek, daikon, yuzu, carrot and gold leaf

As we were only having lunch, we did a truncated version of the kaiseki meal, skipping a couple of the courses, such as the yakimono (grilled course). Our next course was Japanese hotpot served with a broth made of sake, daikon and sweet carrot and a plate of buri (amberjack) and mibuna greens, which you cook quickly in the broth, then dip into the ponzu sauce and eat.

Our rice course (always the penultimate course before dessert): rice steamed with tilefish and shiso. The chef painstakingly takes out every fish bone in front of you, then mixes the rice together with the fish and shiso and serves the rice in individual bowls.

Japanese pickles to accompany the rice. A burdock soup was also served, which is not pictured.

Dessert: homemade strawberry ice cream and "sponge cake pudding" - basically a pound cake soaked in eggy custard with a creme brulee top. I didn't think the strawberry ice cream paired very well with the cake, but the cake was rich, creamy and delicious!

While the meal was pretty good and each course did a good job of honing in on the subtle flavors of each of the ingredients, the experience was, on the scale of amazing Japanese meals, only a 7 out of 10. It may have had to to do with the fact that we were 45 minutes late (the gods were against us - for whatever reason, the traffic that morning was horrendous), which admittedly I know is a cardinal sin in haute Japanese dining but we didn't know there would be so much traffic! Our tardiness clearly angered the chef so much that he refused to serve us himself and instead made his sous chefs serve us. The only problem with that was that none of the sous chefs spoke English and were not able to instruct us on how to eat the dishes (for example, the hirame liver sauce was only for the hirame, and the ebi should be dipped in the soy sauce), so we'd fumble and try to figure it out, then the chef would come over and admonish us: "no no no, hirame goes in liver sauce! Dip more sauce, more sauce!" The service marred our overall experience - I suggest that if you don't want to suffer the wrath of the chef, make sure you are on time!

Food rating: *** and a half
Bang for buck rating: 3

The essentials:
http://kikunoi.jp/english/store/roan/
Location: 118 Saito-cho, Shijo-sagaru, Kiyamachi-dori, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto
Average price of kaiseki: Lunch options for 4,200 yen, 7,350 yen or 10,500 yen; Dinner options from 10,500 yen to 18,900 yen

Amber

From the very beginning (delightful amuse bouche) to the very end (perfect assorted petit fours), the degustation menu at Amber was absolutely perfect. Very few times in my life have I had a meal (especially a meal with numerous courses) where there wasn't a single flaw - dinner at Amber is one of those rare perfect meals that I can count on one hand.

Amber is perfect for special occasions - the service is impeccable, the decor is sophisticated yet understated, and the food is clearly the star of the night.

One of several amuse bouche - candied foie gras lollipops

Hokkaido sea urchin in lobster gelee with cauliflower, caviar and crispy seaweed waffles

Smoked Tasmanian salmon confit with avocado, horseradish and Granny smith apple

Seared Normandy diver scallop with toasted brioche, mousseline kabocha squash and dried basque country sausage

Langoustine and foie gras, steamed with cep ravioli, cep mushroom and dry sherry consomme

Kagoshima wagyu beef - sirloin MS A4 oven roasted with souffle potatoes au jus

Kagoshima wagyu beef - braised short rib with passion fruit-glazed root vegetables

French farmer cheeses

Fruit plate

Blood orange segments with preserved orange skin and rosemary prepared with Greek yoghurt as a vacherin 'coque'

Abinao 85% chocolate souffle with brown rum anglaise and cacao sorbet

Assorted petit fours

Food rating: *****
Bang for buck rating: 3.5

The essentials:
www.amberhongkong.com
Location: 7th floor, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, 15 Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong
Average price of dinner (degustation menu) for two: $500

Luce

I've been wanting to write about Luce ever since I fell in love with it after dining there in December. When I visited, it was fairly empty so I truly hope that SF diners discover its delicious, perfectly executed cuisine soon so that Luce doesn't fall prey to the travesty of amazing-but-failed-anyway restaurants that plague the restaurant world.

If you live anywhere near the bay area and need a place to go for a special occasion or just a fabulous meal, go to Luce. If you are visiting SF and want to have a fabulous meal, go to Luce. In a city full of amazing restaurants, Luce shines.

Recently awarded a Michelin star, I think it deserves at least another one (I've eaten my way through a fair share of Michelin stars in SF and Tokyo, and Luce is truly memorable).

Lobster gnocchi - the most delicious, chewy-soft gnocchi I've ever had

Luce's modern take on carbonara - squid ink infused housemade trofiette pasta with slow cooked organic egg, pancetta and parmesan. Lip-smackingly delicious.

"Le Jardin de Printemps" - spring vegetable garden with black olive and rye soil

Lobster and seared foie gras on a bed of faro

Food rating: *****
Bang for buck rating: 4.5

The essentials:
www.lucewinerestaurant.com/
Location: inside the Intercontinental hotel on Howard and 5th Streets
Average price of dinner for two: $100

Sushi Saito

The lunch course at Sushi Saito has to be the best-kept secret in Tokyo. For 5500 yen, diners are served a tiny appetizer, miso soup, 10 pieces of exquisite sushi prepared by Chef Saito himself while you watch, and a tuna roll to finish. Considering that it's only about 1500 yen more than the omakase course at Sushi Dai in Tsukiji, but with the benefit of a reservation (i.e. no 3 hour wait) and the unforgettable mesmerizing experience of watching a sushi master in action, not to mention its 3-Michelin star rating, I was fairly surprised that I was able to secure a reservation for lunch only 3 days in advance, and even more surprised to find 3 empty seats throughout the lunch (in a 7-seat restaurant). While I'd love to keep this secret to myself so that I never have problems securing a lunch reservation, I've decided I shall share, so that you too can enjoy the perfect sushi dining experience that is a meal at Sushi Saito.

Unfortunately I have no photos, but there are some great ones here: http://www.potatomato.com/seat/archives/002588.html

Food rating: *****
Bang for buck rating: 5

The essentials:
No website
Location: next to entrance to a garage directly across from the US embassy, 1-9-15 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Price of 10-piece omakase lunch: 5500 yen (~$60); dinner prices increase significantly

Nodaiwa

Nodaiwa is a Michelin-starred restaurant that specializes in exactly one item: unagi. Nodaiwa has been around for over 160 years and is currently run by the fifth generation of the same family that founded the restaurant. Unlike most other unagi restaurants, Nodaiwa uses unagi caught from the wild (instead of farmed unagi). The unagi is tender, fall-apart-in-your-mouth flaky, but comes at a high price: the very cheapest meal offered by Nodaiwa is a lunch set for 2250 yen, plus a 10% service charge. This includes unadon (a bowl of rice topped with seasoned unagi), soup made from unagi liver, tsukemono (Japanese pickles), grated daikon in dashi broth to cleanse your palate, and tea.

While my meal was good, I was left thinking: "hmm, that was kind of expensive for lunch" and "wow, a Michelin star for this? really??" I think there's something slightly faulty with the Michelin rating system when it hands out exactly the same number of stars for a one-dimensional restaurant that basically makes only one dish (because while Nodaiwa's unagi is good, it wasn't mind blowingly better than other unagi I've had) as it does to restaurants such as Tapas Molecular Bar (one of my favorite restaurant on the planet, truly innovative and creative molecular gastronomy).



Food rating: ***
Bang for buck rating: 2.5 (I can think of better ways to fill my belly with 2500 yen)

The essentials:
No website for Japan (but one available for their restaurant in France)
Location: Higashi Azabu,on Sakurada-dori
Average price of lunch for two: 6000 yen (~$65)

Chez Tomo

I'm still on my self-declared mission to eat through 20 Michelin stars (a mere fraction of its over 200 total stars!) in Tokyo within a year, but Michelin stars don't come cheap, so I perused my Tokyo Michelin guide for the best value-for-money meals I could find and Chez Tomo topped the list for its 2890 yen lunches and 5780 yen dinners (not cheap, but for a full course meal in Tokyo, a veritable deal). Not to mention, their signature dish of 25 vegetables, prepared in bite-sized morsels, already put them on my radar.

On a quiet street in Shirokane, Chez Tomo is a cozy yet modern, sleek yet unpretentious restaurant with an all-white setting. The service is impeccable and the staff goes out of their way to make your dining experience memorable (including trying to move a light fixture so that our photo would come out better!).

The dishes are well executed French-influenced-by-Japan, served beautifully, and were generally excellent. The 5780 yen dinner course is all inclusive - six courses, two of which are set (two appetizers) and four which you choose (appetizer, main, dessert, choice of after-meal beverage).


Butter and pork rillettes for bread


Lobster and soft-scrambled egg in a sea urchin soup (could have used a teeny bit more salt, but otherwise luxurious and delicious)


Foie gras terrine - made with actual pieces of foie instead of the foie spread/paste usually found in terrines. Absolutely delicious!


Chez Tomo's signature vegetable plate: 25 different vegetables, prepared uniquely. Some were delicious, others didn't quite hit the mark, but I was just happy to see so many vegetables on my plate!


Delicious duck two ways, served on a puree of beans (I couldn't tell what kind...it was delicious and tasted a bit like hummus, a bit like refried beans)


Deconstructed cheesecake - a mound of fresh whipped mascarpone on top of a crumble crust, with strawberry coulis. So delicious and light!


Crepe flambee dessert - quite good, but I thought the cheesecake dessert was the best out of the three (the other dessert, not pictured, was creme brulee with ice cream)

Food rating: ****
Bang for buck rating: 4.5

The essentials:
http://www.chez-tomo.com/
Location: Shirokane, Tokyo
Average price of meal for two (dinner): 12,000 yen (~$135)

Argento Aso

Argento Aso is technically an Italian restaurant, but the kind of Italian restaurant that serves steamed sweet potato and tsukemono - pickled vegetables (albeit a fancy version) with your meat course and deconstructs traditional Japanese "curry rice" into an Italian-esque risotto with curry foam. It's modern Italian influenced by Japan, with a flair of molecular gastronomy. And for its innovative take on Italian cuisine, the 2010 Michelin guide awarded Argento Aso 2 stars, which they clearly worked very hard for, evidenced by the flawless service, well-executed dishes and creative presentation.

Argento Aso is the kind of place you take a date you really want to impress, or celebrate a special occasion. It's the kind of place that brings you a cart with a choice of fancy bottled waters - everything from Voss to Aqua Panna to San Pellegrino. It's a teeny bit pretentious, but the 2- and 3-starred Michelin restaurants often tend to be so. All in all, it works. From the initial bread offering, consisting of 6 different types of breads baked on the premises to the post-dessert sweets offering, presented like a bouquet of flowers in a vase, Argento Aso definitely impresses. Be warned - you may feel like you don't want to eat for another week afterward!


Assorted breads, served with a trio of butters (plain whipped, olive oil and smoked - each person gets their own set of butters!)


Amuse bouche - salmon trio: baked salmon toast, salmon mousse (in the bottom of the cup, suspended upside down), salmon tartare


Foie gras terrine with flower petals and honey foam


Seared foie gras with balsamic reduction


Pasta with scallops and dried fish shavings - sounds funny but tasted delicious


Spaghetti with mushrooms - you pour the pasta yourself over the mushrooms and sauce


"Curry rice" - creamy risotto with a perfectly pan-roasted fish with delicious crispy skin and curry foam


Roasted duck breast, served with a side dish of the duck's liver (not pictured)


Delicious charred medium rare steak with polenta cake and mascarpone filled pasta shell


Pickled vegetables and mushroom tempura


The sweetest steamed sweet potatoes ever - steamed over rocks


Tiramisu with freshly ground coffee bean dust - delicious!


Millefoglie with berries and vanilla bean gelato


Post-dessert sweets: fruit jellies, berries, marshmallows and tiny financiers

Food rating: **** and a half
Bang for buck rating: 3 (VERY pricey!)

The essentials:
http://www.hiramatsu.co.jp/eng/restaurants/argento-aso/index.html
Location: on the 8th and 9th floors of the ZOE Ginza building, a block from Yurakucho station
Average price of meal for two (dinner): 36,000 yen (~$400)