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)

Sushi Dai - Tsukiji market

Tokyo has an endless array of sushi choices, with decent offerings for every budget category. The fact is, even the mediocre sushi I have in Tokyo is better than some of the best sushi I've had elsewhere in the world. However, after having tried everything from cheap kaiten (rotator belt) sushi to 3-Michelin star establishments to Kyubey (creator of gunkan sushi), I have finally concluded that the best sushi in Tokyo is indeed found at Tsukiji market. Actually, let me backtrack. The best sushi is really an overbroad term - it may depend on whether you want "innovative" sushi, or an austere setting, or interaction with the chef, etc. For each of those categories, there's a restaurant that fits the bill, but the best sushi (in my opinion), in terms of freshness and taste, is at Sushi Dai in Tsukiji market.

I've tried both Sushi Dai and Sushi Daiwa (the original, and I believe owned by a family member of Dai's owner), as well as a couple other restaurants in Tsukiji, and Dai is my favorite. For 3850 yen, you are served the chef's omakase - ten pieces of the chef's choice (you can tell the chef if there are specific types you don't like - for example, I don't like "chewy" sushi such as ika, tako, clam, etc.), plus one piece of your choice, plus tuna and cucumber rolls and freshly cooked tamago. Sushi Dai also offers a 2500 yen set, but trust me - trust the chef and go with the chef's omakase. After all, if you waited 3 hours to eat sushi (which you will if you arrive anytime after 7 am), you might as well eat the best they have to offer!


Otoro - the most buttery, velvety toro I have ever had, without any of the chewy muscle strings that other otoro often has


Anago


Aji


Warm tamago, straight from the chef's pan

Food rating: *****
Bang for buck rating: 4.5 (half a star knocked off because you have to spend 3 hours of your life waiting in line, and time = money)

The essentials:
No website
Inside Tsukiji market, in block #6. Look for the ridiculously long line, and you've probably found it
Average price of meal for two: 7700 yen (~$85)

Uoshin

When I mentioned to a long-time Tokyo resident that I was having dinner at Uoshin, he scoffed that "Uoshin is for tourists and foreigners." It didn't dissuade me since I am a foreigner, and for the record, he was wrong because Uoshin was packed to the brim with Japanese and non-Japanese alike, progressively getting drunker, fuller, louder.

That being said, Uoshin is a good rendition of what a visitor or foreigner would imagine a rambunctious izakaya to be - full of salarymen letting their ties loose (literally and figuratively), fresh fish on display, chefs yelling out the mandatory "iratshai!" as you walk by. It certainly goes on my list of restaurants to take visitors from out of town for a lively izakaya experience. The food prices are some of the most reasonable I've come across, service is efficient, menu is diverse and food is quite good (I always find izakaya food to fall somewhere between "ok" and "quite" good" - never horrible, but never mind-blowingly amazing).


View of Uoshin from Gaienhigashi-dori


Uoshin's special roll - cucumber maki covered with minced toro, uni, ikura and kani


Braised yellowtail and daikon in dashi broth


Deep-fried fish skin


Spicy nabe

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

The essentials:
http://www.uoshin.ne.jp/
Location: several, but this one was on Gaienhigashi dori, near Tokyo Midtown
Average price of meal for two (with drinks) - but best with groups: 6000 yen (~$65)

Le Parc

"Yum Cha" means "drinking tea" in Cantonese and refers to what most people generally call "dim sum" - an event that marries drinking tea with eating small dishes. Whatever the correct nomenclature, I love me some good dim sum. Having lived in San Francisco for most of my adult life, I always had access to amazing, and amazingly cheap, dim sum.

Chinese food in Tokyo is generally very disappointing - I would venture to say that most Chinese food I've had so far in Tokyo doesn't even live up to Panda Express standards (although to be fair, ramen is technically Chinese noodles, and the Japanese have ramen down to an art form).

So when a Cantonese friend told me there was an excellent dim sum joint in Ebisu that served dim sum all day, every day, I put it on my list of must-eats immediately.

I wasn't disappointed - all of the dishes we ordered were delicious, from the deep-fried wonton nest-wrapped shrimp, to the slightly sweet fried glutinous rice balls filled with meat, to the various steamed har giow, to the sauteed pea sprouts. I was in dim sum heaven. The price was a bit of sticker shock after being used to being able to get more than my fill of dim sum for less than $10 in SF, but just knowing that there is a haven of excellent Cantonese food in Tokyo makes me feel a little bit closer to SF.


Egg roll, wonton-nest wrapped fried shrimp, glutinous rice balls filled with meat


Assortment of steamed dumplings


Sauteed pea sprouts

Food rating: **** and a half
Bang for buck rating: 3.5

The essentials:
No website
3 minute walk from west exit of JR Ebisu station, Tokyo
Average price of meal for two: 8000 (~$90)

Lauderdale

Lauderdale is the kind of place that makes me feel so cozy and happy that ever since my first visit, I've been planning my next. It's the type of place I would love to live next to so I could stroll in every morning for a cappuccino and newspaper before heading to the office. I loved the kitschy hats on the walls as decor, the laid back brasserie vibe, the shabby chicness, feeling like I was caught somewhere between Paris and the West Village in New York.

And I adored their mushroom and cheese souffle - served perfect straight from the oven: airy, light, savory, delicious. Lauderdale sugar-coats the rim of the souffle dish so that you get a slightly sweet finish to each fluffy bite.

The brunch specials all come with your choice of two sides, one of which can be a breakfast beverage (coffee, OJ, tea, etc.). All in all, it's great value for great food, and Roppongi Hills was in need of a refreshing new restaurant. Lauderdale, je t'aime!


Blueberry pancakes


Perfect mushroom and cheese souffle


Mama's garden omelette with bacon

Food rating: *** and a half (4.5 for the souffle)
Bang for buck rating: 4

The essentials:
No website
Location: Off Keyakizaka Street in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo
Average price of meal for two (brunch): 3500 yen (~$40)

Sushi Kyubey - Hotel Okura

My first experience at Sushi Kyubey will always be remembered as the night I dined with Hugh Grant. I mean sure, he sat at the bar about 3 feet away from our table, but I think that proximity is close enough that it counts to say that we had dinner together. Actually, for the first full hour of dinner, we didn't even notice him. We were halfway through when my friend suddenly said: "that guy looks so much like Hugh Grant. He sounds like him too." And I turned around looked at him and replied: "that IS Hugh Grant." After debating whether to do the teeny-bopper thing and ask for a picture with him, we decided not to. I guess because we are no longer teeny boppers?

In any case, Sushi Kyubey is supposed to be one of the very best sushi places in all of Tokyo. Gunkan-maki, the sushi that is wrapped in nori (such as uni or ikura), was created at Sushi Kyubey in the 1930's. The original location is in Ginza, but we decided to dine at the Hotel Okura location, which was recommended by a friend as her favorite location for its intimate setting.

Verdict? The slices of fish are fresh and delicious, the uni was silky with no briny flavor at all and the tuna roll that was served at the end was surprisingly super-delicious. It was unlike any other tuna roll I've had - it just had a little something extra.

When I used to live in the States, sushi was sushi. There was good sushi and bad sushi, but I didn't have sushi often enough to be able to tell the nuanced differences between different sushi chefs. But that is one of the luxuries of Tokyo - you have access to so much good food, so much amazing sushi, that after awhile, you actually can talk intelligently about different sushi.

While Kyubey's fish as fresh as you would expect from a high-end sushi restaurant, the rice to me was a bit bland. They must use a milder vinegar, or less vinegar, because I couldn't really taste the vinegar in the rice at all. Like all foods, I think how you like your sushi rice is a matter of personal taste, and I think I prefer mine a bit more vinegary.

We ordered the omakase (the chef's selection course), which included 10 nigiri, tuna roll, cucumber roll and unagi.


Otoro, hirame, another white fish, buri, maguro (not pictured: amaebi)


Delicious aji, uni, bonito and kohada


End of the meal - Surpisingly delicious negitoro roll, cucumber roll and unagi two ways (grilled with salt and with unagi sauce)


Green tea ice cream - tasted more like vanilla ice cream than green tea (not part of chef's course)

Food Rating: **** (delicious, fresh fish, but rice falls short)
Bang for Buck Rating: 3 (Sushi Dai at Tsukiji is less than half the price!)

The essentials:
http://www.kyubey.jp/
Location: basement of main building of Hotel Okura, Kamiyacho, Tokyo
Average price of meal for two (dinner): 22,000 yen (~$250)

Tokyo Weekender

I'll continue to update this blog when I can (have a backlog of great restaurants I need to write about!) but for now, I can also be found here: http://weekenderjapan.com/

I've been asked to be a food writer for Tokyo Weekender magazine, as well as the blogger for the magazine's "Tokyo Foodspotting" blog! The blog is updated every Tuesday morning and covers unique, interesting or wacky food discoveries in Tokyo, while the food reviews will be in the bi-monthly issues of the magazine, as well as the on-line magazine.