Chinese in Azabujuban @ 中華菜館 源記

 

VERY simple chinese food. Including a side dish of dumplings it cost ~1000Yen. I didn't expect much at any point, definitely not when the food was served, but although the dumplings were disappointing, this simple noodle stir fry dish tasted surpringly good. Which isn't saying a lot, because of the low expectations, but overall pretty good chinese food.

Rating: 2.5/5

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1314/A131401/13137139/

Sushi in Ikebukuro @ 寿司田 池袋パルコ店

There were 2 good things about this sushi lunch. It was very cheap at 1260Yen and there were no bad pieces. Sadly enough there was not a single piece that stood out positively in any way either. They were all extremely average, which made for a very boring lunch. Add onto that the disappointing miso soup and I will not be returning here. There's far too many other restaurants in and around Ikebukuro station.

Rating: 2/5

Best Piece: None stood out. If I HAVE to pick one: Maguro-Maki - Tuna Roll
Worst Piece: None stood out. If I HAVE to pick one: Uni - Sea Urchin

Recommendation: Go to one of the 100+ other restaurants in Ikebukuro station or one of the 1000+ restaurants in the surrounding area.

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1305/A130501/13027946/

Sushi in Marunouchi @ ちよだ鮨 丸ビル店

This was my 3rd time eating at Chiyoda Sushi at the Marunouchi building. I've already been here twice last year with a friend who introduced me to this restaurant and since we liked it so much, we decided to go to Chiyoda Sushi yet again. The best thing about this restaurant is the amount of food you get. The side dishes are big and plentiful and the amount of sushi you get is outstanding. This set set us back 3500Yen, but if you include the MASSIVE miso soup and the salad it's a great value for money dinner. Some of the pieces of fish on top of the sushi are also huge. Sometimes this can be really bothersome, but at this restaurant it's not bad, because the fish quality is good, but nonetheless I prefer a slice of fish that fits the rice better and that fits more easily in my mouth.
The miso soup we were served is the best I've ever had with a huge piece of crab in it. Very, very tasty. A weak point were the Akagai and Uni. The quality of the Akagai seemed really bad and the Uni left a bit of an aftertaste meaning the chef put too much Uni on there.
Even though I do very much like this sushi restaurant. The rice quality and temperature were sublime and last but not least the chef is not afraid to use his wasabi and that's exactly the kind of chef I like.

Best Piece: O-Toro - Fatty Tuna
Worst Piece: Akagai - Red Blood Clam

Lunch Rating: 4/5
Dinner Rating: 4-/5

Recommendation: Go for lunch. If you think their dinner's good value for money, you haven't seen their lunch deals yet!


http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1302/A130201/13048173/

Yakitori in Jiyuugaoka @ ヨシナリ商店

My first Yakitori in Japan and even outside of Japan I have not eaten Yakitori very often, so I can't compare this to a lot of other Yakitori meals. However, I can vouch for the atmosphere and owner of this tiny Yakitori bar. Although there wasn't much room, it was filled with friendly people and it was someone's birthday. It didn't take long before the entire bar was having group discussions and in general the atmosphere was very friendly and happy. To top things off, either the shop owner or the one who's birthday it was treated the entire bar to champagne and cake.

I'm not too sure about the food, I think it was probably not the greatest Yakitori, but I can definitely say I had a fun evening in this place.

Rating: 3-/5

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1317/A131703/13143584/

Sushi in Kamiyachou @ 板前寿司 愛宕店

Just under 2k for a pretty royal set including a little salad and a miso soup. So good value for money. The sushi however was for the most part nothing special. Most of the pieces were pretty average, with the Tai actually being very bad. There was a bit of a tough piece of meat in the fish, which is unacceptable for Tai.
On the upside the rice temperature was spot on and a few pieces like the Saba, Amaebi, Tamago and Anago were very tasty.

Best Piece: Tamago - Omelette
Worst Piece: Tai - Sea Bream

Rating: 3/5

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130704/13118655/

Tonkatsu Nabe in Kamiyachou @ とんかつ 和幸 グリーンヒルズ愛宕店

Tonkatsu hotpot with a lot of side dishes for 1500Yen. If you're looking for a meal to fill you up, this is perfect. If you're looking for a meal that stands out in any way compared to your average meal, this is not the right place to find it.
If you're in the Kamiyachou area and hungry, I suggest going to the Ramen bar I recently went to, which is a 5 minute walk from here. At half the price and twice the quality, you'd have to be particularly keen on eating Tonkatsu to go to this restaurant.

Better option: http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/2013/02/ramen-in-azabujuban_19.html 

Rating: 2/5
 
http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130704/13020941/

Sushi in Ginza @ すきやばし次郎

On Tuesday the 9th of October during my trip to Japan last year, I had lunch at Sukiyabashi Jiro, supposedly the best sushi restaurant in the world with a 3 michelin star rating. I had EXTREMELY high expectations for a couple of reasons.

-It has 3 michelin stars

-It's my favorite type of food

-It's supposed to be the best sushi in the world.

-It is purely focussed on the food. No atmosphere, no fine dining. You get served 20 pieces of sushi in 20 minutes and that's it.

My father was telling me I was expecting too much and that it'd probably be disappointed. But I can't change expectations... they are what they are.

We went there with plenty of time to spare, which ended up being a good call. It was extremely hard to find and we had to ask 3 times, before being shown the entrance by a friendly man. We were ~10 minutes too early, but that was no problem.

I had expected beforehand that the atmosphere would likely be very tense and uncomfortable. In general people are expected to be grateful to have a chance to eat at Jiro, rather than Jiro being grateful that you come eat at his restaurant. He doesn't care whether you eat there or not. Furthermore, foreigners in particular are not very welcome from what I have heard.

Just as expected, the entree was a little awkward. We were the first to arrive and were straight away seated at the bar, asked if the menu looked okay, given a useless bowl of soy sauce, which presumably is only given to foreigners who don't understand that the best chefs already put the perfect amount of soy sauce on the sushi themselves and then they got to work.

Within 2 minutes after entering the restaurant we were eating our first piece of sushi. Around 15 minutes later we had eaten 20 pieces of sushi and we were seated at a table in a corner to have a dessert of melon and green tea. The pace was EXTREMELY quick. At 1-2 moments during the meal I had about a 15 second break between pieces, butmostly the next piece landed on my plate  less than 5 seconds after I had finished the last. At the time I was okay with it, not in love with it, but now having eaten at another high end sushi restaurant(Sushi Kanesaka), I have to say I actually LOVE how the sushi came in such quick succession and I think it is THE best way to enjoy sushi. It was like 1 long trip/dream of continuous sushi.

At the start of the meal when it was still very awkward, my dad foolishly tried to talk to Jiro. First of all Jiro doesn't speak english, second of all he doesn't speak to anyone, not even in Japanese. I guess the nerves got to him a bit. Jiro's son did talk a bit of English to us and he was very friendly. I talked back to him and the waiters in Japanese. After a few minutes I think that due to me talking Japanese and we just calmly eating our sushi and not doing anything crazy like using the extra soy sauce, the atmosphere became more relaxed and I started focussing on the important stuff. The sushi itself.

The menu consisted of the following 20 pieces:

-かれい, Karei, Righteye Flounder

-すみいか, Sumi-Ika, Golden Cuttlefish

-いなだ, Inada, Young Japanese Amberjack

-あかみ, Akami, Tuna

-ちゅうとろ, Chu-Toro, Middle Fatty Tuna #1

-ちゅうとろ, Chu-Toro, Middle Fatty Tuna #2

-こはだ, Kohada, Konoshiro Gizzard Shad

-むしあわび, Mushi-awabi, Abalone Ear Shell

-あじ, Aji, Horse Mackerel

-はまぐり, Hamaguri, Orient Clam

-さより, Sayori, Japanese Halfbeak

-くるまえび, Kuruma-Ebi, Kuruma Prawn

-あかがい, Akagai, Blood Clam

-かつお, Katsuo, Skipjack Tuna/Bonito

-しゃこ, Syako, Giant Clam Shell

-うに, Uni, Sea Urchin

-こばしら, Kobashira, Scallops

-いくら, Ikura, Salmon Roe

-あなご, Anago, Conger Eel

-たまご, Tamago, Omelette

The first 5 pieces were actually quite disappointing. I thought they were good, but not the best I've had. I had better Akami at Tsukiji for example. From the 2nd Chu-Toro and onwards though, things started to be pretty epic. There was a lot of fish on the menu that I had never had before. I had to look most of them up in the dictionairy to be able to translate them to english.

The Kohada was the first piece that REALLY blew my mind. The taste of the fish was very special. And I think it's probably a VERY hard fish to serve perfectly, but Jiro certainly knows how to. It was mind-boggling good.

The Aji was also fantastic. The Hamaguri I had never had before and was served with the same type of sauce as Unagi and Anago are usually served. I'm an instant fan of Hamaguri and from now on I will always order it if I see it on the menu.

One might argue Jiro made a mistake on the Sayori, putting too much wasabi on there, but it suited the fish perfectly! Simply amazing! The ebi was easily the best I ever had, the Akagai was DELICIOUS, the Katsuo was very special, the Syako like the Hamaguri I planned to always order from that point onwards, but I've never actually enjoyed it anywhere else than at Jiro.

Then came the Uni, Sea Urchin. I've had Sea Urchin before at Joel Robuchon's 3 Michelin Star restaurant in Vegas and did not like it. I didn't even finish eating it. Obviously I'm not gonna say no to a piece of sushi from Jiro and surprisingly enough it was good. By no means the best piece, but it was good. I told Jiro's son in Japanese that I disliked Joel Robuchon's Sea Urchin, but liked Jiro's Sea Urchin. Joel Robuchon is the one person Jiro looks up to, so when Jiro's son told his dad, you saw he cranked up and smiled. Which I don't think happens very often!

The last piece that I absolutely HAVE to mention is the Ikura. Looking back on the meal, I think the Ikura was my favorite piece of them all. The temperature of all the ingredients was just EPIC. The warm  rice, the even warmer, roasted nori, the cold Ikura. The perfect amount of Ikura... it was a piece of heaven!

The anago was the smoothest, softest I've ever had. Served very warm. So far I had not liked Japan's eel and thought London's eel was better, but Jiro changed that big time.

The last piece the Tamago, was by far the best Tamago I've ever had, but compared to a lot of the other pieces a little underwhelming.

Overall EASILY FAR AND AWAY the best meal of my life aswell as possibly the most special restaurant experience of my life, considering eating took <15 minutes and we were out the door in under 40 minutes. I also think there's a very high chance this'll remain the best meal I'll ever have in my entire lifetime. Until I go back to Jiro or maybe have a chance to check out Mizutani next time I go to Japan.

MUST-VISIT for sushi fans! Even worth a trip to the other end of the planet!

Rating: 5+++/5

Best Piece: The first 5
Better Piece: The rest
Best Piece: Kohada,  Hamaguri, Sayori, Syako
Ultimate piece: Ikura

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1301/A130101/13002260/

Ramen in Azabujuban @ めん蔵

I was hungry and it was lunchtime, so I walked into the first Ramen place I saw and boy did I choose a good one to walk in to. I went with a simple miso Ramen for just 700Yen, which in the middle of Azabujuban is great value.
The Ramen was great, very tasty and so were the toppings. Both the pork and egg were delicious and I love the fact that he put so much sesame seeds in there. I don't always finish the the soup after I eat the noodles and toppings, but in this case I definitely did. It was very good.

Rating: 4/5

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130704/13019464/

Ramen in Azabujuban @ 萬力屋 麻布十番店

Ramen + Gyoza for 1100Yen.

The extra large Gyoza was quite easily the best Gyoza I've ever had. The main dish, my Sesame Pork Ramen on the other hand was a bit disappointing. Not bad, but compared to the Ramen I ate in Japan last year, this is one of the weaker bowls I've had.

Rating: 2.5/5

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130702/13010627/

Sukiyaki + Shabu-Shabu in Shinjuku @ 鍋ぞう 新宿東口店

First off, I have to say this was only my 3rd time eating Shabu-Shabu or Sukiyaki, so I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this type of food. With that being said, I thought this was a great place. For 2600 Yen you get all you can eat Sukiyaki and Shabu-Shabu for 90 minutes. They have a huge vedgetable bar, loads of little extra like noodles, make your own sauces, ice cream and even curry.

Maybe I just got unlucky last time I ate Shabu-Shabu in Japan. That restaurant was not very good, this place however, is in a whole other league compared to that one.

Rating: 3.5/5

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1304/A130401/13027260/

Sushi in Urawa @ 江戸前がってん寿司 浦和店

Something went wrong with the picture I took, sadly enough.

The sushi was good. At 3600Yen, not the best value for money, but there was some expensive fish in there and the quality was good!

Best piece: Uni
Worst piece: Crab (tasted great, but 2 bones in there were unfortunate)

Rating: 3/5

http://tabelog.com/saitama/A1101/A110102/11003235/

Sushi in Shinagawa @ 築地玉寿司 ウィング高輪店

Turns out this is part of a big chain called Tsukiji Tama sushi. I had already previously eaten at one of their restaurants and Tsukiji and was quite pleased. This time, not quite as pleased as last time. Decent value at 1500Yen, but the sushi wasn't anything special. It was very well made and there was good amount of wasabi on there, but the quality of the fish was only so-so for Japanese standards and the rice was a bit on the cold side.

Best Piece: Nothing really stood out
Worst Piece: Cucumber Maki 

Rating: 2/5

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1314/A131403/13028304/