Sunday, June 28, 2009

20 Bites of Tokyo

1. Kyubei, Ginza



Established in 1936 and probably the most famous of the Michelin starred sushi places; Kyubei is a place where you come for a good sushi, sample a part of sushi history and pay respects to the inventors of the gunkan sushi.

2. Random Izakaya under the tracks, Akihabara
Cute mother and son team, a totally random find but fabulous.

3. Sushizanmai, Akihabara



“Sushi Galore” which was incidentally was offering specials for different cut
s of tuna for the day – maguro, otoro, chutoro, aburi toro - we glossed the laminated menu and settled for a self-designed “maguro zanmai” and a little bit more.

4. Jangara Kyushu Ramen, Akihabara



The pitter patter weather made it perfect for a hot bowl of ramen but that also meant standing in line huddled under a transparent umbrella, which really is no fun. Squashed up next to otakus in the shoebox sized shop is also half the experience of noisily slurping down the thin noodles and drinking hot rich tonkotsu spiked with mentaiko and laced with oil.

5. Beef Rice Bowl, Akihabara

Exit from Jangara Kyushu Ramen and take 15 steps in the left diagonal direction and have a gratifying beef rice bowl which I’m convinced was my eating companion’s obsession during our entire trip in Tokyo – sometimes measuring our tax refunds in units of beef rice bowls.

6. Freshness Burger, Akihabara
Made with nature friendly ingredients and fresh ingredients – we had the classic WW burger, double patty with the cheese and the works. Amongst others, they serve a spam burger, how does that ties in with the freshness philosophy?

7. ANA Akasaka Teppanyaki, Akasaka



Fantastically fresh seafood and scrumptious fatty beef cooked in a highly stylized manner that is designed to titillate your appetite. Really really awesome.


8. Jou mon, Ropponggi



Other than me being mildly obsessed with one of the waiter’s really cute fish motif shirt, the whole experience here is fantastic. The shelves and bar top
is lined with shochu jars and bottles of sake and the menu is extensive. We ate for hours and went through sticks and stick of yakitori along with mimigar, homemade tofu, ramen and washed it all down with sake and grapefruit sours.

9. Caplis Royal



If you love Calpis, think rich creamy Calpis. Yum.


10. Tenfusa, Tsukiji



T
sukiji, even when you grumpily drag yourself out of bed in at 4ish in the morning with your eyelids half open, you'll eventually get over it and be glad to you got up, it an awesome awesome place. The amazing natural beauty in the colours, shapes and sizes that the ocean surrenders to us is so beautiful and everything looks oh so delicious. You can spend hours exploring, gawking and being trigger happy in this market and once you get hungry there are the looong snaking queues at Sushi Dai and Sushi Daiwa or if you can’t wait in line, our greasy alternative of tempura in the corner store and a wake me up coffee and jam toast in the cafe.

11. Robuchon at Ropponggi

Good but disappointing.

12. Aoki Sadaharu



13. Kuon, Ebisu



Raw pig liver anyone?


14. Random Soba



15. Midori Sushi, Shibuya



Let’
s face it, Midori has kickass value bites. Sit in line for a while but the sushi platters are true to its motto of being of high quality and of good value. The platters are fabulous and it being the uni season, an uni each – so that we won’t fight but what I really liked was the aburi platter.

16. Pap House, Shibuya



Hand picked be
ef and only marbling score 10; the beef here is sweet fatty beef. Hear the sizzle, witness the rising flames as the fat drips and onto charcoal, smell the sweet fat and then taste the good cow’s life.

17. Mizutani Sushi, Ginza

Here I rediscovering the art and craft of sushi and that not all tamago-s are made equally – there are tamago-s and then there is mizutani’s tamago.

18. Sweet Potato Agemanju & Tempura, Asakusa



The more important reason why we went to Asakusa.

19. Okonomiyaki



20. First K
itchen, Akihabara
Tokyo on a budget? Fast food but not necessarily bad food, their mentaiko pasta goes down easy and the chicken wings are supposed to be good.

4 Comments:

Anonymous p said...

hey just a quick qn - do you think the sushi at kyubei is a lot better than midori or sushizanmai - to justify the much higher price? just in terms of taste.

thanks!

7:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Vivien and I left our hearts at Sushi Mitsutani. The tamago was worth more to me than its weight in gold, which it incidentally resembled in its charcol grilled perfection state *bliss out in memory lane*

There's also a Sushi Zenmai in Tsukiji :D

-Matt

3:06 PM  
Blogger Camemberu said...

What a fantastic list...makes me yearn for Tokyo again! Thanks for the photos!

5:44 PM  
Blogger Justin D. Pereira said...

I feel like visiting!!!
Yummy pics.

Justin
www.j2k3blogs.com

12:46 AM  

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