Narisawa (Tokyo)

October 2017

Minami Aoyama 2-6-15, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062, Japan
Tel: +81 3 5785 0799
www.narisawa-yoshihiro.com


Our visit to Narisawa was long overdue. It was after all our first trip to Tokyo since 2011 and during that time, Narisawa gained much international attention, to large part because of its increasing omnipresence in The World's 50 Best Restaurants list over the past decade. When our trip to Tokyo this time was confirmed, Narisawa was the first restaurant we tried to book and to our good fortune, a table was secured. Located in the quiet and upmarket Aoyama district in Central Tokyo, it is easily accessible by subway, but we encountered a heavy downpour at that time and had to brave a good distance of unsheltered streets from the subway exit to reach the restaurant.

The dining room was a small but cozy space, decorated in the style of Japanese minimalism with modern edges. Their very international staff provided us with flawless service that night, and the pace of the meal was just right. The meal was also excellent, with every single course making sense in the order with which it was served, in tune with the autumn forest theme. Particularly memorable were the quail dish and the grapes dessert. As with any top restaurant specialising in 'cross-over' cuisine, there is always the question of whether the cuisine is Modern European with a local twist (which is more commonly the case), or vice versa. What pleasantly surprised us was that Narisawa (at least for the meal we had there) was the latter: it was essentially a modern Kaiseki meal which used mostly Japanese cooking techniques on a variety of different locally-sourced ingredients to create a very balanced taste profile, but wrapped in a quintessentially Modern European dining experience (e.g. our meal was nicely accompanied by a bottle of their house Blanc de Blanc champagne).

Satoyama Scenery and Essence of the Forest

- spring water - slight bamboo taste from the bamboo cup
- spinach and bamboo powder over sesame paste with twigs made of rice crackers

"Bread of the Forest 2010" - Moss

- chestnut bread, allowed to rise on table

Sweet Shrimp, Ishikawa - Hebesu, Miyazaki

- shrimp with dashi stock, slight tanginess
- in the style of cerviche

Salmon Roe, Hokkaido - Sudachi, Tokushima
Sea Urchin, Wakayama - Green Yuzu, Aichi

- sea urchin was on bed of chopped squid

Continuation of bread - put in a hot stone bowl and left to cook

Akashi Sea Bream, Hyogo
Kurakakoi Kombu, Rebun Island, Hokkaido

Completed bread with 'moss' butter

Bonito, Yamaguchi - Kabosu, Oita

Eggplant, Kyoto

- eggplant done 3 ways, covered with tomato water jelly and shitake mushrooms

Spiny Lobster, Kanagawa - Onion, Hyogo

- onion cream, sweet onion deglaze

Quail, Aichi - Burdock, Mie

- quail was perfect, intense charcoal-grilled flavours
- barley risotto base

Rosy Sea Bass, Ishikawa

- zucchini, tomato salsa

"Sumi 2008" Kobe Beef, Hyogo

- charcoal grilled rump steak
- intense sauce of red wine, beef stock and steam-aged for 48 hours
- gingko nuts and japanese pepper

6 Kinds of Grapes, Oita

- many different flavours and textures with yuzu sorbet. Superb

Chestnut, Kumamoto

- in season, very good

Matcha, Fukuoka

- looks like macaron but is rice cracker filled with red bean like traditional Japanese dessert.

Ginza Iwa (Tokyo)

October 2017

8-4-4 Ginza, Chuo 104-0061, Tokyo, Japan
Tel: +81 3 3572 0955

A sushi restaurant which really impressed us on this trip was Ginza Iwa. Tucked along a small street in Ginza, and taking up the ground floor and basement of a narrow shophouse, it seemed rather popular with the foreigners as most of those dining with us that lunch were from out of town. However, these were not your usual sushi neophytes but experienced global foodies; for example, in the six-seater basement we dined at, we were accompanied by a couple from China and another from Malaysia, and no one asked for their sushi to be cooked. It helped that the sushi chef spoke decent English and tried his best to engage all of us with humour. After all, this is a restaurant which just received its first Michelin star, so it should be expecting its fair share of international diners.

The lunch was a 13 piece sushi course.  Below are the photos of some of them. The chef used 2-week aged tuna and the flavours were very intense (for example, the Akami was aged between two pieces of seaweed). We also thought that the rice was very well-balanced with the right seasoning of vinegar. The lunch went on at a good pace and lasted about 90 minutes. At ¥8,000, it was not a cheap lunch but was decent value for money given the very high quality.

Dons de la Nature (Tokyo)

October 2017

104-0061 Tokyo, Chuo, Ginza, 1 Chome−7−6, Japan
Tel: +81 3 3563 4129
dons-nature.jp

Dons de la Nature is regarded as one of the top 3 steakhouses in Tokyo (the other 2, Karamura and Aragawa are practically impossible to get a seat in without insider help). From the crowd there on a Wednesday night (there was only one other table when we were there), it may be that it is still relatively unknown. Or it could be because a meal here is prohibitively expensive. Nonetheless, we were on a hunt for the best steak in Tokyo and this was apparently the place to get it.

Located in the basement of a building off the main street of Ginza, it was obvious that the chef-owner Yoshiji Otsuka is a francophile. Empty bottles of French wines littered the entrance of the restaurant and also inside, and even the wine list was predominantly French. We tried to order the Almaviva on the winelist and chef Otsuka wrinkled his nose at that choice, imploring me to choose the Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru he highly recommended instead. We usually dislike being made to take a bottle of wine over our own choice, but fortunately, the Burgundy did well for the meal and was a very good accompaniment for the steak.

Chef Otsuka was obviously very proud of his beef, and that was all he was interested in talking about. Less than 5 seconds after we got seated, he brought his prized beef selection to our table. There was the Hokkaido sirloin, the Matsusaka sirloin and the Omi tenderloin. He recommended the Matsusaka and Omi beef and we left him to prepare for us a portion each of those for us.

Almost as an afterthought, he served us some bread (the brioche was crispy, warm and sweet) and we ordered a shrimp cocktail and vegetable salad, which were decent.

In under 15 minutes, the steak was served. It was cooked over a special charcoal kiln and was nicely charred on the outside. Thought we were not asked what kind of doneness we wanted, the steaks came out medium rare / medium in doneness. These were probably the best Wagyu steaks we have ever tasted. The sirloin had more intense flavours but the tenderloin had the better texture. High quality wagyu steaks are generally expected to be so tender that you can cut them with a spoon, but in this case, the steaks weren't as fatty as many others yet still had such strong umami flavours. Moreover, the charred surface was done just nicely without being bitter.

Chef Otsuka came over to chat further about the steaks, being obviously very proud of his beef. He didn't even ask us about dessert and we were so full that it was probably a good idea to stop there. Nonetheless, dinner with a bottle of wine was over and done with within an hour.

This is definitely a destination restaurant just for the steaks.

Cuisine Michel Troisgros (Tokyo)

February 2011

Hyatt Regency Hotel 1F, 2-7-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo
Tel: + 813 5321 3915
http://www.troisgros.jp/


Cuisine Michel Troisgros is a 2-Michelin star French restaurant in Tokyo, and is the branch restaurant of the famed 3-star Troisgros in Roanne, France. Michel Troisgros is one of the titans of French haute-cuisine and his restaurant Troisgros is in our to-do list sometime in the near future. Therefore, it seemed appropriate for us to try his Tokyo restaurant in the meantime while we were in Tokyo, as we plan our trip to the French countryside in the coming years. The restaurant is located on the first floor of the Hyatt Regency in Nishi-Shinjuku, which appeared to be quite old with a rather dated and tired interior decor, but we were surprised that the restaurant itself was very classy.

We started with some champagne and ordered a bottle of the 1999 Vosne Romanee Premier Cru "Les Rouges" from Domaine Jean Grivot, which was a decent claret. Amuse bouche was an interesting selection of foie gras covered with sesame seeds and some samosas. Something of this restaurant reminded us of La Calandre, perhaps it was the tableware and/or the lighting (see review: La Calandre).

We started with a pumpkin soup with almonds which was very good, with the nuts providing a sweetness and a crunchy texture to the thick soup.

The bread basket was excellent and the brioche was exceptionally good, to the point that we were afraid that we would end up eating too much of it to the detriment of the rest of our meal.

The food at Cuisine Michel Troisgros tends towards the innovative with the use of fresh and natural ingredients, and every course reflected this philosophy. We had the superb scallops with basil and truffle on toasted slice-melba, which was a thin pastry with alternating slices of raw scallops, black truffle and basil leaves, with a touch of olives on the top. There was a clear diversity of tastes from the three ingredients (i.e. taste of the sea from the scallops, of the earth from the truffles and of herbs from the basil) which managed to combine very well on the palate.

The next dish was the pan-fried foie gras with slightly acidic beet, rubbed apple and pine kernel. This was one of the better foie gras paired with beet dishes which we have eaten. In our experience, beet can sometimes be too sour and this adversely affects the taste of the liver. However, this dish was well balanced in that respect. The pine nuts were an interesting touch as well.

The roasted monkfish with preserved olives, grapefruit and saffron nage was also very good. The fish was juicy with a springy texture (as good monkfish should be poached) and the saffron and grapefruit broth was a good complement.

The next dish was something rather familiar to us after the past week dining at Japanese restaurants. It was the spot prawn and squids, vanilla flavoured tomato water, celeriac and basil. This particular prawn cooked in this particular manner was similar to the sushi we had been having all week, but in this case, instead of rice, the prawn was paired exquisitely with an elegant clear broth, herbs and pieces of squid.

Finally, the meat course was the venison with orange butter, endive, black trumpets with roasted hazelnuts. This was accompanied by an excellent potato gratin side dish. Surprisingly, this was slightly underwhelming as the orange butter did not do much with the venison, although the potato and the sauces were very good.

Curiously, we weren't shown the cheese trolley (perhaps it was due to the fact that there was already a cheese dish included in the menu), but fortunately, the one piece of cheese with this dish was a blue cheese which I liked: the forme d'ambert. This was delicious together with the caramelised pear. We did find the plate familiar though, and later realised that we had seen it at Caprice in Hong Kong a month ago (check out the fish course in the earlier review: Caprice).

We particularly enjoyed dessert, as they were light and refreshing instead of the more customary heavy chocolate desserts. We started with the almonds and red berries 'soup' whereby the almond foam in the shape of clouds sat on top of a sweet water with red berries powder sprinkled thereon. This was followed by the warm hazelnut cake with orange flower sherbet which was very good.

We loved the petit four selection, what with the cute bite-sized sweets like marshmallows and mini-muffins.

We had a really great dinner here, as the food was innovative without being pretentious and every course tasted as good as it looked. We now look forward to dining at the main restaurant in Roanne.


Food: Extraordinary, we were surprised by our meal here having come here with relatively low expectations (after reading reviews from other bloggers)
Wines: Average wine list, nothing spectacular
Ambience: Comfortable and warm
Service: Genuinely friendly, though not as slick as L'Osier


Camera: Sony NEX5 16mm f/2.8