Ginza Okuda Carioca Building B1 5-4-8 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061 Dining date: 11/3/12 Japanese kaiseki meals are akin to Western high-end dining in that there are typically a large number of small courses. Plating is thoughtful and intricate, and the food is highly seasonal. Like a sushi bar, counter-dining is prevalent, allowing the diner a…
Rikyu Gyutan 4-9-7 Chuo Aoba Ward, Sendai, Miyagi 980-0021 Dining date: 10/26/12 Our team spent a weekend in the northern part of Japan (in the Tohoku region) doing a project in Ishinomaki, one of the cities most heavily hit in last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. In short, much of the area has been cleaned…
Umi 3-2-8 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062 Dining date: 10/29/12 While I’ve had a fairly smooth experience dining by myself at various sushiyas around town, I’ve largely been missing out on a lot of the interaction and dialogue. It’s a key part of the experience, so I was excited to finally go to one with a…
Beige Alain Ducasse Chanel Ginza Building 10F 3-5-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061 Dining date: 10/28/12 In between bowls of soba and ramen and countless plates of curry rice, tonkatsu, yakitori, sushi and sashimi, I’ve scattered a few French meals into my itinerary. This was the second (after L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon). Beige Alain Ducasse is a…
Sushi Kanesaka Misuzu Building 8-10-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061 Dining date: 10/21/12 There are so many sushi restaurants in Tokyo, it’s a daunting task trying to choose which ones to go to. However, the fact the I would be dining solo for most of the meals, and speak very little Japanese, helped to filter down…
RyuGin Side Roppongi Bldg, 1st Floor 7-17-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Dining date: 10/20/12 RyuGin was close to the top of my list of restaurants to try in Tokyo. The modern kaiseki restaurant garnered three Michelin stars in the 2012 guide and is ranked #28 on the 2012 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list (while I…
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Dining date: 10/15/12 L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon was on my list of Tokyo restaurants early on, largely because I’ve had fairly consistently good meals here, but also because I think it’s been fun to compare them across the world (I’ve been to the Las Vegas, Paris,…
Sarashina Horii 3-11-4 Motoazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0046 Dining date: 10/15/12 I first learned about Sarashina Horii from an episode of No Reservations. Masaharu Morimoto took Anthony Bourdain here during the Tokyo episode, raving about the soba here. It looked really good, so I immediately added it to my list of places to visit. Indeed, it seems…