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In times past, this was the most fashionable Italian restaurant in town. It’s slowed down and the days are gone when half the space was given over to high fashion, but they still know how to serve a decent pasta and a glass of red. It’s 10 minutes’ walk from Roppongi Crossing, going towards the Tower.
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You may have to cross the city to get to Shinjuku and salute chef Sin Wing Hing’s ongoing achievements, but it’s worth it. He offers a wide range of dishes from Beijing, Shanghai and Sichuan, plus there are nine private rooms for business gatherings. The Hilton [name] makes this restaurant the epitome of Chinese fare in the city.
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This French restaurant is celebrated for its grand operatic decor, but it’s charmingly modest by day. A set course centering on pasta need cost no more than £12, and then you’ve got that view from the 41st floor... By night, with a [name] like Fish Bank, they’ve got to do the world’s best bouillabaisse, at a price.
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Viva Mexico! There’s music and dancing at this restaurant and it stays open until dawn. The menu starts with a cheese fondue, known as queso fundido. Carry on to a main course such as steak with avocado, beans and, yes, cheese again—the dish is called la sabana. Top the whole lot off with a dessert flamed with a tequila sauce. Main items cost about £10.
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The restaurant had still to open at the time of writing, ditto the hotel in which it is located, the Conrad Tokyo. However, the first Gordon Ramsay restaurant to open in Tokyo, featuring the high standards set by the pioneering chef himself, ensures a frenzy of interest.
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This recreation of a traditional Japanese inn has 15 private rooms, each one different. In this warren of little rooms they serve kaiseki, the most refined Japanese cuisine, with sake or shochu, at prices ranging upward from £20 for the cheapest courses. It should be noted that this is traditional Japanese fare, including sashimi, sushi, tempura, soup and rice—appearance and presentation count as much as taste and flavour.
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In this sumiyaki (charcoal grill), where you roast your food on sticks over large charcoal pits, the ceiling is festooned with all kinds of irrelevant junk from the countryside to make it look rustic. Ignore the decor and get on with the nosh, washed down with sake, shochu or beer. There are two tiny rooms for intimate dinners which need to be reserved in advance.
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This is one of those occasional fish restaurants that specialises in the dreaded fugu—the blowfish that can kill you in a flash if the cook uses his knives clumsily and hits one of the pouches that secrete a deadly poison. Mind you, the fugu tastes of nothing, it’s just exciting to dice with death. Kuromonto’s a nice little restaurant, but it’s tucked away, so check the website for a useful map.
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It sometimes seems that all of Tokyo depends on sandwiches, and the search for the perfect shop of this kind goes on. Lume, a small coffee shop, opened to business on the ground floor of a large apartment building in Roppongi 1-chome a year ago. One can have a light lunch there or sit and consume sandwiches purchased at the counter. Prices are lower than those in nearby hotels. Just try it!
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Mako has been a very bold effort by a new, young team, with premises in one of the newest prestige business towers in the city. Mako Tanaka, the executive chef, comes and goes between this [address] and the US, and has bestowed his imprint on the menu. Try his crispy whole fish with black bean truffle sauce for £14 or the Peking duck for £16.
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Should you want to take the family out for a meal and not spend the earth—and want Western—where do you turn? Most Western restaurants in Tokyo are geared up to hit your wallet. Probably the best bargain in town is a restaurant on floor six at the main Mitsukoshi department store. You can get a hamburger or a chicken salad.
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Here is one of those extreme rarities, a first-class sushi shop with prices that normal mortals can pay. Of course such places exist all over Japan, but Westerners don’t always find out in time where they are. Call Miyakozushi and get them to fax you a map—this is a tiny place and you won’t find it without one.
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This used to be the best-known Indian restaurant in the centre of town, and it probably still is, thanks to its wicked location just up the street from Mr Mori’s Roppongi Hills. The staff are all Indian, so this is the full ethnic exercise, not a milder version thereof.
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This is authentic Korean food of the aristocratic variety, meaning it’s not served with lashings of pepper. Nankantei is tucked away in the backstreets of Ogikubo, at the end of the Marunouchi line. Get them to fax you a map. Recommended on the basis of years of sampling, the food is mild. The serving staff can tell you what’s best.
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The food is excellent, but the place is a bit noisy and the tables are close together at night. The best time to try this excellent little Italian is lunchtime on a weekday. Then the crowd is much thinner and Señora Okubo, the proprietor, has plenty of time to care for your needs.
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Italian is far and away the most popular Western cuisine in Japan. Yes, pasta goes down best in Japan. Quons has the added charm of fashionista appeal, staying open until the small hours and serving a good range of spaghettis and pizzas. The menu items come to £5 a time.
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Suppose you need a sandwich, nothing more, and you’re in the middle of Tokyo. The Royal Lounge, on the ground floor of the Palace Hotel, could be the place for you. This serves steak sandwiches and coffee or beer. The place is spacious and an occasional swan glides by on the moat outside the large plate-glass windows.
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Not every part of Tokyo boasts a Sicilian establishment; this one is in Roppongi. Try the pappardelle with oxtail sauce. Or go for the Dom Perignon risotto, another dish at around £10. And to complete the feast, perhaps a sumptuous pancake with strawberry sauce and ice cream. It stays open until dawn or 5am—whichever comes first.
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There’s a famous story that chef Kyoichi Hashimoto travelled to Szechuan to collect 60 different spices for his restaurant. In any event, try the mabo tofu with minced meat, chilli beans and peppers—including some of those transported from China. It costs £10.
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Lunch courses start at around £5 and dinner courses from £25, so this is a classic case of an eatery that packs in the office staff at midday for 15 minutes and let’s those with deep pockets dawdle over their soba (buckwheat noodles) in the evening. Soba is one of the world’s healthier foods and delicious to boot—go for it.
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Sunaba is a traditional Japanese sobaya, or noodle shop. The building is a rare old wooden one, two storeys high, located on a busy crossroads in downtown Tokyo. It stands out a mile in a largely modern section of Tokyo and it’s one of the very few traditional sobaya left in that part of the city. An order of zarusoba, where the noodles are served cold on a simple matting, costs £5.
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Toh-Ka-Lin has been one of the best-known Chinese restaurants in Tokyo for decades. Last year, they completely redecorated the place and produced a new menu with a whopping leap in prices. If you’re rich, go there and show it. If you need to watch your wallet, try lunch. Either way, it’s the same food.
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This is a tiny restaurant at the back of beyond in Ogikubo. Here a husband-andwife team, Mr and Mrs Omino, serve up a range of delicate curries the like of which you won’t find in the big hotels and Indian emporia. The Japanese like to blend their curries to be just a touch on the mild side.
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It’s that man again, Mr Puck has come to town. Have you tried his smoked salmon pizza? Try this café in ARK Hills and then trundle up the hill to Roppongi Hills to check out another of Mr Puck’s inventions, his café in the Hollywood Building. You’ve got to hand it to him, he picks his locations beautifully.
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If you want to impress Japanese business associates, take them here. Yamazato, a tempura specialist, is tucked away in the Okura, just waiting to furnish you and your guests with some of the best tempura (or sukiyaki or shabu-shabu) in Tokyo—at a price. There are private rooms for those who want to do their business entertaining properly.
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Just watch the stairs into this subterranean restaurant as they’re hellishly steep. Otherwise, prepare to enjoy a festive choice of shabu-shabu or sukiyaki, with lashings of sake. There are half a dozen Zakuro operations in town, but this is the oldest and nicest. It’s just opposite the US Embassy, which makes it easy to find.
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