Charles in Japan

Eating in Tokyo

This is kind of old news, Michelin released their dinning guide to Tokyo a few months ago.  Tokyo received 191 stars, more then New York and Paris combined. 

The 5 judges spent a year and a half going to 1500 restaurants.  That seems impressive until you realize they visited less then 1% of the restaurants in Tokyo.  Tokyo has over 160,000 proper restaurants.  I can't imagine what that number would be if you include bars and other places that serve food and very often it's damn good food.  This isn't your standard American bar fare, for the most part.  Indeed it's hard to get a bad meal here no matter where you go.

That number 160,000 just boggles the mind.  If you went to two restaurants every day it would still take over 219 years to visit all of them.  Reviewing 20% of them at four per page (8/double sided) would result in a 4000 page volume.  Some say there are over 20,000 Italian restaurants in Tokyo.  Paris has 20,000 restaurants total and New York has 23,000.

Tokyo is supposed to have quite a number of invitation only restaurants that of course didn't get reviewed either. 

One Tokyo food critic said the guide confirmed what he has been saying.  That Tokyo has very quality of food, but few real stand out restaurants.  I think you'd have to live here a long time sampling food to agree with that.  The overall quality here is so high from what I've had so far that a real standout might cause me to die from a foodgasm. 

In some ways I agree with other chefs that refused to be in the guide because the thought of a rating, bragging that you are better, offended Japanese sensibilities.  There is so much good food there is room to share.  The idea of the Great Tokyo area's 34 million people descending on 150 restaurants kind of scares me, especially when you consider some of these restaurants don't seat more then 20 or 30 people.  Maybe word of mouth is way to go here, although I think the city screams for a site like Yelp.com.

Review: Fonda de la Madrugada

Mexican food isn't that common here in Tokyo.  The ones that do exist are often written up on foreign guides.  When you are craving it, there just isn't a good substitute.  I found a place near Roppongi that isn't bad, but I was looking for someplace better which led me to Fonda de la Madrugada.  The highest rated Mexican restaurant in Tokyo that I could find.  It's near Harajuku, about two stops from where I live.  The entrance has a nice large sign that makes it pretty easy to find, at least if you come from the north.  They say it's in B1 (basement 1), but don't let that mislead you.  You walk down about three floors it seems.  I'm sure I've walked less to get on some subways.  The atmosphere is just what you'd expect from a middle to high end Mexican place in the US.  Adobe looking walls and the ceilings cross with branches.  It looks like they've collected a variety of art from Mexico and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the tables or chairs were imported too.  The main room is a couple stories tall and feels like an open air court yard.  They've got a great Mariachi band that seems to play there every night and knows a lot of songs.

Of course if you are going there, you are going for the food and it doesn't disappoint.  We had a cactus salad, enchiladas, tacos and something else I don't remember.  For that and a few drinks it came out to be about 9000 yen for the three of us.  We were light eaters and not too much to drink, so maybe expect another 1000-2000 yen per person.  The enchiladas weren't quite what I expected, but the flavor was spot on and they cook the meat perfectly.  At least from what we had.  They have an interesting cinnamon milk drink that was really good.  If your taste runs to tequila they have a large selection here.  You have a three story climb to get out though, so don't drink too much.  It ranks as highly recommended if you find yourself craving something other then Japanese.  It's not the cheapest, but I haven't read of anyplace coming as close to authentic Mexican food.

Open from 5:30 to 2am on Weekdays and 5:30 to 5am Friday and Saturday.  2-33-12 Jinguu mae, Villa Bianca B1, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. 

Review: Buri - Stand Bar & Restaurant

It's unfortunate that Yelp hasn't moved outside the US yet so I have no place to write reviews of the places I've been to.  It's actually a nice way just to keep track of where you have been so I'll start some reviews here and maybe you'll see someplace you'd like to visit if/when you come to Tokyo.

The title isn't a mistake, the business card says 'Stand bar'.  What they mean is a standing bar.  Nothing to sit on here while you sip on your sake.  It's fairly small, no more then 30 people would fit, if that.  It's a short walk north of Ebisu station.  They have beer and some other drinks, but they specialize in Sake.  The back wall is covered in shelfs with small single serving glasses of sake.  The staff seems to know the sake they have well, just tell them what you like and you'll get a suggestion or two.  You can get it served, warm, cold or room temperature.  I haven't tried to food, but I've heard it's good.  Some things on the menu, like liver, I'll probably skip.

It has a really relaxed feeling to it and the people there seem friendly.  If you are looking for people to talk to the standing bars (or tachinomi bar) are good choices.  If you find yourself in Ebisu looking for some not-so-expensive sake, give Buri a try.  Open from 5pm to 3am.  (Why do they close early?)  1-14-1 Ebisu Nishi, Shibuya-ku.