Howdy howdy howdy all, this is a bit delayed because life, etc. Also, my agent and I are about to send out my novel to publishers so most of my writing went to that whole thing. If this thing sells, you all will be required to preorder because god knows I’ve written more words on here than in the novel.
Anyways, this was a good trip. Four-ish days in Tokyo, 7 or 8 in Sapporo and Otaru. Those cities will get their own post, and, good golly do they deserve it. The usual thanks to all of you, specifically @formersushichef for the Yakitori Takahashi rec and @pomodoro for your insane knowledge.
On to the stuff we ate. As usual, no pictures. I know most places allow it but I feel like too much of an intruder to take photos. As such, this is mostly going to be a vibes post.
Butagumi
Our first meal of the trip and probably our least favorite. For most of the meal, we were the only table in there at 730 or so on a Saturday night. Vibes could not have been lower. Food was tasty, though I realize now that my interest in just hammering down pork is lower than I anticipated. Also, I understand the pork quality is very very high here, but it felt like the worst value meal of the trip. Whatever, this spot has been on my list for a long time! So I was always going to end up here, and I’m glad I did. Also, it put me within walking distance of the greatest bar on earth…
Eureka!
What a spot. Quite frankly, one of my fav bars ever. We probably had six or seven sakes, including that barrel-aged lineup. Also had a sake that had been made like a week before. Their instagram claims it as Tochigi Prefecture Senkin Rishon Asashiboro" un, fwiw. Sat next to a Japanese salaryman who kept telling us how lucky we were to be there and kept claiming that the woman who owns the spot was basically the best in all of Japan. Also met a dude who owned an omakase spot in Paris, who was there with a Barbaresco producer. (His label is Socre.) We bonded over Il Centro, which he loved, and was recommended by somebody on this board or on Chowhound. Great night. Also, because of this night, we defaulted to drinking Senkin at a lot of spots and it served us well.
Tempura Miyashiro
This was the lunch tasting, and it was quite delicious. Highlights were Miyashiro’s pretty iconic seaweed tempura topped with tuna, an obscene amount of uni, and caviar. Wish I had a picture of that one. Also loved the kurama-ebi. He served one with a light fry and one with a deep fry. Would follow this man to the end of the earth for his tempura shellfish variations, cared a tad less for tempura whitefish, snapper, etc. Vibes were a tad bland, though service was kind and they did a great job of explaining things to us. It was us and one other couple, also tourists, I think from Korea. Felt like every nice meal I was alongside Koreans or Hong Kongers, and I get it, with the proximity and the yen so low, I’d be in Japan every weekend if I lived so close!
Soba Osame
This was a sleeper meal of the trip, and perhaps the one I would most recommend to people! Picture a tiny old house in what to me was a random area of Tokyo. Mejiro it seems like? Really fun stroll to get here. Our table was tucked in a tiny alcove that we had to duck to get into. Shoes off kind of place. Not a ton of English here, but we did just fine with google translate. We did a duck soba and a cold soba, and because it’s been 7 weeks since I was there, I forget which specific types we ordered. Wish we had done a more intentional tasting of the three types of sobas. Also, the grilled scallops were fantastic but it was this chargrilled prawn that was really exceptional. One of the best bites of the trip for me. There’s a picture on the tableall link. Just an absolutely perfect char mixed with the heady shrimp flavors, and the shell was such that you could chomp right through the end, as if it was tempura’ed? We ordered a la carte. If you want to do a soba specialist, can’t recommend Osame highly enough. Drank Senkin sake here.
Part 2 of Tokyo dining coming shortly! Yakitori Takahashi. Ukiyo and Seirankan and unagi yondaime kikukawa.
