Quick trip to Japan after visiting Korea. We originally intended to see the autumn leaves, koyo, but the viewing season is delayed this year. Anyway, we got to spend about a week between Tokyo and Osaka and caught a Nippon Series baseball game at the Yokohama Stadium.
Edit: wow, the Bay Stars pulled it off!
Will limit pics to a max of 6 for each place. Apologies for uneven formatting and the long post.
Sushi:
Kurosaki (Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo)
one of my very favorite sushiyas. 4th visit this year, but a highlight meal each time. 19 servings.
sunazuri toro shabu shabu. incredible.
kurumaebi, one of the very best. steamed, not boiled, so its doneness is a bit medium. perfectly proportioned and good moistness. love it.
sawara. big specimen. delicate, crisp skin and beautiful texture with a nacre sheen. with karashi mustard, fantastic.
kawahagi with its liver and chives. ate a lot of oysters in Hiroshima. explosively good liver. kawahagi can be a bit chewy so this was cut a bit thinner. bite of the trip.
sanma yuan-yaki with kimo joyu (liver-mixed soy sauce) wrapping matsutake.
toro zuke, with some of the sunazuri toro’s shabu shabu liquid mixed in the marinade. taking a bite, sensational. with Kokuryu Kuzuryu gohyakumangoku daiginjo (often drunk warm and/or with yakiniku. here it made sense with the zuke).
Sushi Arai (Ginza, Tokyo)
Consistent and great. Simpler in style but everything is dialed in so nicely. The packing is excellent and the rice is really to my preferred style. Even the wasabi was proportioned nicely. 26 servings.
yaki kamasu. i didn’t know barracuda could be this good. fantastic texture and the right grill notes.
kuromutsu. extremely fine texture, one of the bites of the trip.
kasugodai. great pillowy softness , really nice foil to feel the rice’s texture.
akagai
anago from tsushima. extremely cloud-like. let this sit for at least 10 seconds because it’s piping hot.
bonuses included shiroebi and a few others. notably, ankimo narazuke (a la Sushi Sho) made in a temaki!
Sano Sushi (Shibakoen, Tokyo)
Newish sushiya that’s made some news. Sour rice, komezu I believe. Notably, they get maguro from Fujita, and it was indeed very good. Rice was nice, if you like the sharper variety, and packing was good. Two types of gari, both sharp, and the wasabi grated on metal was also quite piquant.
5 otsumami, 12 nigiri.
The value is excellent, particularly their nigiri-only lunch. We went with the full course - still an excellent value with several sakes and it was $180 pp out the door. Small husband and wife joint. I have my predictable favorites but like to try somewhere new as well, and this was a good experience.
Ebi with akauni was a good otsumami. The other 4 were pretty good, but not at the same level as those of higher end shops understandably. The akauni was of excellent quality, though. Price wise this hits a good value for nigiri especially. A bit old school in style, with the daily menu in wooden placards.
Apparently they just received a Michelin star so reservations may get a little more difficult. Our hotel was able to get us the res before the news.
kodai. excellent.
jabara. excellent.
aji. very good.
kurumaebi. very good.
anago. strong nitsume. pretty good. i prefer some other thicker preps with a runnier nitsume, but this is maybe a bit more old school?
French:
Sugalabo V (Shinsaibashi, Osaka)
Nice exploration of Japan’s ingredients in a luxe French setting. Chef now speaks some English since last time I came here. He even introduced the courses in English, though upon some research, there’s some backstories that illuminate the choice of ingredients. For example, the kita-akari potato from the main course of sawara was aged for 1 year in snow. The yukimuro aging allows for very cold (0 deg celsius) but very humid (90%) wet aging, making this potato quite naturally sweet. With the sweet butter in the dish, it was quite a nice combination, and its thicker cut made sense here to showcase how the aging didn’t dry it out.
signature Parsut (“prosciutto” from Gifu by Bon Dabon). this time as gnoccho fritto. incredible product.
aji tartine with anchovy shiso dressing. lightly dressed but nicely dialed in.
quite fragrant. i know some don’t like the idea of storing truffles in rice, but the dish was a risotto, so it made sense)
risotto expertly cooked. the pork-fennel salsiccia was big but very moist and broke apart easily with a spoon. best risotto for me!
sawara, grilled nicely rare in the center, with snow-aged potato, konbu butter and caviar sauce. sounds predictable (butter, potato, caviar, fish) but dialed in very nicely with good proportions balancing flavors. the skin was crisp and a touch bitter, while the potato was quite sweet along with the good butter, and the caviar was nicely salty, giving a balanced impression. here, the snow-aging of the potato made sense because it concentrated the sweetness.
hibiscus granita, shiso buds, skinned kyoho grapes
Some predictably big markups, but had a bottle of L’Arlot NSG Clos des Florets '09 for a very good price. Last time I drank a bottle of Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne, and I think it was like twice the price this time. Smooth experience from start to finish. Large curry rice left me super full.
Chateau Robuchon (Ebisu, Tokyo)
Came here for a birthday. Requirements were no tasting but prix-fixe or ala carte and some allergies to accommodate. Service was excellent. 3* for the name, service, setting, and elaborate presentation. Food itself was pretty good, say The French Laundry level. The various trolleys make this a potentially huge meal. The desserts were fantastic, however. Caramel souffle and separtely the skinned Kyoho grapes were excellent.
Bottle of '09 Cedric Bouchard La Haute-Lemble bdb for a steal. '12 Comtes de Champagne because the chef won some Taittinger prize from a cooking competition. Bouchard was drinking very nicely, soft whiteflowers and lightly exotic nose. '12 CDC was a bit firm. Even preferred the '12 Henriot BDB.
signature amuse bouche of crustacean gelee, crab, cauliflower cream, Sologne imperial caviar. good, though a bit more on meticulous presentation than depth.
botanebi tartare with poppy seed, avocado, coriander and yogurt sauce. good.
awabi with liver butter sauce, espelette, renkon, pickled ginger, and sorrel. the combination of sorrel and pickled ginger tasted like lemongrass. bubbling hot. pretty good.
aka amadai matsukasa yaki crisped skin like a pinecone. Mont St. Michel mussels, fennel, celery leaf, saffron emulsion. quite good
veal sweetbreads, panfried, with matsutake and spinach. a little sweet-sour sauce. i wanted more bouncy texture from the sweetbreads themselves. not quite up to the others.
kyoho grape, shiso sorbet, vanilla blanc manger. excellent!
Izakaya:
Shokudo Mizuki (Ogimachi, Osaka)
This newish restaurant by a young female chef came by recommendation of Ishibuchi-san from the excellent Sushi Sanshin. I’m really glad we came, and this is the kind of place I’d eat at often if I lived nearby. Really good homestyle food that’s somewhat elevated - you can get tebasaki, menchi-katsu, hambagu, buta kakuni, dengaku, oyakodon, pota sara, or you can go for some signature rare fried scallops, tataki, gyukatsu, or one of several daily gohan pots. Don’t miss the torotaku maki, here constructed like an iwashi maki instead of the normal minced style. While the daikon on the outside can be seen as a structural crutch, here at an izakaya / shokudo, it made sense. Super delicious and could work in a sushiya!
In a time when all new “Hills” complexes are popping up everywhere, it’s refreshing to see independent talent cooking this kind of good comfort food and a very friendly all women staff. The chef worked at a kappo restaurant from a famous female chef, as well. Tabelog is relatively low because they’re new. I think too many tourists go for the highest Tabelog numbers and all omakase fine dining but don’t understand how it works for new restaurants and the point distribution. All this to say, give these new places a chance based on good recommendations and one may be pleasantly surprised.
A small private room in the back, but it’s mainly counter seating. Sake list is small but nice - Ubusuna, Nichi Nichi, Isojiman, Zaku, Denshu, and a few others. Nice service - there’s no English spoken here, but they voluntarily printed a full 5-page translated menu since we had a reservation.
sashimi moriawase. tai, kurodai, katsuo, aoriika.
shiraae. dill worked nicely with the sesame tofu and the sweetness of persimmons, fragrance of figs.
nira (Chinese garlic chives) ohitashi with shoyuzuke ranou. delicious soy-marinated egg tasted like mentsuyu. delicious.
tebasaki of Awa-odori chicken. perfect.
torotaku maki. new presentation to me. excellent.
wagyu and gobo rice pot.
Ginza Nominokoji Yamagishi (Ginza, Tokyo)
newish Ginza drinking outpost of Kyoto’s famous Yamagishi. Yamagishi has expanded a bit including one in Azabudai Hills, but this Nominokoji is their casual drinking joint. You choose an 8-course or 4 course + ala carte, and we went with the latter. It’s easy to over order here. Pretty empty this night but they’re open late (until 2am) and it was raining.
“4 courses” is actually 5.
started with some Kyoto style obanzai small dishes.
then sashimi
hamo with oroshi. large specimen cut nicely honekiri. good quality daikon.
kegani with ginger ankake and fried ebiimo. great combination and excellent with the Juyondai Extra. love ebiimo, so creamy.
the signature uni dog. quite good quality uni.
then tebasaki with more fried ebiimo, potato salad with iburigakko, dashimaki tamago, an “XO” style beef with nira, gyoza, shoyu ramen, and oyakodon. super filling.
Juyondai Extra yukimegami junmai daiginjo.
Excellent. I do like Juyondai with crab, and the gentle sweetness was so good with the hot, creamy ebiimo and slippery ankake sauce.
Aramasa Cosmos for Turkey / Syria
aged 3 years at the brewery. not about distribution for the region, but a special 2023 release of the 2019-2020 season for charity for the victims for the Feb 2023 earthquake. mellower and a bit more expansive than the normal Cosmos. very good with the hamo and oroshi.
Denshu summer yamadanishiki junmai ginjo, nebuta festival label
Actually quite nice to bridge some of the Chinese dishes. The sweetness working well with the hit of spice and strong flavor from XO and garlic chives.
Tonkatsu
Epais (Kitashinchi, Osaka).
Very nice tonkatsu - the lighter fry, ultra tender style. Very kind service. They offer various breeds of pork each day - we got the Tokyo-X, Shinsu Taro, and Tawara pork. Excellent kaki furai of Hiroshima oysters, too.
various salts - today’s was porcini salt.
Sukiyaki
Kiraku (Kitashinchi, Osaka)
Very good sukiyaki / shabu shabu by the chef from Tokyo French bistro Gourmandise.
