En voyant cette catégorie du blog délaissée depuis presque un an et demi, je me suis dit qu'il fallait que je parle tout de même de mon restaurant favori à Tokyo. Oubliez ce que j'ai dit dans ce message, j'ai tendance à être trop enthousiaste, par moments ;-).
Donc, mon nouveau restaurant favori est donc un petit restaurant dans Aoyama, du nom de 料理倶楽部, prononcez "ryo-ri club", qui se trouve à quelques mètres de mon ancien appartement. Voici le plan pour s'y rendre.
J'ai depuis déménagé, mais toujours avec plaisir qu'Eiko et moi nous nous rendons à cet endroit, pour déguster une cuisine familiale de qualité. Dans le style japonais, ce restaurant propose des plats plutôt modernes et raffinés, pour un prix tout à fait correct. Les desserts sont aussi surprenants et remarquablement présentés. Les soirées entre amis sont aussi possibles, avec une serie de menus prédéfinis et boissons à volonté.
Si vous n'avez pas le temps d'aller sur place, et que vous avez la chance d'habiter dans le coin, les aimables personnes du restaurant peuvent vous livrer un bento, un plateau repas, bien fourni pour la modique somme de 円650 pour le moins cher, jusqu'à 円1,000 pour le plus volumineux.
Plus que la cuisine élégante et délicieuse, c'est l'accueil chaleureux et la gentilesse du chef qui vous feront revenir. Si vous y allez un jour, dîtes que vous venez de la part d'Eddie (エディ), ça leur fera plaisir (et à moi aussi!).
The restaurant Eiko and I went to today was just the
perfect balance between pleasant atmosphere, comfort, new-age music and
original and refined Japanese food.
The pictures on the Lois
Crayon website do not really give justice to the reality of this
restaurant, located on the top floors of the Lumine1 department store in
Shinjuku.
The place manages to renew traditional dishes and bring a new life and a new
refined taste to the the things you thought you had already eaten dozen of
times.
The prices are quite acceptable for a restaurant of this quality; the set including two cold apetizers, a main dish, rice, miso soup and desert being priced at 2,500.
Eiko told me there is an even better Japanese restaurant in the same building, so I can't wait to go there.
However, I believe this tonight's one shines by the originality of the cooking and the delicacy of the dishes; so when on top of that, you put a nice music and a great atmosphere, it is easy to understand that this place has just become one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in Tokyo.
We went to a very nice Italian restaurant in Minami Aoyama
yesterday, called Ristorante Hiro, to
celebrate our mariage with Eiko's family.
The food was very nice and refined (I had some home-made pasta with wild duck meat, sauteed foie gras, grilled lamb and a chocolate parfait), and there's just enough to make you full but not sick!
There are different menus, price ranging from ¥6,500 to ¥10,000 (the higher priced sets including more choices), but they're quite worth it. Just the plate of succulent beef Eiko had would cost you that price in a regular restaurant!
On the other hand, we also went to a so-called French restaurant called Monna Lisa in Marunouchi building, next to the Tokyo train station.
Quite honestly speaking, you would expect more from a restaurant at the top
floor of that building: the room is quite small, leaving very little space
between the tables, it's quite noisy, the tiles and the walls echoing and
mixing the conversations of all the customers into a loud background noise
making you feel in a bistro.
The food is not bad (although the mussels and the fish were overcooked) but
over-priced in my opinion for this quality (same range of prices as the
restaurant above).
I believe the price you pay reflects more the image of the restaurant
(French restaurant on the 36th floor of a recent building) than the food
itself.
What also makes me believe in this is the way the menu is written, with tons
of basic spelling mistakes (in French) and the actual way the food is
prepared: I don't recall having eaten shellfish cooked with soy sauce in
France.
Yet, I have to admit that the view over the Imperial Palace and the buildings of Shinjuku is quite nice, but all the other factors make it a little difficult to appreciate that last positive point.
