Robbie Swinnerton has been living, eating and writing about food in Tokyo for over 30 years. His column, Tokyo Food File, has run in The Japan Times since 1998.
For Robbie Swinnerton's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Location is everything. But that's only one reason why Esterre, the beautiful new French restaurant unveiled last month in the ultraluxury Palace Hotel Tokyo, has so much going for it.
Mai Nagamatsu is more than just a fan of katsuo (skipjack tuna). She's an avowed, unapologetic evangelist for those streamlined, silvery pelagic fish that play such an important role in Japanese cuisine. So much so that she set up her own small specialist breakfast ...
Hideaki Sakai doesn't make it easy to find his diminutive premises. Hidden on the second floor of an anonymous building on a quiet backstreet on the "wrong" side of Shibuya, it is invisible from the street. You access it through an unmarked door next ...
The vertiginous open-air viewing platform atop the new Shibuya Scramble Square building may be the area's latest and tallest attraction. But the restaurant floors immediately below are also drawing long lines. What if you don't want to wait? Try your luck at La Coquina. There's ...
At Inua, the cuisine is as unique and distinct as a fingerprint.
Called Equal, this is the latest project by master patissier Yuichi Goto. Best-known as co-owner of the ever-excellent Path in nearby Tomigaya, his illustrious resume includes spells at the three-star Restaurant Troisgros in France, and then at Sugalabo in Tokyo's Kamiyacho.
For more than a decade, Tama has been the place to come for one of Tokyo's more unusual menus, a unique and stylish hybrid that it calls Ryukyu-Chinese. It's a blend of Okinawa specialties, such as ashitebichi (pig's trotter) and chanpurū (stir-fried tofu, meat ...
"No katsuo, no life." The words emblazoned on Takahiro Tanaka's T-shirt are more than just a catchy slogan; they are the literal truth. Without katsuo (skipjack tuna), life would be very different for him and the rest of the fishing folks in the port ...
Since Luca Fantin first arrived 10 years ago at Bvlgari's then newly opened Ginza Tower, he has won and retained a Michelin star every year since 2011, and Il Ristorante is now making its way up the ladder of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. Reason ...
Two Fingers is a bright little eight-tap, 15-seater pub in the residential streets in northwestern Ikebukuro that was opened in February by two enthusiasts who turned their shared passion for beer into a classic labor-of-love project.
