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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 1, 2005

Osteria La Luna Rossa: Moon shines brightly in Naka-Meguro

La Luna Rossa is one of those excellent little places that fly under the critical radar, avoiding the hyperventilation of the vernacular media but generating a deep, slow-sure buzz of appreciation among the culinary cognoscenti. In the parlance of the showbiz world, it's a sleeper.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 18, 2005

Sosaibo: Zen to warm the soul

Zen is austere and meditative. It is the practice of ascetic self-denial on the path to serenity and satori. It is the cult of monochrome and minimalism. Above all, it is serious -- and so is its food, the vegetarian tradition known as shojin ryori.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 4, 2005

Casa Paradis Barcelona: Tapas and paella in Shibuya

Much like Pavlov's poor, sad, salivating dogs, we can never pass a restaurant without going inside if there's a paella pan, some empty sherry bottles and a red-and-yellow flag outside. This weakness for Spanish food often results in disappointment: mediocre tapas and the music of The Gypsy Kings can...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 18, 2005

Restaurant t.r: A 't.r iffic' little diner

One of Tokyo's unique pleasures is being able to eat out in restaurants that are no bigger -- and often considerably smaller -- than your own living room. There are thousands of places around the city with kitchens the size of closets and counters that seat less than a dozen, but which nonetheless serve...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 17, 2004

Raising a glass to the Food File's faves

The goose is getting fat and so too is your humble correspondent, after another year of gobbling his way through some of the best dining that Tokyo has to offer -- not to mention a sizable dollop of the mediocre and worse. But it's not just gluttony that keeps the Food File going, nor merely devotion...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 20, 2004

Chilling out with noodles in summertime

These are days of heat and tribulation. For 40 days and 40 nights we sweltered and sweated through that record heat wave -- and there's plenty more of the summer yet to come. Not surprisingly, given these almost biblical weather conditions, our main source of solace and sustenance has been noodles --...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 2, 2004

Pot-Bouille's recipe for success: just keep it simple

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Parisian banlieu decor; no-frills wooden tables in cozy proximity; Pernod and Lillet bottles on the shelf behind the bar; the obligatory espresso machine; a short wine list; and a menu of brasserie staples chalked on a blackboard brought round to your table by...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 21, 2004

Vin Chou: Bistro browsing for Francophiles about town

Vin Chou subscribes to the contemporary ethos that morsels of high-quality, charcoal-grilled chicken on skewers go just as well with good wine as with fine sake. It's also quite comfortable using herbs, tomatoes and balsamico. But what makes this place so special is the quality of its yakitori ingredients....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 2, 2004

Higashi-yama: 'Designer washoku' for all seasons

Cometh the season, as the saying almost goes, cometh the man. And every year when the hanami season rolls around, you are likely to find us strolling down by the Meguro River in Naka-Meguro. It's a favorite spot for us, not just for the superb cherry blossom that lines both banks, but also because there...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 20, 2004

Yakitori for gourmets: a 1-2-3 guide

There was a time when yakitori shops were hole-in-the-wall grills, often under railway tracks, where cheapness made up for the lack of sophistication and rotgut sake or rocket-fuel shochu were the libations of choice. Much has changed, though, and "upmarket yakitori" no longer seems a contradiction in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 16, 2004

Layer up against the cold with chanko nabe

With winter in control and showing little sign of abating, it's time to search out warmth and sustenance of the kind that only nabemono can provide. And no heartier form of the genre exists than chanko, the hotpot that has nourished generations of sumo wrestlers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 19, 2003

'Tis the season to eat, drink -- and be opinionated

'Tis the season again when the Food File anoints itself as demiurge, handing out gongs and accolades, winnowing the worthy from the weak, and pronouncing unashamedly subjective opinions about the past 12 months. So here's our annual toast to all those restaurants and stores -- most of them new, but also...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 26, 2003

Tama: Pour a libation to summer's end at a stylish washoku hideaway

At last that spell of late summer heat has broken. At last we can generate something approximating an appetite. And -- all praise to the gods of zymurgy -- at last the first of the fresh-season sake is starting to arrive on the shelves and menus of our favorite ryoriya (restaurants) and izakaya.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 6, 2003

Mikawa: the golden temple of tempura

Probably our greatest complaint about Roppongi Hills (apart from its very size) is its bland uniformity. The entire complex looks and feels as devoid of character as an upscale shopping mall. Everywhere, that is, except Mikawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 16, 2003

Bombay Club: At last, Indian food for kulcha vultures

It's been a very long time -- thankfully -- since we could count the number of places in Tokyo serving real Indian food on the fingers of one hand. These days we don't have to travel too far to find a reasonably authentic curry. In fact, it's a measure of how fortunate we are that our main complaint...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 9, 2003

Le Jardin: The fine art of museum dining

What could be more cultured and civilized -- indeed more pleasurable -- than to spend the morning strolling around a good museum and then, with legs aching and aesthetic senses saturated, to adjourn from exhibition hall to adjoining restaurant for a leisurely lunch? Especially when the cuisine is sophisticated...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 25, 2003

Un Cafe: I'm falling in love again

Going back to favorite restaurants after a gap of several years is much like meeting up with an old flame after being out of touch for too long. Anticipation is likely to be tempered by a good measure of anxiety. How have they changed? What if they don't look so good any more, or they've gone to fat,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 18, 2003

Hachinoki Honten: On a higher plane

Spring is here -- time to head for the hills. And if you take the train south from Tokyo, the first topography of any significance you're likely to encounter will be that swathe of green that rings the genteel burg of Kamakura. A century or so ago, these hillocks were referred to (with no hint of irony)...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 21, 2003

Gonpachi: Elevated dining at this three-in-one

Nobody would claim that Shibuya is among the most attractive neighborhoods of this metropolis. And yet, as with so many other less than salubrious districts, when viewed at night from a suitable distance -- say 14 stories above the ground -- it does take on an undeniable glow that could almost be called...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 7, 2003

A slice of Spain to liven up Lent

Every year when carnival time rolls around, it's the Rio samba parade that hogs the limelight, along with Mardi Gras in New Orleans and similar festivities all around the Caribbean. But they still know how to celebrate the start of the Lenten season over there in Old Europe too. After all, that's where...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 14, 2003

Take your lover to Hevin and back

What is it about Japan and chocolate and Feb. 14? For the past two weeks and climaxing today, the entire nation -- or at least the female half of it -- has been engulfed in the annual chocomania. And, if anything, this year the Valentine's Day frenzy has reached new heights.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 31, 2003

Coca Restaurant: Fun food in funky retro style

There is precious little architecture left in central Tokyo these days that has any history attached to it. So when restaurants want to imbue their premises with a period feel, mostly they just have to fake it. The results can range from ersatz Edo-style castles to flimsy, film-set backdrops glorifying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 24, 2003

Shilingol: From the Mongol steppes to Sugamo

A chill gale of change is gusting through the sumo world, all the way from Central Asia. The demise of the Takanohana era does not, of course, mean we will stop eating chanko nabe. However, in honor of the incipient arrival of the Asashoryu dynasty, we felt impelled to set off in search of Shilingol,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 13, 2002

Time to say arrivederci to the old-school cucina

Out with the old and in with the new. That's the prevailing state of the game in Tokyo's restless, ever-changing restaurant scene. Sometimes this can be exhilarating, as with the brilliant refurbishment of the top floors of the My City building in Shinjuku. Sometimes, though, the process can feel downright...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 24, 2002

Old world brews for a new century

Belgians makes the finest, most complex beers in the world. There can be little argument about that. They've been perfecting the craft -- many would call it an art -- for centuries. But just because these brews have a tradition dating back to the era of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, that doesn't mean they...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 3, 2002

We'll have 'the usual'

Comme d'habitude. As any linguist knows, that's French for "as usual." As the name of a restaurant, it conjures up images of a run-of-the-mill bistro with standard-issue checkered tablecloths. But the name is both modest and misleading, because Comme d'habitude in Kami-Meguro stands head and shoulders...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 6, 2002

Iseya: Tempura with a tale to tell

Iseya is a diamond in the rough-and-ready neighborhood that lies to the north of Asakusa. Set between the sleazy, winking red lights of the Senzoku soaplands and the grim and grimy flophouses of San'ya, this is far from tourist territory. And Iseya is no tourist restaurant. But without doubt it's a shitamachi...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 4, 2002

Salsita: Just like they do it back in old Mexico

'The best Mexican food in town,' the hand-chalked sign outside Salsita proclaims. That's certainly a cocksure statement for a cantina of such modest dimensions. But, as we all know (in Japan better than anywhere else), when it comes to eating well, what matters is neither the size of the kitchen nor the length of the menu but quality, attention to detail and that plus-alpha personal touch. You'll find Salsita has that in spades.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 30, 2002

Even a sultan would approve

No matter their relative prowess on the soccer field, there can be no disputing which of the nations that reached the semifinal of the World Cup would deserve to be champions, were the title decided on culinary merit alone. With all respect to the gastronomy of Germany, Brazil and South Korea, none can...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 2, 2002

The slow train to France

To reach AOC Yoyogi entails an undemanding stroll down a narrow shotengai shopping street in one of those quiet, unexceptional parts of Tokyo you would never have recourse to visit in the normal run of affairs. It's only minutes away from the JR station, but far enough that you feel well removed from...

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