In addition to some amazing gastronomical highlights, Tokyo has a huge number of non-eating related attractions. As the guide books tell you, there are great things to see related to the history and culture of Japan (Emperor's Palace, Pagoda Gardens); the current cutting-edge of the art world (numerous modern art museums and galleries in Ginza-ku); a few unique tributes to Japanese industry (the Sony building, the Fuji museum); and even a trusty US export (Disney Tokyo). While all of these things are within the acceptable norms of tourist attractions, none really blew me away. There was one "in the guidebooks" experience that I must wholeheartedly recommend: The Tsukji Fish Market.
The Tsukji Fish Market is the pre-eminent fish market in the world largely due to the huge demand in Japan, and Tokyo specifically, for the highest quality seafood. The Fish Market itself starts quite early (perhaps 4.30am). I headed over after finishing a few last cocktails and ended up arriving at 5.30am. It is critically important that if you go by cab rather than the convenient subway station you pronounce the name correctly (ski-gee) or you may end up several hunderd dollars poorer on your way back from a suburb of Tokyo that sounds like how I would pronounce Tsukji. A quick aside on the subways - they are as efficient and as numerous as you might imagine; use them. The market itself is a sprawling network of aisles where people peddle all sorts of fish and cooking supplies (the former right off the boats). You can also walk though all of the fish unloading, prep and transport areas (be careful not to get hit by one of the hundreds of lift trucks zooming to and fro loaded with fish at a frenetic pace). Other than the sheer scale and variety of things to see, the most interesting part of the experience is the unique and personal nature of it - in the US, tourists / non-workers would never be allowed to enter most of the places I crept around in as sun broke into the morning sky. Also, after an hour or so of wandering through the aisle in wonderment, you can retire for some of the freshest sushi on the planet in one of the many small "diners" that lace the fish market. A real Tokyo experience.
I will end the report on Japan with a few bars and clubs that I enjoyed; importantly, one should note that similar to consumer culture, the "scene" in Tokyo appears to change rapidly, and thus it is difficult to know whether or not any of these locations will be in existence, much less "hot" when you travel there. I visited countless small bars and clubs across the various districts (Shibuya, Roppongi, Ginza) with mixed results. All tend to be on the expensive side versus a New York or London. The highlights in terms of bars were A971 in Roppongi by the Tokyo Modern; The New York Bar in the Park Hyatt; and The Last Quarter in Hiroo. The Last Quarter was a particularly laid back and cool experience. Proprietor Sayaka Adachi pours the finest Western and Japanese scotch, whiskey and bourbon in specially selected glasses in an intimate second floor bar a few blocks from the Hiroo station. A must-try for lovers of darker liquors. In terms of clubs, most turned out to be disappointments, but Atom in Shibuya-ku was a highlight, including a surprise appearance by Doberman Inc, a pretty talented Japanese hip-hop crew.
Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Tokyo 2007 - Part 3: Things to Eat
Tokyo Restaurant Review
The following sampling of restaurants are in alphabetical order, and range from the very casual to the very fancy.
Cicada (www.cicada.co.jp) - A trendy new spot in Minato-ku offers a great selection of new Spanish cuisine. An excellent wine list (the best in my experience in the city) and excellent Spanish classics made with traditional Japanese ingredients. The set menu Christmas Dinner featured a wide range of dishes, which really highlighted the capabilities of the chef.
Hamadaya (www.hamadaya-midtown.com) - Hamadaya is a fine-dining restaurant in the traditional Japanese Kaseki style. Formally-dressed waitresses present a set menu in a formal dining room. Excellent execution of a great menu. For a very traditional dining experience, this spot next to the new Tokyo Midtown building is a key destination.
Ichiran (www.ichiran.co.jp) - Ichiran is a chain of 22 "noodle shops" all over the city; great for late-night eats. In a odd ritual, you purchase a ticket from a vending machine outside, wait for a seat at the bar to free up, and then present your ticket for a delicious pork or other noodle-based dish.
Kaikaya (www.kaikaya.com) - Located in Shibuya-ku, Kaikaya is a great dinner spot, that has a "local" feel despite being frequented by Gaijin as well as local. The inventive cuisine is mostly seafood, and includes such dishes as Tuna Spare Ribs (grilled tuna on the bone) and amazing Sashimi of all types with unique, western-style spices. The atmosphere is very casual and jovial, and you immediately feel like "one of the crowd". Order a bottle of the "house sake" and sit at the bar; try a range of dishes - the grilled octopus is amazing. English menus are available.
New York Grille (www.parkhyatttokyo.com) - The setting for the bar scenes from "Lost in Translation", the New York Grille boasts a spectacular view of the city. Fifty-two floors above Shibuya-ku, this restaurant and bar scene is where the power players of Tokyo wine and dine. A traditional "New York" menu, with the very fine addition of Japanese Kobe beef, is served in a large, crowded venue. While the service was perfunctory at best, the food was excellent and the view is not to be missed.
Phonam (phonam.jp) - For a good, quick meal of spicy noodles in Roppongi-ku, try this Vietnamese option. Fast food of very high quality.
RyuGin (www.nihonryori-ryugin.com) - Life-altering would be a good description for chef Yamamoto's bleeding-edge cuisine. Reminscent of Alinea, Moto and WD-50 in the US, and, of course, the grandfather of the chemist/chef hybrid, El Bulli, this parade of delicacies earns a spot on my "top 10" list of global restaurants. Chef Yamamoto prepares set menus that will surprise the most experienced palate. Starting with a Fugu (blowfish) soup and ending with a sub-zero frozen carmel apple, the menu showcases all that is amazing in modern cuisine. Japanese staples married with inventive preparation and the deft showmanship of customize plates and utensils (similar to Chef Cantu's Moto experience) allows one to truly see and taste the traditional Japanese ingredients and dishes in a way which will elicit wonder. RyuGin also has a remarkable set of servers, and its manager, Takeo Arimasa, carefully explains the dishes in both Japanese and English to ensure the foreigners who have come to see Chef's masterpieces get the full experience. Book ahead - as of this writing a six month wait list has graced the door of RyuGin in the wake of being highlighted in the Michelin guide for 2007.
Sushi Ko (no website) - Run, don't walk, to the best Sushi experience you will ever have. A set menu prepared excellently in this 12-seat restaurant in a back alley in Ginza-ku. Exceedingly difficult to find, but well worth the somewhat confusing journey. Course after course (about 20) of the most exotic and delectable sushi dishes is capped off by a fatty tuna not found outside of Tokyo, served both raw and grilled. Rarely does a restaurant break into my "top 10", much less two in one week, but Sushi Ko earns top honors for the best sushi I have ever tasted, or can even imagine.
Zakuro (no website) - Similar to many fine dining establishments in Tokyo, Zakuro has expanded to a number of different locations (currently numbering 6). I have eaten at Zakuro twice; once on a prior business trip at the Akasaka location and during this journey at the Ginza location. The private room option, giving you the full traditional Shabu-Shabu experience. The charcoal-burning "chimney" boils a broth that is then used to cook delicious, thin-sliced Kobe beef, vegetables mixed in with homemade sauces. A real unique experience that is frequented by business types from Tokyo and abroad. Make sure you know which location you have reserved at; the numbers listed often do not match the locations' address.
The following sampling of restaurants are in alphabetical order, and range from the very casual to the very fancy.
Cicada (www.cicada.co.jp) - A trendy new spot in Minato-ku offers a great selection of new Spanish cuisine. An excellent wine list (the best in my experience in the city) and excellent Spanish classics made with traditional Japanese ingredients. The set menu Christmas Dinner featured a wide range of dishes, which really highlighted the capabilities of the chef.
Hamadaya (www.hamadaya-midtown.com) - Hamadaya is a fine-dining restaurant in the traditional Japanese Kaseki style. Formally-dressed waitresses present a set menu in a formal dining room. Excellent execution of a great menu. For a very traditional dining experience, this spot next to the new Tokyo Midtown building is a key destination.
Ichiran (www.ichiran.co.jp) - Ichiran is a chain of 22 "noodle shops" all over the city; great for late-night eats. In a odd ritual, you purchase a ticket from a vending machine outside, wait for a seat at the bar to free up, and then present your ticket for a delicious pork or other noodle-based dish.
Kaikaya (www.kaikaya.com) - Located in Shibuya-ku, Kaikaya is a great dinner spot, that has a "local" feel despite being frequented by Gaijin as well as local. The inventive cuisine is mostly seafood, and includes such dishes as Tuna Spare Ribs (grilled tuna on the bone) and amazing Sashimi of all types with unique, western-style spices. The atmosphere is very casual and jovial, and you immediately feel like "one of the crowd". Order a bottle of the "house sake" and sit at the bar; try a range of dishes - the grilled octopus is amazing. English menus are available.
New York Grille (www.parkhyatttokyo.com) - The setting for the bar scenes from "Lost in Translation", the New York Grille boasts a spectacular view of the city. Fifty-two floors above Shibuya-ku, this restaurant and bar scene is where the power players of Tokyo wine and dine. A traditional "New York" menu, with the very fine addition of Japanese Kobe beef, is served in a large, crowded venue. While the service was perfunctory at best, the food was excellent and the view is not to be missed.
Phonam (phonam.jp) - For a good, quick meal of spicy noodles in Roppongi-ku, try this Vietnamese option. Fast food of very high quality.
RyuGin (www.nihonryori-ryugin.com) - Life-altering would be a good description for chef Yamamoto's bleeding-edge cuisine. Reminscent of Alinea, Moto and WD-50 in the US, and, of course, the grandfather of the chemist/chef hybrid, El Bulli, this parade of delicacies earns a spot on my "top 10" list of global restaurants. Chef Yamamoto prepares set menus that will surprise the most experienced palate. Starting with a Fugu (blowfish) soup and ending with a sub-zero frozen carmel apple, the menu showcases all that is amazing in modern cuisine. Japanese staples married with inventive preparation and the deft showmanship of customize plates and utensils (similar to Chef Cantu's Moto experience) allows one to truly see and taste the traditional Japanese ingredients and dishes in a way which will elicit wonder. RyuGin also has a remarkable set of servers, and its manager, Takeo Arimasa, carefully explains the dishes in both Japanese and English to ensure the foreigners who have come to see Chef's masterpieces get the full experience. Book ahead - as of this writing a six month wait list has graced the door of RyuGin in the wake of being highlighted in the Michelin guide for 2007.
Sushi Ko (no website) - Run, don't walk, to the best Sushi experience you will ever have. A set menu prepared excellently in this 12-seat restaurant in a back alley in Ginza-ku. Exceedingly difficult to find, but well worth the somewhat confusing journey. Course after course (about 20) of the most exotic and delectable sushi dishes is capped off by a fatty tuna not found outside of Tokyo, served both raw and grilled. Rarely does a restaurant break into my "top 10", much less two in one week, but Sushi Ko earns top honors for the best sushi I have ever tasted, or can even imagine.
Zakuro (no website) - Similar to many fine dining establishments in Tokyo, Zakuro has expanded to a number of different locations (currently numbering 6). I have eaten at Zakuro twice; once on a prior business trip at the Akasaka location and during this journey at the Ginza location. The private room option, giving you the full traditional Shabu-Shabu experience. The charcoal-burning "chimney" boils a broth that is then used to cook delicious, thin-sliced Kobe beef, vegetables mixed in with homemade sauces. A real unique experience that is frequented by business types from Tokyo and abroad. Make sure you know which location you have reserved at; the numbers listed often do not match the locations' address.
Tokyo 2007 - Part 2: Gastronomy
Tokyo is truly a city for lovers of food, and the dining experience. No other city boasts more restaurants, the sheer volume of dining opportunities is staggering. The 2007 Michelin Guide awarded Tokyo more stars than any other city, even its beloved Paris.
The interesting thing about the number of stars was not only the sheer number, but the variety of restaurants starred - the guide best known for its secret, professional reviewers had given its coveted stars to restaurants cooking up not only various types of Japanese food, but also Italian, and even French cuisine.
The guide's assessment of Japan was similar to mine; the cuisine at a variety of Tokyo restaurants was uniformly excellent. The Japanese chefs have taken concepts from their own cuisine as well as the Western culinary traditions and perfected them. At any measure of good restaurant, the food was executed at the highest level of the art; at two restaurants, Ryugin and Sushi Ko, the experience was life-altering (you will see these two restaurants have made the "top ten" list I maintain on this site).
Too, there were more informal dining experiences that were absolutely amazing. Small, intimate dining rooms with open kitchens such as Kaikaya serving up fresh grilled and sushi fused with Western spices and prepared in entirely unique ways.
The next post will contain my recommendations for Tokyo dining; enjoy!
The interesting thing about the number of stars was not only the sheer number, but the variety of restaurants starred - the guide best known for its secret, professional reviewers had given its coveted stars to restaurants cooking up not only various types of Japanese food, but also Italian, and even French cuisine.
The guide's assessment of Japan was similar to mine; the cuisine at a variety of Tokyo restaurants was uniformly excellent. The Japanese chefs have taken concepts from their own cuisine as well as the Western culinary traditions and perfected them. At any measure of good restaurant, the food was executed at the highest level of the art; at two restaurants, Ryugin and Sushi Ko, the experience was life-altering (you will see these two restaurants have made the "top ten" list I maintain on this site).
Too, there were more informal dining experiences that were absolutely amazing. Small, intimate dining rooms with open kitchens such as Kaikaya serving up fresh grilled and sushi fused with Western spices and prepared in entirely unique ways.
The next post will contain my recommendations for Tokyo dining; enjoy!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Tokyo 2007 - Part 1: General Observations
In my initial blog work, I will try to categorize the various topics so that they are easily searchable; in addition to this first general piece, there will be a section on dining specifically, as well as "things to do" and travel recommendations.
The size of Tokyo is mind-boggling; from a high vantage point such as the bar on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt, one can appreciate the vastness of the urban sprawl. It is as if Manhattan has been laid out end-to-end ten times over. The main train station in Tokyo has over 4 million people passing through daily.
Despite its substantial size and population, Tokyo is the safest major city I have ever visited. The denizens of the metropolis are largely concerned with their own business, but very friendly if approached. Whether in the height of morning rush hour or in the late hours of the evening, one will never feel apprehensive be it on a crowded subway line or in a sparsely populated alley.
Whilst Tokyo natives are always happy to help a foreigner, I was surprised by the general lack of English-speakers; try to have a few standard phrases down before journeying off the beaten path.
Fashion and brand are king in Tokyo; the style among women when I was there over the holidays consisted of short skirts and high boots, as well as houndstooth patterns, generally. The style of the moment (which will no doubt have changed by the time I am finished writing this) is ubiquitous ~ it was rare to see someone who was not wearing a skirt with boots and some form of houndstooth (pants, tops, dresses, jackets, scarfs, hats, etc etc). Just about the only thing I didn't see was a pair of houndstooth boots (note to Tokyo fashion merchants - this would have been a good idea to capitalize on the convergence of the two trends).
This love for, and velocity of, fashion has resulted in a number of large, high-density shopping areas that dwarf the largest malls and shopping districts in the US. Going to a department store is a real experience - they *literally* have everything. The breadth of product is staggering; you can acquire things as large as cars and as insignificant as a key for a hotel room at a Holiday Inn in the US (I can't even imagine who the "buyer" is for the 'American Kitsch' department). The latest technology is also rampant, but expensive (and very little of it works outside of Japan).
Tokyo is truly open 24 hours; many locals noted to me that this was not always the case, but in my travels I found it common for a bar or club to be open until 6am. The number of restaurants, bars and clubs is in keeping with the overall scale described herein. The typical bar or restaurant, however, seats only one or two dozen people, and may be on the ground floor (as in the US and Europe) or on any other floor of the building. Many buildings are completely comprised of small bars and restaurants, ten stories high and two or three to a floor. This is necessitated by both space constraints as well as demand. The average Tokyo resident eats out approximately four dinners a week, much more frequently than your typical New Yorker or Londoner.
With that, I will move on to the real meat (no pun intended) of the trip - the culinary experience, for which Tokyo has as rich an offering as any place I have ever been, and on a scale in keeping with its massive size and population.
The size of Tokyo is mind-boggling; from a high vantage point such as the bar on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt, one can appreciate the vastness of the urban sprawl. It is as if Manhattan has been laid out end-to-end ten times over. The main train station in Tokyo has over 4 million people passing through daily.
Despite its substantial size and population, Tokyo is the safest major city I have ever visited. The denizens of the metropolis are largely concerned with their own business, but very friendly if approached. Whether in the height of morning rush hour or in the late hours of the evening, one will never feel apprehensive be it on a crowded subway line or in a sparsely populated alley.
Whilst Tokyo natives are always happy to help a foreigner, I was surprised by the general lack of English-speakers; try to have a few standard phrases down before journeying off the beaten path.
Fashion and brand are king in Tokyo; the style among women when I was there over the holidays consisted of short skirts and high boots, as well as houndstooth patterns, generally. The style of the moment (which will no doubt have changed by the time I am finished writing this) is ubiquitous ~ it was rare to see someone who was not wearing a skirt with boots and some form of houndstooth (pants, tops, dresses, jackets, scarfs, hats, etc etc). Just about the only thing I didn't see was a pair of houndstooth boots (note to Tokyo fashion merchants - this would have been a good idea to capitalize on the convergence of the two trends).
This love for, and velocity of, fashion has resulted in a number of large, high-density shopping areas that dwarf the largest malls and shopping districts in the US. Going to a department store is a real experience - they *literally* have everything. The breadth of product is staggering; you can acquire things as large as cars and as insignificant as a key for a hotel room at a Holiday Inn in the US (I can't even imagine who the "buyer" is for the 'American Kitsch' department). The latest technology is also rampant, but expensive (and very little of it works outside of Japan).
Tokyo is truly open 24 hours; many locals noted to me that this was not always the case, but in my travels I found it common for a bar or club to be open until 6am. The number of restaurants, bars and clubs is in keeping with the overall scale described herein. The typical bar or restaurant, however, seats only one or two dozen people, and may be on the ground floor (as in the US and Europe) or on any other floor of the building. Many buildings are completely comprised of small bars and restaurants, ten stories high and two or three to a floor. This is necessitated by both space constraints as well as demand. The average Tokyo resident eats out approximately four dinners a week, much more frequently than your typical New Yorker or Londoner.
With that, I will move on to the real meat (no pun intended) of the trip - the culinary experience, for which Tokyo has as rich an offering as any place I have ever been, and on a scale in keeping with its massive size and population.
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