Fine Dining in Tokyo
My staff and colleagues know that I love Japanese food. So they took me to some nice places for dinner when I was in Tokyo. I had also made some dining reservations for DH and I during the weekend.
1. Yanmo – Kaiseki
On my second evening in Tokyo, a colleague brought me to Yanmo at Shin Tokyo Building in Marunouchi for dinner. He had wanted to take me to the Omatesando outlet which he said had a better ambience, but it was full so we came here instead. Incidentally, there is a Hermes shop in this building for those interested. Our office is at Tokyo Station, so we can walk here. It was about 10 mins walk from Tokyo Station. An easy walk on a cool autumn evening.
There were so many courses that I can’t remember what I ate. But I definitely enjoyed my meal. No foreigners here only locals. I was the odd one out. I am not new to Kaiseki, a multi course meal, but I must say the dishes here were quite unusual.
Kaiseki dinner @ Yanmo, Shin Tokyo Building, Marunouchi
2. Colza – Teppanyaki
The next night we went to Colza, a teppanyaki restaurant in Ginza. It was a small and cozy teppanyaki restaurant. With our set, we had the choice 120, 170 or 220gm beef. Usual is 120gm, but as I am a Japanese beef lover, we went for a the 170gm. The next choice was the rice. They had the choice of normal white rice, or rice ball in soup. We chose the rice ball in soup which was their specialty. Dessert was either cake, I think, or ice cream teppanyaki. Again we chose the speciality, ice cream teppanyaki.
The course started with some appetizer, then teppanyaki scallop and prawns, before moving on to the beef. All accompanied by some fried vegetables and salad. Ending with rice and dessert. Then you move to a separate area for your coffee. If we had not chosen Teppanyaki ice cream, we would have our dessert together with our coffee.
Teppanyaki Dinner @ Colza, Ginza
All in all a wonderful meal. The beef was done perfectly. We were so full! Actually the 120gm beef would have been just nice in terms of portion. Will definitely come back here again the next time I am in Tokyo. Oh, and I did not see other foreigners. Definitely a local restaurant and not the type catered to tourists.
3. Nadaman – Kaiseki
4th night, Friday night, I had made a reservation at Nadaman, the much talked about Japanese restaurant at the Shangri La Tokyo where I was staying. We had a late dinner at 8pm as DH was just coming in from Singapore that evening to join me for the long weekend.
Nadaman is located on the 29th floor of Shangri La Tokyo which is at Tokyo Station. It had a good view of the city. However, if you stay at the Shangrila Tokyo like us, your room would be on a higher floor and could have better view of the city and you don’t have to come here for the view.
We had the set dinner which was the usual Japanese Kaseiki dinner. There was sashimi, beef, tempura etc. I especially enjoyed the foie gras chawamushi. Food was good and so was the service. But there was definitely a difference between the Kaiseki at Yanmo and Nadaman. I would say Nadaman was more the usual sashimi, beef, chawamushi, tempura. Very familiar even to foreigners. But Yanmo’s dishes was cooked differently, not the usual that you can find outside Japan, much more variety than the usual Japanese food that we are familiar with. Nonetheless, the food at Nadaman was very good and we enjoyed our dinner.
Kaiseki dinner @ Nadaman, Shangri La Tokyo
4. Musashi, Sky Restaurant 634 – Fusion
We were in Tokyo in Dec 2014 and wanted to go up to Tokyo Skytree. But the queue was horrendous then, so we skipped it. So this trip, we prebooked a lunch at Musashi, the restaurant at the observation deck of Tokyo Skytree, in order to skip the line. Reservation was easy and could be done via the Internet in English.
Upon arrival we were shown the way up to the observation deck. You are asked to arrive an hour before your meal time so that you have time to wonder around the observation deck before your meal.
The meal was fusion, western main with Japanese style appetitser. I thought it was silly that they insisted that everyone at the table select the same priced set meal. They did not allow my husband to pick the expensive set with one more course awhile I took the cheaper and smaller set.
All in all a pleasant visit and skipping the queue to go to the observation deck was great. But food was just average.
Fusion lunch @ Musashi, Sky Restaurant 634, Tokyo Skytree
5. Ukai Tei Ginza
Another dinner reservation DH and I made for the trip was a teppanyaki dinner at the one-Michelin starred restaurant in Ginza, Ukai Tei. Food was great and service was excellent.
There were 3 sets ( ¥17200++, ¥19440++ or ¥24840++ per pax.) and we chose the middle priced one. Our set had live abalone, beef, sashimi, etc. Food were well presented and tasted great. They separate the fatty part of the beef out and I thought the chef was going to throw that away. However, he let it stay on the hot plate a while longer than the meat and later served it to us. So sinful but so good! Service was attentive too.
Dessert was served at a separate area away from the grill. There was also a choice of several dessert, I chose the chestnut cake which was excellent.
I can understand why this is a Michelin star restaurant.
Teppanyaki Dinner @ one-Michelin Star, Ukai Tei Ginza
6. Piacere
Piacere is the Italian Fine Dining Restaurant at the Shangri La Tokyo. We did not have dinner there but I had a few breakfast there. This is really as “fine dining” as breakfast can be. You choose a main course which could be pancakes or eggs. I love the eggs here. They have poached eggs served with lobster, bacon or ham or muffin on French toast etc. I tried the different styles on each of the 3 mornings that I had breakfast there. All were lovely. There was a small buffet with some Japanese offerings and some international choices or cold cuts, fruits, pastries, etc. I enjoyed my breakfasts here. Much better than the usual hotel buffet breakfast but it comes with a price averaging ¥6000 to ¥7000 depending on the main course you choose!
Poached egg with lobster and miuffin @ Piacere…yummy!
Next : Kawaguchiko (Mt Fuji) (I)