Viewing entries tagged
tokyo station

Mori

Comment

Mori

Mori - JR Tokyo Station Yaesu basement Central Exit 1-minute walk

The food scene in Tokyo Station is something I recommend you checking out. Yes it can feel like a tourist trap, but it's one of those places you have to walk through at least once. We stayed in Ginza so walking to Tokyo Station only took about 15 minutes. What's great is how accessible it is to get from one destination to another. We had little hesitancies to go to different areas of the city because of that.

With plenty of food in Tokyo Station, I recommend going for what you really want to try or crave. It's also fun if you want to do a restaurant crawl down here and there's plenty of walking if you feel it's needed to digest. And... a Starbucks is also around for quick pick-me-ups.

I checked out Mori not because of the lines. Because there was none. But because I was craving beef tongue. And if you've ever had Japanese beef tongue, you will understand why the cravings were legit. The perfectly scored meat with the subtle smoke of the binchotan incasing it as the fat drips down. It's spectacular and there really isn't anything like this flavor.

Here is their beef tongue curry. Simple, but very delicious. Tender beef in a rich curry sauce to be accompanied by rice and fukujinzuke (best w curry).

My beef tongue came with rice, the most amazing scallion soup made with beef bones, and an incredibly delicious salad. I like to eat each piece of beef with a little wasabi followed by their pickled greens.

I can't really explain the comfort level of this dish besides it making me happy every freaking time. I assume this is oxtail tongue as it reminds me of Gyutan Tsukasa here in California (can find GT in Mitsuwa, Costa Mesa).

 

 

Comment

Breakfast - Tokyo

Comment

Breakfast - Tokyo

Found a random restaurant to eat at while surfing around Tokyo Station. This place is huge if you've ever been. Not sure the name of this restaurant, but it's close to the North Gate of Tokyo Station. It's on the main level, not downstairs where the restaurant rows are.

I eat soba here like no other. It's so common to find like any other noodle dish. It's just so comfortable to dip the noodles in tsuyu mixed with wasabi and green onions. This is one of those dishes that disappears. It's common during a meal that people don't really talk. Since everyone is in a hurry, all you hear is slurping. This goes down quick. Before you know it, your plate is empty.

Chicken Katsu with curry udon. Perfectly fried katsu in a rich luscious curry broth. Udon noodles were perfectly al dente. Slivers of onions are topped to cut the richness.

Combinations come with sushi. Here you have bonito, aji, and tamago. Flavors are very traditional. If you've had bonito, you can imagine the flavor to be very rich in fishiness with a meatlike aftertaste. The aji itself has a slight brine with the typical grated ginger to mellow it out. I eat the tamago at the end for sweetness.

I ate this kind of stuff a lot. I do wish we had more restaurants like this, within reach, which caters a lot to the "Salaryman". What a treat this was.

Explore your way. As zimmern would say "If it looks good, eat it".

Comment

Sarabeth's - Japan

Comment

Sarabeth's - Japan

Sarabeth's first opened their doors in 1981 in New York. It makes perfect sense that they are now in Japan if you understand how the restaurant culture is now. There are 5 locations now: Tokyo, Lumine Shinjuku, Nagoya, Shinagawa, and Osaka. People love cafes in Japan. There are so many French and German inspired ones more so now than I remembered 5 years ago when I visited Tokyo. Maybe 10 years ago, we can agree that Japanese food is better in Japan. Even though I'm sure in some cases, that is still true, we can certainly agree to those that have explored Southern California enough to confidently say our Japanese cuisines (sushi, izakaya, yakiniku, etc) is comparable. 

This time around, I wanted to check out more cafes and unique spots. Honestly, it's inspiring to be at these restaurants than to hit up all the sushi joints. That's not what Tokyo is about. You will soon realize that your journey begins once you start exploring without the restriction of places you should be eating at. To me, that defeats the purpose of finding little gems that gets outshined by word of mouth publicity. I'm not about that. 

And even though Sarabeth's is a chain, my experience was by accident. This restaurant was stumbled upon as we were headed to Tokyo Station. This experience however, is still my first.

We were probably the 3rd group to arrive at around 10. By 11, the cafe was pretty much 75% full. 

Cappuccino 

Cappuccino 

Lemon pancakes. Slightly dense, but the lemon flavor was nice. It's one of my favorite flavored pancakes so I wanted to see how this was done.

Classic eggs benedict. I would say this is one of the best if not the best, eggs benedict I've ever had. Simple, but the execution is always important. The hollandaise sauce was rich and lusciously wrapped over the shall I say, perfectly poached egg. They used British muffins instead of English which changed my whole view on making these. So much better as the egg yolk seeps in. Yeah try and picture that. The ham is slightly charred to bring out a slight smokiness from the ham. 

1-8-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo TEKKO BUILDING. 2,3F

Comment