{ Patisserie Paris S’eveille }

2013, Feb 12

Valentines Day is coming up and in Japan it’s hard to miss it since all the shops are filled with all kinds of chocolate-related gift boxes. In case you’re not familiar with Japanese Vday, it’s a big day for the ladies to gather up their courage and give some chocolate to that special someone. There’s “Honmei chocolate” – for their true love and also “Giri choco” – obligatory chocolate for co-workers and friends. It can also be a nerve-wracking day for men to see how many chocolates they get on vday, but it’s always interesting to see how many Honmei chocolates you get VS Giri Chocos. How can you tell the difference? They say if it’s homemade or an expensive chocolate gift, it could be Honmei ;)

Anyhow, in honor of Vday today’s post is a sweet one. Pastry Chef Yoshiaki Kaneko, the owner of Patisserie Paris S’eveille, has trained in Paris for a few years at prestigious places such as ‘Ladurée’, ‘Alain Ducasse’, ‘Arnaud Larher’, and ‘Le Daniel’. He opened his own store in Jiyugaoka in 2003 and it’s a very popular patisserie which is always crowded with couples and ladies of all ages. I’ve previously purchased some pastries from here but never had the opportunity to dine-in and try their beautiful cakes so I was excited. I wanted to try everything, but ended up ordering the ‘Gâteau Basque’ and the ‘Isabella’ after going back and forth between many options. The Isabella was executed to perfection but I wasn’t a huge fan of this walnut-based cake even though I usually love walnuts. On the other hand, the gâteau basque was delicious and we liked that both of the desserts we had were not too sweet. It seems that they are famous for their chocolate cakes so I plan to try that next time.

Address // 2-14-5, Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-5731-3230
Website // n/a

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{ New Summary Page }

2013, Feb 11

I’ve noticed I’ve accumulated quite a few posts now and my “Summary of All Posts” page was getting very long. I’ve been working on organizing it better and I’m happy to say it’s now live! Hopefully this will be an easier way to find my past posts or to search for places you might have missed before.

xo,
Maki

{ Minoringo }

2013, Feb 8

This place is rated No.1 in the “curry” category in the Harajuku area and it was also featured on TV so we decided to come try it. It’s a hole in the wall kind of restaurant and the owner must be a fan of the comic “One Piece” since they have figurines from it scattered throughout the entire restaurant. As for the food, Minoringo has four types of curry: Chicken (Mild), Pork (Semi-Spicy), Keema (Spicy), and Beef (Very Spicy) and they are available in three different sizes (S-800yen, M-900yen, and L-1000yen). You can also order the Minoringo special that includes both the Keema and the Chicken curry on the same plate for 400yen more.

I ordered the medium-sized Keema Curry that comes with an egg on the top and I added melted cheese for an extra 150yen. The curry was well-seasoned and the melted cheese was really good but overall it was a bit spicy for me. I’m not too hard core with spicy food so that must be why. If you’re into spicy food, you will probably love this as many other people do. The other dish pictured above is the medium-sized Minoringo Special. The mixture of the spicy keema curry with the mild chicken curry in the Special dish seemed to be the perfect combo because the spices were very well balanced and it lets you appreciate the food more. The chicken curry is made with tomato and yogurt as well so it has more of a mild sweet flavor to it. I found myself wishing I had ordered the special after trying a bite of it… sigh

Just a note, the Beef and Pork are very popular and the owner said it usually sells out by 3 or 4pm so come here for lunch if you’d like to try one of those two.

Address // 1-22-7, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-6447-2414
Website // http://www.minoringo.jp/

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{ Totoya Uoshin – とゝや魚新 }

2013, Feb 4

It’s Japan Restauarnt Week again and many restaurants that are usually a bit out of reach have some great deals for you to try.

With so many restaurants to choose from it was hard to decide where to go, but I ended up choosing a one-star Michelin rated place in Akasaka named Totoya Uoshin. We went during lunch and all of us got the Japan Restaurant week special for 2100yen. The fish of the day was buri (yellowtail) and they made a traditional buri daikon into a very sophisticated looking dish. Every plate came out beautifully presented and the teishoku-style meal was an elevated version of a typical everyday meal for a Japanese person. It’s nice that the rice was also all you can eat in case you’re still hungry.

The service was good and I definitely suggest you take advantage of the special offers available during Japan Restaurant week if you live in Japan or happen to be here now! It’s happening til February 11th, 2013.

Address // 1F, 5-1-34, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-3585-4701
Website // http://www.uoshin.ne.jp/totoya/index.html

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{ Yakumo Ramen }

2013, Feb 2

Yakumo Ramen is a popular ramen shop that’s been covered in magazines & TV and has even been awarded “Tokyo Ramen of the Year” for 2012-13. For all these reasons, I’ve been wanting to try it for a while and it did not disappoint. We went on a weekend night and it was surprisingly empty. Might be because it’s located in a random residential neighborhood on the 2nd floor of an obscure building so it’s a little confusing to find.

They are famous for their white soy sauce broth ramen with wonton but they have quite a few options to choose from aside from that. Everything comes in one of two different broths, the salt-based “white broth” (白だし）and the soy sauce-based “Black broth” (黒だし). We ordered the “Meat wonton noodles – white broth” (肉ワンタン麺 – 白だし) for 850yen, and the “tsukesoba with meat wonton – black broth” (つけそば肉ワンタン付き – 黒だし) for 850yen. While we were waiting, we noticed that the chef was carefully choosing each strand of meat and menma (bamboo shoots) and placing them onto the ramen very methodically. When we finally got the ramen, the presentation of the food was done to perfection. I had the white broth and it was strongly flavored with delicious wonton and I was very satisfied. I had a sip of my friend’s black broth but I personally liked the white broth more.

The cost performance was very high with the amount of food we got for 850yen. If you want a slightly untraditional ramen with wontons, give this place a try.

Address // 2F, 1-7-2, Ohashi, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-3476-2708
Website // n/a

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{ Patisserie Paris S’eveille }

{ New Summary Page }

{ Minoringo }

{ Totoya Uoshin – とゝや魚新 }

{ Yakumo Ramen }

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