Tag Archives: 3.5 stars

{  Oreno Italian Jazz — 俺のイタリアン  }

Oreno Italian Jazz - 俺のイタリアンJazz
Oreno Italian Jazz - 俺のイタリアンJazz
Oreno Italian Jazz - 俺のイタリアンJazz
Oreno Italian Jazz - 俺のイタリアンJazz
Oreno Italian Jazz - 俺のイタリアンJazz

If you haven’t heard of the “Oreno Italian”, “Oreno French”, aka “Oreno” series, you might be missing out on one of the most popular casual restaurant dinning sensations in Japan right now.

The concept of this restaurant is to serve top notch food with high quality ingredients for an incredible price. The lead chef and owner, Toshihiro Yamaura, used to work for a 3-star Michelin rated restaurant and then decided to open his own idea of serving beautiful and tasty food for an affordable price so he hired fellow talented chefs and got it started. What’s the catch? There’s a two hour time limit and you have to stand through your dinner. The restaurant is barely making money on the cost of the food itself, but by enforcing the time limits they can get through 4 rounds of service and serve 160 people in the restaurant per day. When standing and eating, people will naturally leave before their 2-hour time limit and the service keeps on schedule. There is a limited number of sit down tables but it’s incredibly difficult to make a reservation. I think the best way to make reservation is to just go to the restaurant and ask for one at the location itself but keep in mind that you can only make a reservation up to a month in advance.

Continue reading →

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:



{  Bowery Kitchen  }

Bowery Kitchen
Bowery Kitchen
Bowery Kitchen
Bowery Kitchen

Found an awesome neighborhood diner in town. “Bowery Kitchen” is located near the Olympic park, Komazawa-koen. Since it’s not close to any train station, this diner is filled with locals hanging out with their dogs, families with babies, and friends hanging out for Sunday brunch. If you want to experience a local Japanese diner atmosphere, this place does it well. It feels old but also has a good character to it. The noise, smell and busyness of it really make you feel like you’re in a NY hipster diner despite being in Tokyo.

The menu is large so you have lots to choose from here (and don’t worry, they also have an English menu!). Pictured above are:
– Pumpkin soup (350yen) — yumm
– Prosciutto and avocado Carbonara (1300yen)
– Fruit waffle (800yen)
– Coleslaw (200yen)
– Block Vegetable (850yen)
– Grilled Chicken Garlic Sauce (1000yen) — yumm
– Chicken Rice Omelet (1050yen) — yumm

After your meal, I highly recommend stopping by Komazawa-koen to go on a nice walk, bike ride (they have rental bikes), play with your kids at the kids park, or simply enjoy the beautiful scenery. The park is quite large with lush greenery which is in the peak of springtime right now and it’s a great place to go running or jogging as well. They oftentimes have all types of sporting events going on in the stadiums within the park as well.

Address // 5-18-7 Komazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-3704-9880
Website // http://www.heads-west.com/shop/bowery-kitchen.html

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:



{  Urth Caffe  }

Urth Caffe
Urth Caffe
Urth Caffe
Urth Caffe

One of LA’s popular cafes opened a store in Tokyo on April 24th, 2013. With it’s chic location in Daikanyama and its very spacious venue, I have a feeling that this cafe will do well. They have a great terrace seating and also allow guests to bring their dogs with them to dine (only for the terrace seats). Urth caffe is famous for their breakfast, organic coffees (especially the lattes), salads and more. We decided to order some of our favorite dishes: a full-size ‘Urth Salad’ (1360yen), Chicken Curry Sandwich (1600yen), and a large Green Tea latte (600yen). Although it feels a bit pricey, the food was the same sized portions as the US and it was yummy just as I remembered it.

I’m not a huge fan of the wall decor but the cafe was filled with beautiful orchids from famous celebrities to congratulate their recent opening. Seems like pro golfer Shigeki Maruyama is the mastermind who decided to bring this cafe to Japan. He loved it so much that he decided to bring it to Tokyo. If you are looking for a good breakfast or an American-style meal, definitely stop by Daikanyama.

Address // 8-9, Sarugaku-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-5784-3301
Website // http://www.urthcaffe-japan.com/

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:



{  Cafe Z  }

Cafe Z
Cafe Z
Cafe Z
Cafe Z

…………………………………………………………………………………..
DISCLAIMER: This cafe has sadly closed on September 30, 2013.
…………………………………………………………………………………..

Cafe Z is another hidden gem in the back-alleys of Omotesando. Located on the 2nd floor of a clothing store called “Cabane de Zucca”, this cafe is a nice and quiet place to relax. I’ve dined here for lunch and also stopped by just for tea. Everything i’ve had here has been pretty good and has had decent-sized portions as well.

Pictured above: Spicy Tomato noodles (1200yen), Avocado steak burger with paprika sauce and rice (1200yen), and the Roasted Chicken flavored of Tandori Masala (1200yen). I very much enjoyed their royal milk tea (730yen) and the cake (700yen). Loved sitting on the balcony/terrace, it felt like we were in the country side for a second. So peaceful and surrounded by trees, it’s a great place to chill.

PS: Cafe Z has menu’s in both Japanese and English.

Address // 3-13-14, Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-5412-7527
Website // http://www.zucca.cc/index.html#/cafe

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:



{  Spice Cafe  }

Spice Cafe
Spice Cafe
Spice Cafe
Spice Cafe

“Spice Cafe” is rated #1 amongst curry restaurants in Japan on a popular Japanese review site. I’ve previously posted Minoringo, which was rated #1 in the Harajuku area on the same review site but this one is ranked #1 in Japan?? As you can imagine, that instantly gave me some high expectations…

I have been on a curry phase lately and decided to make a reservation at this curry house which is very close to Tokyo Skytree (I highly recommend making reservations). We arrived at noon and the place was already full. We ordered two “Pair curry lunch set’s” (1350yen/each) and 1 curry lunch set (950yen) for the 3 of us. All of the sets include a small salad, curry, and a small dessert with coffee/tea. The “Pair Curry” comes with a slightly smaller portion of 2 different types of curry instead of one larger size (although the size difference is kind of hard to tell from my photos and even in person it’s really not that much bigger…)

I got the chicken curry (mild) and the assam curry (spicy) and I enjoyed both of them. The one with tomato and spinach is the coconut curry which is a little on the sweeter side. One of the others pictured was the shrimp curry which was one of the daily specials. This place also offers the “Oomori” option (a free larger portion of rice) if you prefer more rice. The pickles on the rice were yummy and over all we enjoyed the meal. Even the assam curry which is considered spicy wasn’t too spicy for me and had a nice flavoring to it. The service was good but felt a little rushed as there were so many people waiting outside.

As for being ranked #1 in Japan, I wasn’t really that blown away. I felt like Moona was just as good, but perhaps that’s just me? If you’re into soupy curries, you would definitely like this place.

Address // 1-6-10, Bunka, Sumida-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-3613-4020
Website // http://www.spicecafe.info/

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost: