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Special Feature
Austrian wines and food-pairing part 2
In our feature article on Austrian wines in Japan, Bento.com drinks editor Melinda Joe talks about how to pair foods with Austrian wines, introduces some of Austria's traditional, family-run wineries, and offers tips on the best wines for cool-weather drinking.
Food and Wine News
01/05-01/31
Oregon Pinot Noir tasting at the Riedel Wine Boutique
This month, the Riedel Wine Boutique in Aoyama is offering an Oregon Pinot Noir from winery Torii Mor. This well-balanced wine has aromas of dark cherries, graham cracker and earth notes, and flavors showing a mix of red and dark cherries and earthiness, The long finish has notes of fruit, oak spices and oak toast.
Matched with the wine is a glass that was developed over a two-year period, with the assistance of Oregon winemakers, to bring out the best of Oregon Pinot Noirs.
Tastings are Y525 per glass.
The boutique also offers four-wine tastings and mini-seminars starting at Y4,200. Seminars include a glass (worth Y3,465-3,675) for guests to take home. Please call 03-3404-4456 to make reservations for the mini-seminars.
[Address and more information]
BBQ and Blues on Mondays at Beacon.
Beacon, everybody's favorite Aoyama steakhouse, is now serving a barbecue menu on Mondays accompanied by a Blues soundtrack. The menu includes Bourbon BBQ Pork Ribs; Pulled Pork in a Vinegar and Pepper Baste; BBQ Beef Brisket, and Smoked Chicken, with side dishes like fried okra, corn muffins and corn on the cob. A la carte plates are Y1900, and there are also large platters to be shared by groups of three or more. Call 03-6418-0077 to reserve.
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Newest Reviews
Nagamine: Ginza
 Vegetable kaiseki is the unusual specialty at Nagamine, a relatively new restaurant in Ginza that's run by a long-established vegetable wholesaler based in nearby Tsukiji. With no meat or seafood to distract one's attention, the vegetables really stand on their own merits, and Nagamine showcases the most beautiful and most flavorful produce of the season. At Y5250, the vegetable menu offers a chance to experience a different take on kaiseki at a very reasonable price.
Vegetable kaiseki is the unusual specialty at Nagamine, a relatively new restaurant in Ginza that's run by a long-established vegetable wholesaler based in nearby Tsukiji. With no meat or seafood to distract one's attention, the vegetables really stand on their own merits, and Nagamine showcases the most beautiful and most flavorful produce of the season. At Y5250, the vegetable menu offers a chance to experience a different take on kaiseki at a very reasonable price.
The menu follows a typical kaiseki structure, with a procession of ingredients that are vinegared, steamed, stewed, grilled and served raw, all simply and tastefully presented. A late-autumn menu started with a small glass of sweet tomato juice, a hollowed-out yuzu filled with vinegared greens, and a sesame-tofu-like dish made with an unusual variety of imo (potato). This was followed by an outstanding (and vividly colored) thick soup made from red turnips, then steamed vegetables with an excellent moromi miso sauce.
Many of the ingredients seemed to be chosen for color and texture as well as flavor, and a seasonally appropriate red-purple color theme ran through the entire meal. The dramatic high point was a tray of five beautifully presented pieces of vegetable sushi, which seems to be Nagamine's signature dish. This was followed by a memorable dessert of cauliflower-cream cheese mousse with rum-soaked raisins.
The sake menu is small but unusual, and it includes a Y1200 three-part tasting set, with the selection changing monthly. The interior is tasteful, with numerous private rooms, including for parties of two. We found the service rather hit-or-miss (some dishes were explained in detail, while others were simply deposited in front of us), although perhaps it was a busy night for the staff.
Nagamine also offers fish- and meat-inclusive kaiseki menus priced at Y8,400 and Y12,600 respectively, plus an Y18,900 extravaganza that requires negotiation and consultation several days in advance. Lunch ranges from Y2,620 to Y12,600. Note that even the vegetable-centered menu is not strictly vegetarian - the chefs prepare each dish to fully bring out the flavor of the constituent ingredients, and that process generally involves a bit of fish-based stock. English menus are available, although ordering is pretty simple - just pick your price level. [Show more] [Show less]
L'Osier: Ginza
 L'Osier's chef Bruno Menard moves through the restaurant with the self-assured ease of a man who has been cooking since the age of fifteen. Known for his creativity and attention to detail, the Michelin-starred French chef produces dishes that are complex, vivid and gorgeously presented.
L'Osier's chef Bruno Menard moves through the restaurant with the self-assured ease of a man who has been cooking since the age of fifteen. Known for his creativity and attention to detail, the Michelin-starred French chef produces dishes that are complex, vivid and gorgeously presented.
Unsurprisingly, every course arrives looking like a piece of art inspired by the restaurant's High Modernist/Art Deco interior. Slices of potato, dotted with an iris of black squid ink and coral-hued sea urchin, surround a mound of smoked herring mousse, punctuated with sprigs of dill and precise morsels of onion and lemon zest. The entire composition floats on a magenta-colored red onion gelee. An architecturally plated dish of mushroom-stuffed chicken roulade is joined by a short stack of potato pancakes, beside a neat package of finely diced shiitake wrapped in wilted bok choy. Visually, it recalls the off-kilter Doric columns of Greek ruins.
While there is much to delight the eye, there is also a great deal to please the palate. Mr. Menard cleverly incorporates Japanese ingredients into his creations. A fluffy custard of sea urchin is topped with savory seaweed mayonnaise and served with a slice of toasted nori baguette. Poached rainbow trout, accented with nori-infused oil, is accompanied by a compact square of fresh aonori seaweed, mixed with cucumber and capers. The texture of the fish is moist and velvety, and the vibrant flavor of the seaweed condiment brightens the dish beautifully.
The mostly French wine list features some interesting selections by the glass -- including the 2002 Cour-Cheverny Domaine des Huards (Y2000), a lively white made from the rare Romorantin grape.
Even at lunchtime, dessert is an elaborate affair with multiple courses. As you teeter on the verge of a food-induced stupor, your main dessert arrives: a layered dish of rhubarb compote and creamy vanilla custard, under a cherry-red langue du chat cookie with a dollop of strawberry sorbet. Thankfully, the staff will offer you a doggie bag for your petit fours.
[Prix-fixe lunch from Y6800, dinner from Y16,000; a la carte mains Y6200-9800. Reserve well in advance.] [Show more] [Show less]
Souten (Minami-guchi): Otsuka
 Tokyo has no shortage of good yakitori shops, but Souten really stands out from the the crowd thanks to the quality of both their chicken and their craft sake. The entrance sports an extra-large sugidama (cedar ball) - always a promise of good sake within - and the list here doesn't disappoint. Nor does the food - they serve only the finest free-range chicken and other birds in season, prepared by a master of the grill.
Tokyo has no shortage of good yakitori shops, but Souten really stands out from the the crowd thanks to the quality of both their chicken and their craft sake. The entrance sports an extra-large sugidama (cedar ball) - always a promise of good sake within - and the list here doesn't disappoint. Nor does the food - they serve only the finest free-range chicken and other birds in season, prepared by a master of the grill.
The seasonal menu changes every month, and a recent early-autumn meal started off in high gear with a very appetizing blue cheese and chicken-liver pate served with raisin bread, and some fairly assertive smoked chicken. Several game birds were in season and these were among the highlights of the evening - delicious confit of tiny quail legs; tender grilled guinea fowl, and skewers of slightly fatty wild duck.
Sampling from the regular, year-round menu, we can recommend the moist and beautifully seasoned tsukune (chicken meatballs) - more crunchy than average thanks to an ample helping of ground cartilage in the recipe. And our chicken wings were grilled perfectly - they passed the crispness test without a hint of dryness.
Almost everything here is served shio-style (salted) rather than with sauce, but one exception is the liver - it's prepared semi-raw, and is extremely tender, with a sweetish sauce that complements the flavor. (There's also raw chicken sashimi on the menu.)
Breaking up the chicken courses were some decent home-made tofu and a surprising and very original chawan-mushi (egg custard). Besides the usual chicken, shiitake mushrooms and gingko nuts in the chawan-mushi, the chef also uses mozzarella cheese and tiny tomatoes to good effect - the flavors work unexpectedly well together.
Souten is just as serious about their sake as they are about their birds - they serve several varieties of their own custom-label Kozaemon sake from Gifu, plus another two dozen well-selected brands from small breweries around the country. Also from Kozaemon is a very drinkable yuzushu, a limoncello-like citrus liqueur, made with a base of junmaishu sake and served on the rocks. There's even special sake-brewery water served from big isshobin bottles.
Budget around Y6000-7000 for dinner with drinks, and bring cash; they don't take credit cards. There's no English menu, but there are a few set menus for easier ordering. It's a good idea to call for reservations as there are only fourteen seats and they sometimes host sake events here. And print out a map to bring along - it's hard to find! [Show more] [Show less]
Les Creations de Narisawa: Gaienmae
 The doors of this contemporary French restaurant open soundlessly onto a white dining space that gleams with polished surfaces. Music is notably absent, and the staff moves in cat-like silence. All of this is done, presumably, to focus the diner's attention on the food. But even if the walls were fuchsia and music was blaring, Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa's creations would be impossible to ignore.
The doors of this contemporary French restaurant open soundlessly onto a white dining space that gleams with polished surfaces. Music is notably absent, and the staff moves in cat-like silence. All of this is done, presumably, to focus the diner's attention on the food. But even if the walls were fuchsia and music was blaring, Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa's creations would be impossible to ignore.
Mr. Narisawa left for Europe at the age of seventeen, and his food takes in the influence of those early days. A dish of langoustines and morel mushrooms, bathed in a rich Marsala cream sauce, is indulgently nostalgic. Dewy slices of smoked salmon, draped over a bed of finely diced vegetables, are enshrouded in a puff of smoke under a glass dome. The presentation is dazzling, but the intense flavor of the salmon steals the show.
Mr. Narisawa deftly combines innovative techniques with a quiet Japanese sensibility. Delicately fried baby ayu sweetfish are served with sugar-dusted cherry blossom petals and arranged on the plate to look as though they're swimming. In a dish called Mountains and the Sea, the chef hides succulent abalone beneath a layer of mildly bitter sansai mountain vegetables, and covers the composition with a transparent gelee of Jamon Iberico. The effect is surprising - light and satisfyingly earthy at the same time.
The meat dishes, in particular, showcase the chef's talent. Rosy medallions of pork, painstakingly braised for hours using a technique called arroser, are perfectly tender and infused with flavor. The pork comes with puddles of sweet onion puree and dots of highly concentrated, anise-scented sauce, but the meat is delicious enough on its own to render these garnishes almost unnecessary.
No meal is complete without dessert, and at Les Creations de Narisawa you'll get at least three. Despite your protests, the server will leave a box of airy macarons on the table. And, despite your better judgment, you will eat every last one.
[Prix-fixe menus are Y7000 and Y21,000 at lunch, and Y21,000 at dinner, plus service charge. No a la carte at dinnertime.] [Show more] [Show less]
New Openings
Icepan: Gaienmae
An import from southern California, Icepan serves up artisanal custom-made ice cream in flavors like brown rice (our favorite), sesame, fresh banana and kiwi. Choose your grade of milk - whole, low-fat or non-fat (there's also soy milk) - then watch them make your ice cream from scratch in a couple of minutes over a freezing metal pan that's chilled to -12°C. There are no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, and prices range from Y390 (2 scoops) to Y570 (4 scoops). The counter is located in the Abbraccio cafe, inside the HH Style furniture shop next to Gaienmae station.
Restaurant J: Hiroo
The very talented Chef Ueki serves up contemporary international cuisine with a French base; it's the kind of place where the staff lovingly describe every ingredient on each plate as it arrives at your table. The beautiful organic vegetables are especially impressive. The dining room is elegantly decorated and quite spacious, with plenty of light at lunchtime. Lunch starts at Y1500, with prix-fixe dinners from Y4800. The separate bar area is open till 4am (except Sundays); Y500 table charge.
Chez Olivier: Ichigaya
Excellent-quality modern French cuisine at this elegant bistrot-restaurant. Chef Olivier was a veteran of La Tour d'Argent in Paris and the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Tokyo before opening his namesake restaurant. Prix-fixe dinners are Y5800 and Y8000 (or order a la carte), and the wine list offers some reasonably priced options under Y6000. Budget around Y10,000-12,000 with drinks. Lunches start at Y1575; no lunch on Saturday.
Brews News
Beer news from Tokyo by Bryan Harrell
Minoh Double IPA, Beer Rock (Shimo-Kitazawa)
Hitachino Nest XH, Iwate Kura Oyster Stout
Fujizakura Rauch, Cooper's Ales (Shimbashi)
Sankt Gallen Yokohama XPA
Shinshu Osake Mura (Shimbashi), all-malt beers
Brusca (Kagurazaka), IPAs at Popeye
Berg (Shinjuku), Grand Biere report
Yebisu Silk, Gotemba Kogen Weizen
Houblon (Ginza), chocolate beers
Barge Inn (Narita), Gotemba Kogen Pils
Cafe Flower (Yokohama), Kobe part 2
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