Azuma - Kobe Beef ****

Address - Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Jingumae 3-27-17 Teizu Bldg. 2F
Opening hours - Open Lunch and Dinner every day
Telephone - 03-3497-1373
Menu - In Japanese
Credit Cards - OK

Azuma is fairly elegant, but in a cold, functionalist sort of way, with immaculate steel plates to cook the meat and bare, white walls, but the food is good and interesting, which to me is always important. The seats are few and all around Azuma-san who, wearing a chef's hat, cooks right in front of you. As at Tanuki (see review) watching him work is a delight: his hands fly left and right, preparing dishes in a zip. The meat is extremely tender, juicy and already cubed for you so that you can dip it with your chopsticks in the garlic sauce. They don't have just meat, you can for example have garlic rice with scallops in sea-urchin sauce and other stuff like that. Unfortunately, it's sort of expensive, around 4000 per head, but definitely worth a shot. From Harajuku Station, go down to Laforet, turn left, then almost immediately right into Harajuku Dori, then right again on the last street you find. The sign, the name Azuma (same character as for Higashi) the menu and everything else are only in Japanese.

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Kamahachi - Tofu kaiseki

Address Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Aoyama-5-6-25 Eiwa Bldg
Opening Hours 11:30 to 10:00pm
Telephone - 03-3400-7851
Menu - In Japanese
Credit Cards - OK

I always felt that eating tofu was a little like trying eating air, great for a diet but not to the palate. The other day I nonetheless went to Aoyama Kamahachi, an eccentricity if you think it's a restaurant whose menu is based on tofu. Just tofu. Only the Japanese can get away with this sort of thing.
The place, located near Spiral building, is elegant and classy in a very Japanese way, but the atmosphere is sort of spoiled by continuous bustling and voices. The main thing here is a 4500 yen menu, which comprises six entries. Of those, I remember tofu with unagi, stewed tofu and vegetables, and tofu ice-cream. Service was very good and the waiter-owner very kind. All in all a pleasant experience that I can recommend to all of you who are into things Japanese. According to a friend, it's open also for lunch but it's good only at dinner.
Aoyama Kamahachi, whose sign is of course in Japanese only, is next to exit B3 of Subway Omotesando station, few meters to the left of Spiral building.

Harajuku & Omote-Sando - Japanese food

MIST Chabuya - Ramen

Adresse: 東京都渋谷区4丁目12-10 表参道ヒルズ本館3F M316
Horaires d'ouverture: Midi 11:00 - 15:00; Soir 18:00 - 24:00
TEL: 03-5410-1368
Site internet: http://www.chabuya.com/mist/shop.html
Menu: En japonais
Carte de crédit: OK

Si un jour vous êtiez d'humeur à essayer un Ramen différent, blasé de ces échoppes sans fard et sans façons qui font leur charme au Ramen, et bien il est temps d'essayer MIST Chabuya, un ramen qui propose un cadre chic, et un nouvel esprit pour la cuisine populaire. En effet, loin du cadre et de l'image sempiternel du Ramen, MIST Chabuya vous proposera une relecture attractive de cette cuisine populaire. La spécialité est la soupe 塩柳麺, autrement dit le ramen salé. De loin l'un des plus difficiles et délicat ramen à réaliser. Si celui-ci ne flirte pas avec les meilleurs de la spécialité, il a le mérite d'être assez bon pour être remarqué. Mais à vrai dire, les plats les plus intéressants sont à la carte le porc grillé (天元豚のスモーク), et le shashu grillé (天元豚のグリル). L'assiette "sushi style" est également à signaler, et je vous laisse la surprise de découvrir l'intérêt de cette assiette. Des gyozas vapeurs sont aussi à la carte. Peu courant aussi, la carte propose des desserts, et la carte des vins est intéressante, mais loin d'être vraiment attractive. Quelques sake, et une bière spécifique au lieu proposé par un brasseur. L'intérêt de cette adresse reste avant tout de proposer une cuisine populaire mais débarrassé de l'image souvent pittoresque des ramens, et de dîner, ou déjeuner dans un cadre "chic". A essayer, après une dure journée de shopping sur Omotesando, l'adresse se situant dans la galerie d'Omotesando Hills au dernier niveau. Les prix sont bien entendu plus élevé que dans votre ramen d'adoption, mais un menu est disponible autour de 3.000 Yens pour le dîner. Faites attention, c'est souvent plein !

Esaki (えさき) - Japanese *****

Address - 東京都渋谷区神宮前3-39-9　ヒルズ青山地下1階map
Opening hours - 12:00-14:00 (Thu-Sat only), 18:00-23:00 （LO 21:30）
Telephone - 03-3408-5056
Menu - In Japanese only
Credit Cards - OK
Michelin 2008 - 2*

Five minutes by foot from the Gaienmae station, on the Ginza line, this restaurant is in the basement of a building located in a quiet neighborhood. Outside stairs lead to the entrance of the restaurant, and a large bay window allows guest to immediately peak inside that place. There is limited seating only, with about 4-6 tables, a counter (with the kitchen behind it) and a tatami room. The design is clearly modern - white naked walls, a concrete pillar and dark wooden furniture, but the place is welcoming with its large ikebana.

We visited this place for lunch, as it offers an incredible great price for a 5-course menu : 3645 yen! This course includes 4 dishes, a dessert and tea/coffee; for 5250 yen, you get an extra fish dish. There is no selection offered inside the course, all is chosen by the chef.

Our course started with a mini-risotto served in a shell with a sato-imo deep-fried to the perfection - just crispy outside and absolutely not oily at all. The next dish was a kampachi sashimi from Kagoshima, served with an original topping of carrot and kiwi and fresh wasabi; this was the only disappointment of the lunch, as I found the fish a little hard. It was followed by a soup with vegetable and mashed sato-imo potato covered by senbe (a kind of Japanese biscuit). This again was really excellent, and definitively original.
The rice dish was rice sauté with tai fish, vegetables with mushrooms and a red miso soup with tororo in it. The rice was especially tasty, and the miso used for the soup was excellent - I was told it was from Nagano.
Finally, the dessert was a creme brulée of custard cream with beans - a very fitting dessert, but a great one, even if I normally don't fancy Japanese sweets very much.

Overall, the lunch was very nice, and I would clearly recommend this place. I need to add that the plates and bowls used to serve the food were, as they should be, very elegant, and that the service was effective and pleasant. The only problem with Esaki is rather unusual: there is only one toilet (a very nice one by the way), so customers have kind of queue to be able to visit the bathroom, especially at the end of the lunch when everybody has the same needs...

Menus :
lunch - 3645円 & 5250円
dinner - 8400円 & 10500円

Internet - www.aoyamaesaki.net