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sanji
Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:55 am

Re: Shinjuku restaurants - European food
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Canard - French ****

Address - Shinjuku 5-17-6, B1F
Opening hours - 11:30 - 14:00 & 18:00 - 22:30
Telephone - 3200-0706

Canard is located in East Shinjuku, not far from Isetan department store. It is relatively easy to find, if you know where it is! So bringing a map might help.
The entrance of the restaurant is located in a small street, with just a couple of stairs going down, as the place is underground. The stairs are narrow, and arrive in a tiny place - not more than 1 or 2 m2, with a fridge and a hall stand to hang your coat. Then there is a door of the restaurant itself. Upon entering, first-time visitors will be surprised by the tininess of the place: 2 or 3 tables (depending on how they are arranged) and a counter. No need to say that reservation is a must. Walls are decorated with pictures and some music instrument. Nothing very gorgeous, the place is obviously old (toilets are Japanese style !), but it is clean.

Writing a review for this restaurant is difficult. Many web sites and guides claim that this is one of the most authentic French food in town. Indeed, the food is really good. The chef used to be a French guy in the past, but nowadays it is his wife who is cooking - I could not tell a significant difference between their food.

For dinner, they have two menus: the classical "Canard menu" for 3000 yen (1 starter, 1 main, cheese or dessert) and an upscaled "Chef menu" for 5800 yen (5000 yen if 4 persons order it, comprising 5 plates choose by the cook). The 3000 yen is the most popular menu; it looks really cheap, and you can choose what you want to eat. However, many dishes that you might choose require the payment of an extra, and finally my menu turned out to cost, after addition of 500 extra yen for a starter, for the main and for the dessert, a total of 4500 + 5% taxes, which were not included in the price displayed on the menu (although this is mandatory in Japan). Because some dishes are obviously more expensive than others, I can understand this "extra fee" system. What was more disturbing is that most dishes require payment of extra 500-1200 yen, while half of the selection that would enter in the 3000 yen total was not available...

Here is a selection of the dishes that we ate :

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Terrines of foie-gras (left) and rabbit (center), avocado and shrimp salad - starters


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Canard confit and steak with bluecheese sauce - mains


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Their dessert specialty : crème brûlée


Overall, it was a nice dinner, but the bill gets a little pricey. I think there are slightly better quality-price ratios out there.


web: www.jlcjapon.com (only a map, not even the menu)
some more details: [url=http://gourmet.gyao.jp/0002142540/]gourmet.gyao.jp/0002142540/