Esquisse is a two Michelin star restaurant located in Royal Crystal Building in Ginza (just look out for the building with The Hour Glass shop). I've heard a lot about this restaurant and indeed it has a very impressive score on Tabelog. I decided to come here for lunch with a fellow foodie friend of mine and we both ordered the same 15,200 Yen lunch course. This course consisted of a glass of champagne, a bottle of water, four hors d'oeuvres, a fish main, a meat main, two desserts and coffee or tea (which also came with a surprise third dessert).
Shall we have a look at the pictures?
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| Smoked snapper sashimi with egg yolk and a veg (covered by the fish) |
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| Cheese made from goat's milk, sea urchin and pea puree |
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| Sauteed squid with seasonal mountain vegetables |
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| A close up of the squid |
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| Free flow of bread 1 (not made by Esquisse) with homemade butter cream |
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| Free flow of bread 2 (not made by Esquisse) with homemade butter cream |
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| Sauteed shirako with wild mushrooms and sponge cake in a warm seafood mushroom broth |
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| Butter fish as the fish main |
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| Pigeon cooked medium rare as the meat main |
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| Mountain vegetable ice cream with an apple tart |
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| I forgot what ice cream this was.... |
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| Coffee with a custard tart |
So what do you think? 15,200 Yen for all that. Honestly, I'm not sure how to rate this. I'm not a big fan of french food in the first place because of the small portions. But based on my own taste buds, this is what I thought of the meal. Let's begin with the appetizers. Out of the four appetizers, I only found the sauteed squid and goat's milk cheese dish noteworthy. I thought the shirako didn't really compliment the taste of the wild mushrooms especially in that warm broth and the smoked snapper was nothing much to brag about really. I really enjoyed the pigeon meat main, the meat was tender, juicy and packed full of flavour, that I have to give them credit for cooking it to perfection. While the fish main was tasty, it was again nothing much to brag about - it was good but not great. But I have to compliment the chef for not overcooking the fish; it was cooked just nice. On to the desserts, frankly that was the most disappointing part of the meal. The apple tart was way too sweet and the mountain vegetable flavour of the ice cream was really bitter, definitely not my cup of tea there. The very fact that I can't even remember the second ice cream says it all. I did like the custard tart that came with my coffee though. Thank goodness there was free flow bread if not I wouldn't have been full. The homemade butter cream was a great touch I must say, I did like it quite a lot.
So now that you've read my comments about the food, on to the price performance. Well you can pretty much guess what I'm about to say....nah I didn't feel my cash was well spent. Again, let me reiterate that I'm not a big fan of french food and to me, this was rather pricey considering what I got and plus the lackluster dishes didn't help. Perhaps a french food connoisseur might find Esquisse really good but I trust my taste buds and while I did find some dishes to be noteworthy like the pigeon and goat's milk cheese, I felt this restaurant didn't live up to the standard of two Michelin stars nor it's very high score on Tabelog.
Website: https://www.esquissetokyo.com/en/
Address: Royal Crystal Ginza 9F 5-4-6, Ginza Chuo Tokyo Japan #104-0061
Budget: 15000+
My rating: 3.5 / 5
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