Kien 帰燕 @ Akasaka, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Kien or Akasaka Kien as it is commonly known as is a 1 michelin kaiseki restaurant located in the Akasaka neighborhood. Its claim to fame is its 1700 yen super value for money lunch deal which consist of 4 dishes, pickles, miso soup and refillable rice. You can also order normal kaiseki courses during lunch time but you have to book in advance. For the 1700 yen lunch teishoku, unfortunately you can't make a reservation for that so you gotta stand outside and queue up. If there's a large number of people in front of you, you'll probably have to wait till they finish before you can go in as there are only about 6 or 7 counter seats. In other words, go early to line up, at least a good 15 to 20 minutes would be highly recommended. Of course the more people you go with, the earlier you should line up. I went at 11:15am and there were already 3 people in front of me. Anyway, enough talk, let's see what I ate for 1700 yen:

The 2 sheets of paper are basically saying there are 2 different lunch sets for the day. Upper one saying there is a snapper chazuke lunch set and the one below stating a variety of items for the lunch set (that's the popular one)

Beef brisket and tendon stew

Pickles and very flavorful chawanmushi

Akami zuke sashimi with miso dressing

Fried scallops and eggplant with tartar sauce

It was really by luck that I chanced upon this restaurant while reading about the Akasaka neighborhood. Since I intended to visit Roppongi in the afternoon, I figured yeah why not since Akasaka is just a short walk away. Anyway, I had an enjoyable and very pleasant lunch here. They only have these lunch sets from Tuesdays to Fridays so please don't go on the wrong days lol. I might consider coming back here for lunch the next trip but if I do, I'd probably would want to try one of their kaiseki courses.

Website: http://www.akasaka-kien.com/menu-english
Address: 東京都 港区 赤坂 2-18-8
Budget: 1700 (lunch), 15000+ (dinner)
My rating: 4 / 5