Tempura Kondo てんぷら 近藤 @ Ginza, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

I suppose if you're reading this now, you'd already have some knowledge about Tempura Kondo and its reputation for being a local favourite, more specifically to the middle aged and elderly folks, and not to mention it also has two michelin stars. The lunch courses here are especially popular since they're priced reasonably at 6500 and 8500 yen which is a lot cheaper compared to the big names like Sonoji, Fukamachi, Motoyoshi, just to name a few. Anyway, this is my first time here and I ordered the latter since I'm a big eater. For that course, I was served 12 items, not including dessert and miso soup.

Sushi Sho Masa すし匠まさ @ Roppongi, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

This is my third or fourth visit to Sushi Sho Masa and honestly, it keeps getting better. Even though he's one of the more high profile disciples of Sushi Sho, I've always been rather curious as to why his tabelog score is much lower than the other disciples when he serves one of the most unorthodox sushi meals you can get in Japan. I don't know of any other place that will serve 50+ items in one meal. Anyway, long story short, this time round I broke my all time record by stomaching a good 64 items or so. 

Haramasa はらまさ @ Yotsuya Sanchome, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

My first visit to Haramasa back in 2018 left a very good impression. I was very impressed with the creativity of many of the dishes and looked forward to my second visit here. This kaiseki restaurant is known to be one of the more modern and creative ones, relaying heavily on stronger tasting ingredients like truffles, shirako and spices to make their dishes more impactful. I had the privilege of sitting at the counter seat this time and was able to witness Chef Hara making some of his claim to fame dishes like his truffle infused rice among others. I actually think meal was better than my first time here because the dishes I hoped to eat again were actually served again and there were some new ones that left a lasting impression. Lets have a look at the photos:

Crab Taifu @ Ningyocho, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Crab Taifu is a ramen shop located in the Ningyocho area. The shop's claim to fame is its strong and thick tonkotsu-based crab flavoured broth. The noodles if I am not mistaken is also homemade; it had a very nice chewy and springy texture that complimented the strong tasting soup. Anyway, just like any typical ramen shop, it's small with only a few counter seats so if there's a line outside you'd better eat up, finish up and get outta there lol. Anyway, lets have a look at my bowl of crab tonkotsu ramen which I added extra quil eggs and extra pork slices:

Tagetsu 日本料理 太月 @ Omotesando, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Chef-owner Mochizuki-san

 Tagetsu is a 1 michelin star kaiseki restaurant that is relatively easy to book (for now) and is conveniently located in the Omotesando area. It is in the basement of a building and too bad there is no lift so you need to climb down the stairs. I decided to come here because I read of the good cost performance lunches priced at 5000 and 8000 yen. You can also order the dinner courses during lunch time but that's going to raise the price of  course. Anyway, for this particular visit, I reserved the 8000 yen course and this is what I got:

Takumi Shingo 匠 進吾 @ Aoyama Ichome, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

This is my third visit to Takumi Shingo and quite frankly, it keeps getting better and better each time! Located at the side of a small building in an estate, this is one of your typical high caliber restaurants in Japan that is randomly located behind someone's house lol. Just like Sukiyabashi Jiro and Sushi Sho Masa, this is a sushi ya which I try to come back to whenever I'm in Tokyo. I simply love the  experience of being served a variety of sushi and tsumami dishes. This is actually a specialty of the Sho related restaurants and though a number of chefs have gone to open their own stores. I've only tried 3 of them so far - Takumi Shingo, Sho Masa, and Sho Saito. For this particular visit to Takumi Shingo, I ate about 34 or so items. Let's have a look at the pictures! (I'm not gonna name all of them though)

Selsalsale @ Ebisu, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Selsalsale is a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant located in Ebisu known for its high cost performance and good food. I read that the chef never trained at any high caliber restaurants but is very creative. There is only 1 dinner course priced at 6500 yen for about 10 dishes (in reality 13). Even though it does not have a Michelin star, it has garnered very high scores on tabelog and seems to be loved by many locals. When I posted this on Instagram, quite a few Japanese reached out to me and made comments like "oh you know this place? I like it!" and "I love coming here", stuff like that. Anyway, I came here with two of my local Japanese friends (if you're reading this, thank you so much for making the reservation for us!) and thought we'd have a lovely dinner with a bill that doesn't blow a hole in your wallet....so I thought...before I get to that, let's take a look at the photos!

Sushi Ryusuke 鮨 竜介 @ Ginza, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Looking for a high quality sushi meal in Ginza at a very affordable and reasonable price? This is the place for you! Sushi Ryusuke is located in the basement (with a rather narrow staircase and entrance) of a building in Ginza. He entered the sushi scene together with rivals such as Sushi Arai but unfortunately seems to be overshadowed by them and never truly got the recognition he deserves. This is rather odd to be because my lunch here was easily better than a lot of other sushi yas in Ginza area such as Ishiyama, Kyubey, Tokami etc. These kind of deals are pretty hard to find lol. Anyway, let's take a look at the pictures!

Savoy @ Azabujuban, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Do I really need to introduce this place? I mean after all, you're reading this because you already have an idea of who this pizza bar is. Straight to the point, I have to first qualify by saying that I haven't really explored many pizza bars in Tokyo. I've only been to the Pizza Bar on 38th at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and yes I have to say it was bloody amazing. For this recent trip, I came here because I've been keeping an eye out for this place for a long time and I finally decided to give Savoy a shot and boy oh boy, I kept wondering to myself, why on earth did I take so long to come here? Sigh...better late than never right? Come come let's have a look at the pictures.

Hatano Yoshiki 麻布十番 秦野よしき @ Azabujuban, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Hatano Yoshiki has been on my radar for about a year or two ever since I read up about this talented chef who tries to make your sushi meal more creative by having some french and litany influence on it, or at least that's what I read. Well I can't say for sure that there was any influence, what I know for sure was that his sushi and tsumami dishes all had a very powerful punch to them. He could make shime saba melt in my mouth like Otoro and his conger eel...oh man his conger eel, I dare say is just as good as Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi. But enough talk, let's take a look at the pictures of my dinner here:

Butcher Yamamoto & Daughters @ Ebisu, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Butcher Yamamoto & Daughter is a small casual steak restaurant located in Ebisu. It is relatively not very well known in the international community but it is very popular among local young adults, or at least that's what I observed while I was there. The beef dishes here are reasonably priced and since this was me and my friend's first time here, we decided to order the omakase course which consisted of 7 courses altogether. Shall we have a look at the pictures?

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:

Kasumitei Matsubara 霞庭 まつばら @ Roppongi, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Kasumitei Matsubara is a kaiseki restaurant located on the third floor of a small building in the Nishiazabu / Roppongi area. Its claim to fame is the very reasonable and very affordable kaiseki courses that the restaurant serves during lunch. From what I've gathered so far, the 2 most popular lunch courses are the grilled fish course and the wagyu beef course which is what I ordered for my first visit here. My 4400 yen lunch courses consisted of the following:

6th By Oriental Hotel @ Yurakucho, Tokyo

Are you a big fan of desserts? Specifically cheese cakes? Then this is the place for you. 6th by Oriental Hotel  is a cafe in the Yurakucho area. It is extremely popular during weekends with long queues in the afternoon, but if you're a tourist like me, then visist this cafe on a weekday because it's less crowded and definitely easier to get a seat, you don't even need a reservation. Ok enough of me, I'll just let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

Grill Ukai グリルうかい 丸の内店 @ Marunouchi, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

Grill Ukai as the name suggests, is a restaurant that serves grilled beef. It is part of illustrious Ukai Group, known to many locals for their strong branding and provision of high quality food at reasonable prices, although the last part is subjective. Anyway, Grill Ukai is located on the 2nd level of Marunouchi Brick Square and good thing about this restaurant is that apart from the good quality food that they serve and the good pricing (in my opinion at least), it's a big restaurant which means you always have a great chance of getting a seat here. It recently entered the top 5000 restaurants in Japan according to Tabelog and I've noticed their score is getting higher every year. This is my 2nd visit here and I ordered the 12,960 yen course (now 13,200 yen as of October 2019) which serves 2 kinds of beef for the main dish.

Teppanyaki Romantei 麻布十番 鉄板焼 楼漫亭 @ Azabu Juban, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

Teppanyaki Romantei is a foreigner friendly beef restaurant located in Azabu Juban (or Roppongi). Its claim to fame is their outstanding cost performance, which I have to admit, is really quite outstanding because for what you pay, you get a whole lot of "premium" items. I visited this restaurant in Feb 2019 and ordered the 12,000 yen course. I got items such as a whole lobster, abalone, foie gras, sea urchin maki, A5 Wagyu beef and the list goes on. However, there is a catch to this! You must be wondering by now, how can you possibly get so many premium items for this price, it's simply not possible isn't it? Well well well, before I touch on that point, shall we see what I ate for 12,000 yen?

Sushi Sho Masa すし匠まさ @ Roppongi, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've done a write up because life got busy real fast but finally I found time to continue my write ups. Long story short, lets talk about Sushi Sho Masa. I think this is my 3rd visit here and just like previous visits, I ate a whole lot of tsumami and nigiri sushi - over 50 items. I probably already mentioned this in my previous posts but I have to reiterate just how unique this Sushi shop is. I don't know of any other sushi shop that serves you so many items and so many different varieties of seafood in one sitting. It's pretty darn amazing I must say. But ok enough talk, let's see what I ate:

Sushi Ishiyama 鮨いしやま @ Ginza, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

If you're reading this post, chances are you've already been to Sushi Ya when Chef Ishiyama Takao was the main chef of that establishment. Over the years he seems to have built a strong international following especially among Hong Kong and Chinese tourists which I suppose was a really smart move considering now that he has opened his own sushi restaurant, he's going to need to continue building his customer base as well as maintain his current existing one. Anyway, I'm not going to explain the history of this restaurant or how good he was in Sushi Ya, so let's cut the long story short. Here are the pictures of my lunch in Sushi Ishiyama:

Esquisse エスキス @ Ginza, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

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?

Sushi Yu 鮨由う @ Roppongi, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

Sushi Yu is a one michelin starred sushi restaurant located in a small alley in the Roppongi area, very close to Roppongi Midtown. Straight to the point, this place is quite unique compared the other sushi restaurants in the sense that the chef, Ozaki Jun, serves many small dishes (tsumami), almost more than the sushi pieces. Furthermore, unlike other places that serve you the standard sashimi and maybe some grilled or simmered items, Chef Ozaki-san's items are rather creative like his monkfish liver paste rice, smoked spanish mackerel with shoyu and mustard sauce and even that hairy crab with sea urchin and caviar special sushi that you see on the cover of this blog post.