Adrift in Japan

Chez Comme Moi

Yesterday we had lunch at Stellar Place's "cuisine chinois" Chinese-style restaurant with an arrogant French name. From the appearance of the outside, I was expecting more. More innovative food, and, frankly, tastier food. Not that it was bad... it just wasn't inspired.

We ordered lunch sets, which rather than being sets were really a choose-your-own first course, second course and dessert, where the prices just happened to add up to the total cost of the set. I had something like sweet and sour pork (with pineapple) and chow mein, and Matt had... um... I can't remember... and fried rice. My pork was tasty, but the sauce was overly heavy. The chow mein was soggy, even the parts that were supposed to be crispy, and the flavor was basically non-existent. I was nostalgic for the seafood noodles at the Chinese restaurant my parents frequent in Wisconsin. Matt's food, both dishes, seemed better, although he still rated the fried rice lower than at a different Chinese restaurant we went to just last week.

Dessert was definitely the highlight of the meal. Matt had almond tofu (or almond jello) which was delicate and tasty. I had the sesame ball with red bean paste. The ball was crispy and hot, with the insides gooey and delicious. Thumbs up on the dessert... but would I really go back just for that?

Verdict: Ehh. I don't think we'll be back, especially not with another (better) Chinese restaurant just down the hall from this one.

[sidenote: yeah, yesterday's food experiences both hit the "eh" category. not too bad, but not deserving of repeat visits.]

Tanghla

Two new restaurants just opened at Parco, Tanghla and La Maison de Curry (or something like that). Last night Matt and I went to Tanghla and ordered the special course they're offering for their opening. When we arrived, we asked what type of cuisine it was and the woman said "simple, with a little Asian."

Ambience -- nice view of the city. In addition to the western style tables there is a pseudo-tatami area with pits under the table for your legs, and there is a "counter" against the big window so some guests can eat looking out directly over the view. Pretty neat.

The menu was 5 courses and a beverage (wine or soft drink). First course: some sort of shell fish, probably hotate (scallop) diced raw with a dressing, on the half shell. Second course: salad of tomato and cucumbers chopped up and dressed with a heavy dairy based sauce, described as a cheese sauce, although it didn't taste much like cheese. Third course: there were two choices, so we had one of each; seasoned hamburger and fish. The hamburger was tasty but the fish was overcooked. Fourth course: rice (not warm) with shredded crab on top. I wasn't a huge fan. Fifth course (dessert): sliced kiwi with a cheese (probably marscapone) dressing. Yep, three of the courses were uncooked (but pretty tasty) and the two cooked courses didn't measure up except for the hamburger patty. They did have a beer called Heartland beer (or the Japanese equivalent -- Haatrando) which was good and a little more bitter than the regular Japanese beer... more like an American beer.

Anyway, for 1500 yen it was a good price. I think they were offering a deal to expose as many people as possible to the new restaurant and their specials. It was fun and interesting... but I don't think we'll be back.

Verdict: Eh...

Back in Town

We're back from our trip with our parents to Kyoto, Nara, Koyasan and Tokyo. Details soon. After I recover from this horrible bug I got during the trip.

Beer Garden Smackdown!

A couple of nights ago we went to the Kirin Beer Garden for the first time. Now it's time for a point-by-point comparison between the Kirin Beer Garden and the Sapporo Beer Garden.

Location: the location of the Kirin Beer Garden right next to the Nakajima subway station is a huge plus. The Sapporo Beer Garden is not very close to any subway station. There is a bus that goes there, but I've never actually ridden it. Winner: Kirin.

Appearance: Outside, the Kirin Beer Garden looks kind of boring, just a big tall building, and inside the lobby, it looks sort of like sterile hotel reception area. In contrast, Sapporo Beer Garden has a nice setting. The reception area is in its own building that has character. Winner: Sapporo.

Souvenier Shopping: Kirin Beer Garden's souvenier shopping was sadly lacking. Sapporo's reception area has a full omiyage shop, complete with steins and Hokkaido food specialties. Winner: Sapporo.

Room Atmosphere: We sat in Kirin's Space Craft room which was rather modern, and frankly lacking in a lot of visual interest. It does, however, have a large video screen on one wall where you can watch them BBQ oysters and read the specials (well, if you can read Kanji, which we can't). Sapporo Beer Garden has better tables and more character, and just seems like a more authentic place. Winner: Sapporo.

Drinking Experience: Well, I have to hand it to Kirin here. We ordered the Tower of Beer which is really tall and holds 4 liters of beer right at the table (picture coming soon). We drank a whole tower, plus 2 more partial towers. That may very well have been the highlight of the evening. So, even though I think I like Sapporo beer better, the Kirin experience was too good. Winner: Kirin.

Food: The Kirin grill was non-stick, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, that's about the best thing I can say about it. The meat itself... well, the funniest thing I can say about the meat is that they asked us if we wanted "row style" which in the end we figured out was non-marinated and probably was supposed to be "raw." Maybe we should have ordered the marinated meat, because the meat wasn't that tasty. It just didn't have that much flavor, even with the dipping sauce. The pieces were a nice slabby thickness though. In contrast, I really like the meat at the Sapporo place, and the dipping sauce is tastier. And since we're there for the meat... Winner: Sapporo.

Did I have fun at the Kirin Beer Garden? Hell yeah! More fun than I did at the Sapporo Beer Garden? Yep. But, I think it was the good company, the alcohol and the fact that we followed it up with a couple hours of (expensive) karaoke.

Final score: Kirin 2, Sapporo 4.

Matt and I are off for mega-family vacation. Be in touch from Kyoto!

Delhi Restaurant

Or, why not to trust the Lonely Planet's restaurant recommendations.

We have the newest edition of the Lonely Planet Japan guidebook, picked up after it was printed last fall. We like the book and have found it good reading with helpful descriptions of things to see around Japan. Last night, though, was our first time visiting a restaurant recommended by the book -- well, other than the Sapporo Beer Garden, which everyone knows about. After all, we are in Sapporo.

Anyway, we have been several times to an Indian restaurant near the Station area, but we were eager to try another, and the Lonely Planet listen Delhi Restaurant as a good place for an Indian meal. We headed out optimistically and took the subway to Susukino. We walked through the covered arcade to the restaurant at S3W1 just inside the end of the arcade -- there it was, tucked in there just before the road.

We headed inside and were the only customers inside a small restaurant. That in itself wasn't a concern, but the absence of any Indian people working there -- even in the kitchen -- was more of a worry. Although we weren't able to read the menu, the woman did convey to us that there were several different types of curry and meats and you could mix and match, for example chicken, lamb, meatball (?) or vegetables with a 3 different types of curry. We ended up with the lamb curry (kashmiri?) and chicken curry (can't remember what style it was supposed to be). I was definitely disappointed that there was no naan -- in my estimation, any place that doesn't have bread is a let down as far as Indian cuisine is concerned. It doesn't have to have naan, but paratha or poori or roti or whatever else... that would be nice. We did however order 2 papadum, a lassi and a beer.

Oooh, the lassi was a mistake. I'm not sure, but I suspect it was just some sort of off-the-shelf yogurt beverage you can pick up at any supermarket in Japan. It just didn't have quite that lassi flavor. Matt's beer, on the other hand, was a good deal, about 450 yen for a large bottle. The papadum was good, just like all papadum. We probably should have ordered more.

The curries came and were served with large plates of Japanese rice, not basmati rice. The curries themselves were served in Indian style metal dishes, each with 4 pieces of meat swimming in a thin sauce. Matt said his tasted very similar to Japanese curry. Mine was spicy and had a great deal of cardamom (come to think of it, so did his). At any rate, I'm not convinced it was "Indian" but it had some curry flavor. Edible, but not really that great. One of them came with side dishes as a part of the "set" -- some sort of pickle thing and some odd cheese (not paneer). All in all, a strange experience.

Noone else came in while we were there, and we left around the time they would have accepted their last order. We can only assume they have more business at lunch than they do at dinner.

Every time I've written a restaurant review for this site I've always said we'll be going back, but not this time. Thumbs down on this one. As Matt says, it's not that the food was really bad, but it certainly wasn't what we expected, and there are better places to get similar food. If you have Lonely Planet Japan, open up your copy to the section on Where to Eat in Sapporo and cross this one out.