| Restaurant Review |
By Nina Uchida |
Saryo Tsujiri
Patience is a virtue when indulging in green tea
sweets at Shiodome
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| Photos by Kensaku Shioya |
The unavoidable multi-hour wait at the matcha
green tea café Saryo Tsujiri does little to deter us from coming back again and again for their towering sundaes and desserts. The enormously popular Kyoto-based shop does a brisk business serving traditional and neo-Japanese sweets in the Caretta Shiodome shopping mall in a slender space with blond wood furniture and a steady stream of (mostly female) customers. Even if typical Japanese desserts heavy on ultra-sweet mashed red beans aren’t your thing, the serene atmosphere and attentive staff forever refilling your teacup are a nice change of pace from the typical coffee-and-pastries experience.
Since the line can be four to five layers deep on weekends, we tried our luck on our latest visit by going on a weekday evening. The wait was still over an hour, so we passed the time peeking in through the windows to see what everyone else was ordering. The menu is broad, from the simplest dango (rice dumplings) and frothy matcha combo to many-layered parfaits, which is clearly the hottest item in the house.
It’s the parfaits that we come here for too, our favorite being the Uji Parfait (¥1,050) with layers of vanilla and green tea ice cream, quivering blocks of green tea kanten (agar jello), mandarin orange and a swirl of matcha whipped cream. The parfait comes in genmai-cha (green tea with toasted brown rice) and hoji-cha (roasted green tea) flavors; both are earthier compared to the classic clean taste of green tea. For ¥1,470, make it a set with sides like anmitsu with mochi balls, fruit, kanten, an (sweet red bean jam) and green tea syrup; warabimochi, a clear, sticky cake dusted with kinako (powdered soybeans); or slippery, see-through tokoroten noodles, either sweet with brown sugar syrup or tart with vinegar.
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New items are added seasonally, and the latest summer special was a tropical matcha shaved-ice parfait. It was a chaotic, delicious mixture of flavor and texture with coconut and green tea sherbet, grapefruit jelly, passionfruit and strawberry sauce, tiny mochi balls and crunchy beans, all crowning a mountain of icy green-tea slush. The shaved-ice options have become especially popular since the days are hot, including a recent monthly special: a glacial combination of lemon and green tea (¥945).
Tsujiri also offers take-out items like matcha mousse, jellies and panna cotta (¥420-¥450), and the gift shop next door sells beautifully packaged cookies and teas that make excellent presents. The eat-in menu also has non-sweet items, like intensely green matcha udon or soba noodles (¥735), perfect as a light meal when you’re not after something sweet. But that’s not what the lines outside are for, and if anything, the anticipation makes the first mouthful that much more satisfying. So wear comfortable shoes, and bring a friend for conversation to pass the time in line. Saryo Tsujiri is worth the wait.
B2 Caretta Shiodome, 1-8-2 Higashi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-5537-2217. Open Mon-Sat 11am-11pm (L.O. 10pm), Sun and hol 11am-10pm (L.O. 9pm). Nearest stn: Shiodome. No reservations and no smoking.
www.giontsujiri.co.jp
When popular restaurant Roti closed its Harumi Triton Square branch in March, there were a lot of sad diners. Fortunately, a new and exciting restaurant and wine bar has opened to take its place… or perhaps we should say “dramatic,” since that is how Garden Bay describes itself. Garden Bay offers modern Italian cuisine in a casual style at reasonable prices. The dinner menu is quite extensive. For starters, you can pick from carpaccio, tomato and basil salad, pancetta, terrine, or bacon and egg salad, for ¥680 to ¥1,380. For entrees, Garden Bay offers lots of grilled meats, seafood, pasta, rice dishes and some vegetarian fare. No entree item costs more than ¥2,400, and there is an ample selection of red and white wines from Italy, Spain, France, Argentina and Australia to go with your dinner.
The restaurant is also popular with the lunchtime crowd.
Sets, which change daily, include pasta, a rice dish and a one-plate combination of salad, rice and meat. Of course, no meal is complete without dessert, and Garden Bay offers the likes of tiramisu, gateau chocolate cake and fruit tart. The restaurant is available for parties as well, starting at ¥2,400 per person for a two-hour period. Having just opened, Garden Bay doesn’t yet have an English menu, but the staff are friendly and floor manager Kanako Uehara is more than happy to help with any inquiries.
Harumi Triton Square 1F, Harumi 1-8-16, Chuo-ku 104-0053. Tel: 03-5547-0561. Open daily 11:30am-11pm. Nearest stn: Kachidoki. www.gardenbay.jp CB |
Ocean Bounty
The cold, nutrient-rich waters of Penn Cove off Whidbey Island in Washington State are an ideal environment for cultivating shellfish worthy of the finest dinner tables. Discriminating palates worldwide have come to regard the cove’s mussels and oysters as being among the best in flavor and texture. Taste the quality for yourself at the American Oyster Fair during September at the Oregon Bar & Grill (www.wonderland.to, 03-6215-8585) in Shiodome. Fans of Pacific Northwest cuisine should check back often with the restaurant, which regularly features the wines, produce, seafood and meats that make the region such a culinary hotspot. Regardless of your regional taste preferences, your eyes will feast on the 42nd-floor views overlooking Tokyo Tower.
Over at Roku Roku sushi restaurant inside Roppongi’s Grand Hyatt Tokyo (www.grandhyatttokyo.com, 03-4333-8788), a sumptuous kaiseki dinner using tuna from Ohma Cape in the Tsugaru Channel is on the menu from September 1 through November 30. The formal multicourse meal includes appetizers, sashimi, grilled tuna steak, simmered leeks with tuna, sushi, miso soup and seasonal fruit for ¥16,800. During lunch, treat yourself to salmon and ikura (salmon roe) at the peak of flavor with the Autumn Salmon Bowl for ¥3,780. The set comes with an appetizer, deep-fried eggplant, miso soup and dessert.
From September 1 through October 31, the Hina Sushi (www.create-restaurants.co.jp) group of all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants offers their Aki no Osusume (Autumn Recommendation) menu for those who just can’t get enough of the season’s abundant seafood. Keep the itamae (sushi chef) busy with endless orders of sanma (mackerel), whose rich, mellow flavor pairs particularly well with ginger, silvery tachiuo (Atlantic cutlass), broiled salmon using the flavorful harami belly meat, and tender whole squid with a squirt of yuzu citrus. Also on the sushi menu is yuba (soymilk skin), with a texture as tender as the most delicate raw fish, and grilled eggplant brushed with miso. Get it all for ¥4,179 at any of the nine Hina Sushi restaurants in areas like Ginza, Roppongi, Shibuya and Yokohama. NU
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