| Restaurant Review |
By Beau Miller
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Nirvana NY
Tokyo’s most popular Indian restaurant shows flashes of brilliance
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| Photos Courtesy of Nirvana NY |
With a restaurant as hyped and popular as Tokyo Midtown’s Nirvana NY, it’s difficult not to arrive with lofty expectations. Given that we had twice been unsuccessful at securing a reservation, we showed up for a recent dinner with high hopes. Overall, we left happy, but with a sense that this celebrated Indian restaurant had missed opportunities to outshine its army of competitors.
If you’re looking to impress a date or business associate, Nirvana NY is an excellent choice. The soundtrack is Sinatra and Co. at the perfect volume, getting into your thoughts but not interrupting conversation. The nighttime views are stellar. Thanks to a conspicuous lack of tall buildings on the horizon due east of Midtown, this is one of the few places in Tokyo to enjoy the skyline from such a low perch. The dimly lit, lavishly appointed art deco interior is exquisite. And the prices are suitably high—because hey, potential partners deserve to be spoiled.
The best item on the menu could well be the vegetable and mushroom biriyani (¥2,200). Big enough for two, this cast-iron vessel of baked rice was filled with buried treasures like cashews, peas, okra, mushrooms, carrots, baby corn and paneer cheese.
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Yet it’s hard to ignore that one could enjoy all the delicacies of the ¥2,000 daily lunch buffet for less than the price of this single dish. For those of us on a budget, the best strategy for enjoying Nirvana NY is to go for either the buffet or the weekday happy hour, when the comfy couches on the wooden terrace are open (though chilly), and drinks and a selection of appetizers are just ¥500 apiece.
But back to our meal, which we began with a Mojito (¥1,050, very strong) and Lime Breeze (¥850, less so) to go with the mandatory “snack” of deep-fried roti flatbread with four chutneys: mango, coconut, mint and cayenne curry.
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The salad was a toss-up (sorry) between the garden and the mix bean (both ¥1,400), and next came the biriyani, followed by an entrée of three pieces of tandoori oven-roasted vegetables (¥1,600). Here, we witnessed the restaurant’s struggle between the good and the great, as the decidedly average tomato and zucchini arrived with the stellar baked potato stuffed with paneer and green peas.
The curries and naan (¥450) arrived last: okra and onion (¥1,700) and black lentil (¥1,500). Our high hopes for the former went unmet, but the savory lentil curry allowed us to end the meal on a high note.
With so much going for it, Nirvana NY is like a sleeping giant—poised to ascend to its rightful perch in the hierarchy of the city’s dining scene, but not quite there yet.
Garden Side, Tokyo Midtown, 9-7-4 Akasaka, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-5647-8305. Open daily 11am-3pm, 5-10pm. English menu available. Smoking not allowed inside, but permitted on terrace. ¥500 seating charge. Nearest stn: Roppongi or Nogizaka. www.nirvana-newyork.jp
Pizza Express is a dominant force on the British dining scene. With over 300 locations throughout the UK, the pizza and pasta restaurant offers a combination of good food, stylish design and low prices. Open since 1999, the popular Tokyo branch (in the building next to Gap in Harajuku) has been serving up brick-oven pies, garden-fresh salads, tasty pasta—and when The Punchline Comedy Club stops by, as they will on Friday, November 16—loads of gut-busting laughter. This edition of the traveling standup troupe will feature three masters of their trade, all hailing from England: John Fothergill, Jo Caulfield and Sean Meo. The buffet before the show will includes some of the many drool-inducing pizzas from the regular menu, which range from the classic margherita (¥950) to the capricciosa (¥1,650), topped with ham, red peppers, anchovies, egg, capers, olives—and copious amounts of tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. The ¥997 lunch set keeps with the tradition of value-priced, high-quality fare. Midday diners can choose one of five main dishes—from a changing selection of two pizzas, two pastas and a salad—for this triple-digit deal, which also includes a drink. Tip: grab a seat by the window to engage in a bit of people watching from on high. The Punchline Comedy Club, Nov 16. See stage listings for details. 3F T’s Harajuku, 4-30-3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-5775-3894. Open Mon-Sat 11am-11pm, Sun 11am-10pm. www.pizzaexpress.co.jp BM
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