Miami Patio: Twice is enough, maybe too much

Area: ESCA (underground shopping area on the Bic Camera side of Nagoya Station)
Restaurant: Miami Patio ワインバー　マイアミ　パティオ
Website and Mall map:  http://miami-garden.jp/shop_eska_access.html

Hours:  Lunch 11am-5pm, Dinner 5-10:30pm  (LO 10)


When I had browsed through the ESCA gourmet guide, the pamphlet said that this restaurant's pasta was house-made which is why I came.  However when I asked the waitress which pastas were fresh, she said none of them were.  Then I looked closely again at the description and it had said the sauces were house-made, oops!

 The pasta of the day (which is in the regular menu) was a soy sauce based takana and bacon Japanese flavor.  Not very Italian, or American (the restaurant's name is Miami), but it was recommended, and I wanted to see what takana was.

The lunch set (880円 for the daily pasta, 980円 for pasta or pizza of your choice), includes salad and a drink. You have a choice if Italian, French or Japanese style dressings for the salad.  French dressing in Japan tends to be white, while in Canada, it comes as a ketchup based red dressing; strange eh? Anyhow, the small salad comes with a baguette and prosciutto.  The baguette was the soft kind and was slathered with butter, a little dry like it had been pre-cut hours ago.

I was surprised when the pasta came since it was sitting in a light golden broth.  The pasta was cooked al dente but it did seem like dried grocery store pasta.  As were the thin slices of grocery store bacon; the kind that looks like ham cold cuts.  Takana, seems to be a vegetable commonly pickled with salt.  Upon a brief internet search, I found that it's actually a mustard green.  Having said that, it doesn't add mustard flavor, but adds colour and some crunch to the dish.  The bacon fat gives some depth to the broth.  With the sodium from the soy sauce, bacon and takana tsukemono, the salt level was pretty high.   I was glad I chose a cafe latte since the milk balanced out the salt in my mouth.  

Apparently you can order from the regular menu (which includes meats, salads and antipastos) at anytime, and make it into a set meal, so I'd like to come back and try these.  It is a restaurant that caters to Japanese tastes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just confusing for the taste buds. 

I made it back here for a second try just as I had planned.  This time I wanted to try their homemade pork pate (680 yen), and this time I'm sure it was made in house.  I upgraded the meal with a drink and salad for an extra 580 yen (it's 680 yen for an alcoholic drink which I was so tempted to do).  The salad comes dressed with an Italian dressing which tasted just like Kraft's version.  

I'm surprised the pate didn't come with any bread!  What kind of pate comes sans bread?  But then again, it wasn't really pate-like.  It was definitely not spreadable, so I'd consider it more of a terrine, or even meat loaf.  It was really salty almost like spam (it looked as if there were bits of corned beef in it).  It needed the mayo and olive oil dip (is it just me or is that a slightly odd combo?) to balance the saltiness.  I could have used just the olive oil though (mayo is also salty in itself).  I wanted to eat it with bread but remembering from the last time, it wasn't that great.  The black olives were maybe the nicest part of this dish; compared to the "pate" they were mild in sodium level so they were refreshing.  The tomato was pickled, and pleasantly burst with pickling brine in my mouth.    

The coffee was an espresso americano, probably made fresh upon ordering.  It was the most enjoyable part of this slightly disappointing meal, and at least I could sit back and listen to the John Mayer songs playing in the background.

Well, both times I've been here, there has been some disappointment, so I'm not sure I'll try a third time.

5R Cafe and Kitchen: If you're looking out for your health...

Area: Chikusa Station 千種駅、about 200m east of exit 4
Restaurant:  5R Cafe & Kitchen  (Shizen no kusuri-bako)  自然の薬箱　カフェ＆キッチン
Website: http://five-r.co.jp/cafe.html
Map:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230106/23038454/

Hours:  11am-9pm (LO 8pm), Closed Wednesdays 

This cafe is located on the second floor of a health and wellness centre where they sell herbal medicines and cosmetics, you can have acupuncture, a massage, do yoga, attend lectures and so on.  You can be sure that their cafe will try to serve healthy food.  The calories are even listed on the menu board.  The lunch is 1000 yen, and today there was a choice between fried fish and cream stewed chicken.  Both start off with a salad;  you can telll a salad is put together with care when the tomatoes are skinned and there is daikon that looks like watermelon.  It's nice that you can try 2 different types of dressings.  The carrot and apple dressing had a nice natural sweetness, the flavour of apple being a bit stronger than the carrot.  It did still have a vinegary tang to it to make it a refreshing salad dressing.  The negi (green onion) dressing was more Asian in flavour with a very mild onion accent.  When the salad was reaching its last greens, the mixture of the two dressings melded well.

Next, the soup;  cabbage and spice soup. Usually I wouldn't think that adding a soup for 300円 is a good deal, but I'm glad that I did.  The milk foam was a nice touch to give the soup a creamy texture. The flavour of cabbage was there, but strangely there were no pieces of cabbage.  It was probably made from mostly cabbage broth, but if it were a purée, it's one of the smoothest purées I've ever seen. There were chunks of undercooked carrot floating around but the steamed broccoli with a slight crunch was nice when the florets soak up some of the soup.  

On the main plate (I chose the fish fry) were 2 vegetable sides, whole grained bread (you can also choose multi-grain rice) and the main.  The wakame (seaweed) and na no hana were very lightly seasoned, if it were seasoned at all.  The stewed and chilled cold gobo and renkon was sweet, yet had umami from the soy sauce and mushrooms.  They also had a nice crunchy texture.  The lemon juice sprinkled fish was a bit dry and didn't go well at all with the mushroom purée on the side. Somehow the combination of lemon and strong mushroom made the fish taste like the sea. It definitely went better with the pink daikon oroshi, which was slightly sweet and mellowed out the lemon.  The nagaimo (a high water content potato, slimy in texture) had a nice crunch and I enjoyed it on its own, the same as with the fried shiso leaves. I wouldn't be surprised if I were told they bake their bread everyday as it was fresh with a nice chewy bite to it. 

Overall, a cafe definitely geared towards women with a menu abundant in vegetables and mild flavours.  Although they slightly failed in some of the flavour combos, I give this cafe credit for trying out new dishes.  

Monsieur Itoh: Monsieur is French, Itoh is Japanese

Area:  Royal Park Hotel 2F,  Exit 10 of Unimall (underground shopping area near the Takashiyama side of Nagoya Station)
Restarurant:  Monsieur Itoh  ムッシュいとう
Map and Website:  http://www.rph-the.co.jp/nagoya/restaurant/

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-3pm (LO 2:30), Dinner 5:30pm-11pm (LO 10:30)


Being a French restaurant, I wanted to try either the galette or the red wine beef tongue stew.  The other lunches were more Japanese, such as the pork katsu, chicken teppan yaki, or the fish fry; however they did have a twist such as the cheese, garlic and tomato sauces respectively accompanying the main.  I went with the galette lunch (all lunches are 850円 with drink bar, and include either a salad and soup, or miso soup and rice).  I was especially happy to be able to order a half glass of wine for an extra 150円) just to make my meal seem more French!  The salad was lightly dressed with a mild flavored vegetable oil and a bit of vinegar and salt.  None of which we're overpowering so it was a nice side to the main.  The soup was also well controlled in the sodium level, the bits of bacon infused its flavor nicely.

The galette had a good crispness and toastiness.  The seafood cream, with shimeji, shrimps and scallops was thick but not heavy in flavour which was actually a good thing because I could still taste the galette's toasty char.  

The Jay-z and Justin Timberlake playing in the background was a bit confusing but gave the restaurant a modern and young appeal.  

Pizza Salvatore: World class, reasonable Italian

Area:  1 block south of Fushimi Station Exit 4 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Pizza Salvatore Cuomo  ピッツァサルヴぁトーレクオモ
Map and Website:  http://www.salvatore.jp/restaurant/fushimi/access.html

Hours:  1st Floor Deli-bar area 11am-11pm

It was a nice surprise to find out that I could order my lunch at 2:30, and slowly enjoy it; the sign outside said lunch was served until 3pm, so I was expecting to have to quickly gobble and go, but that apparently is for the lunch buffet.

Being called Pizza Salvatore, I went with the pizza lunch (850円, includes a 23 cm pizza, salad and drink).  The salad had a nice crunch owing to the carrots and croutons. The dressing was mild and went well with the sweet red onions, although I have a feeling it was not all that Italian.  I'm pretty sure it did have soy sauce in it since combined with the croutons, I felt as if I was eating senbei (Japanese rice crackers).  This is not at all a bad thing, just not very Italian. 

The margherita pizza had real mozzarella, not that processed stuff. The dough was so thin that it difficult to pick up, just like the thin, chewy type in Naples. The sauce was tomato based and tasted of freshness only (none of that canned or bottled sour stuff).  Apparently they use a blend of extra virgin olive oil and sunflower oil, so it is more mild in flavour.  The milky buffalo mozzarella and basil matched perfectly with this blend.  A simple, but deliciously great pizza.

The coffee was a long espresso that used nicely roasted beans. 

Other menu items, available until 5pm include chicken curry (I'm guessing it's Japanese style), and a panini set (prosciutto, grilled chicken or BLT), all includes a drink and salad.  For an extra 150円 more you can add a sweet, but I had to return to work, so it will have to wait til next time. 

It wasn't long before I came back to try this place again.  This time, I went for the prosciutto panini lunch.  Here, they use pizza dough for the bun, so I was expecting good things.  The salad and coffee were the same and consistently good with my last visit.  The panini was a thin pita shaped dough that had the same chewy texture as the pizza.  Besides the prosciutto, there was also lettuce, tomato and onion.  The prosciutto seemed of good quality, soft, pulling apart easily, the saltiness did not overpower the flavor from the strands of fat infusing the thin slices.  I can definitely separate it from the prosciutto commonly found in the grocery stores. The mayonnaise was a good addition, bringing together the veggies and the prosciutto.  However, the tomato was a bit dry and had a mushy, gritty texture.  

It might be a good sign that 2 Italians walked in to enjoy this retaurant's Italian food.  

This time I went for the dessert which today was roll cake, not so Italian and standard.  Not the most milky or creamy roll cake I've had, but for only 150円 more, not bad. 

I've been pretty impressed with this restaurant, so I came back again to try some dishes from the a la carte menu.  

First was the anchovy marinated broccoli (¥324).  It was a cold appetizer, but the broccoli had been steamed to the point where it was soft yet still retained a nice bite.  The sun-dried tomatoes were soft and on the sweet side which went well in this dish.  The marinade was nicely done, not too salty with the anchovy only slightly infusing it's flavor.  

The gratin was a mashed potato and Kumamoto bacon (¥540).  The bacon was thickly sliced and had a good ratio of fat to meat.  It was not as salty as regular bacon so the meaty and smokey flavours came through.  I enjoyed the half cooked egg that acted like a dip for the baguette crisps.  Again, the sodium level was well controlled.  There was a little bit of heat as well, probably ichimi.

A few days ago I was watching TV and came across a piece on how to make a good pizza crust.  Apparently the owner of this restaurant learned his trade in Naples, and is the only non-Italian to win some sort of big pizza making contest!  No wonder this restaurant is so good!

Hoshino Coffee: Souffle Doria...a great idea!

Area: 　B1 of Spiral Tower (across the street from Meitetsu department store at Nagoya station), but there's also one at Sakae and Yabacho
Restaurant Hoshino Coffee  星乃珈琲店
Website and info:  http://www.hoshinocoffee.com


This chain cafe took the place of another chain cafe, Excelsior cafe.  It has a lot more character to it than the previous one.  It looks more like an old, perhaps 1920's cafe, with bistro-like dark wooden seats and furniture. Listening to the jazz music playing over the speakers while waiting for my lunch to be served, I quite enjoyed this atmosphere.

I did have to wait about 20min for my soufflé doria (930円) to come to the table.  I suppose because it's a soufflé, it must be baked slowly over low heat.  When it came, I could immediately smell the butter.  Breaking into the poofy cloud of egg, it was an unexpectedly light like whipped cream but retained its egg flavor.  The creamy juices ran out from the airy soufflé pockets and onto the al dente ketchup rice topped with meat sauce.  Bits of ham, shimeji mushrooms, canned button mushrooms, onion and wonderfully chewy parmesan cheese also were hiding underneath that cloud. The woodsy mushroom flavor of shimeji infused the creamy sauce to produce a nice combo.

Until 3pm, a drink of choice can be added for 200円 to your meal.  I chose to try their coffee since they pride themselves on the hand drip coffee (it's even written on the cup's saucer).  It is in fact a nice blend at first, with the right amount of sweetness and tang.  But it quickly becomes sour when it cools down a bit.  I would recommend ordering the coffee when you can drink it all while it's still hot and fresh.  Next time, I'll have to come for a snack and try their signature soufflé pancake.