Rajakivi: A bit of Denmark in Nagoya

Area:  about 400m northeast of Kanayama Station 金山駅

Restaurant:  Rajakivi  ラヤキブィ

Website and Map:  http://www.rajakivi.com/access.html

Hours: 8am-6:30pm (LO 6pm)

I've never been to a Nordic cafe before, so since I was in the Kanayama area I thought I'd try it out.  I wanted to try something more authentic, so instead of the rice bowl lunch menu, I chose from the smorrebrod section.  These are open-faced sandwiches, and all came with egg salad, broad lettuce leaves,  crispy fried onions, pickles, 2 pieces of buttered bread and basil leaves for garnish.  The soup accompanying it was a cabbage, carrot and onion soup.  There were bits of ground meat in it as well.  The flavors were natural and light, leading me to believe there were no additives, just the vegetables and meat with a bit of salt in this soup.

The sandwich itself is fun to eat because you can mix and match the different ingredients.  The fried onion gave a nice punch, not to mention crunch.  The roast beef was thinly sliced and had a nice juicy marination.  It was not at all like cold cuts, so it was not so salty (a light black pepper sprinkling and salt seasoning) and the flavor of the meat was predominant.   The two slices of rye bread looked like end pieces which I love; I wonder if this is how this bread is made, and if everyone gets a crusty portion  Only one slice is buttered, so again you can mix and match.  It had a sourdough-like texture (a bit heavier than regular white bread).  The egg salad was also lightly seasoned and matched with all the components of this plate.

The coffee, Roberts Coffee, also seems to be specialized from the Nordic area.  It was a mild blend with slight maple syrup aftertaste.  For the smorrebrod drink set you just add ¥650 to the price of drink of choice.

Something else also caught my eye and I thought since it's a morning  item at this shop, it might go well with coffee.  There were 2 pirakkas (¥150) to choose from, one was a potato filled and the other okayu or rice pudding.  It was an interesting flavor, not sweet as I thought it would be. The dough seemed like it was whole wheat.  The rice and milk solidified filling was just slightly seasoned with salt and was topped with egg salad.

The white wooden board walls, the light wooden chairs, floor and table, and  the instrumental traditional music with birds chirping made for a relaxing space.

Community Salon Waya Shokudo: Local ingredients for a healthy feel

Area:  About 500m north of Kokusai (International) Center station 国際センター駅
Restaurant:  Community Salon Waya Shokudo  わや食堂
Map and info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230101/23044929/

Hours:  11:30am-8:30pm (Lunch specials until 2pm, Dinner from 5:30pm)


This cafeteria seems to stock local, organic ingredients only.  They even have a vegetable stand outside the door where you can pick up some of these ingredients.  Lunch is served until 2pm, and there are a few to choose from such as a doteni rice bowl (stewed meat, usually beef tendon, or pork offals in miso), a vegetable curry lunch, a lunch plate including miso soup and rice (today's main was salt seasoned grilled salmon).  I chose the quiche lunch (¥600), which included a salad, soup, dessert and drink bar.

At the drink bar, there were a variety of teas such a chamomile and lemongrass, flavors you don't normally find in Japan.  The black mint was interesting; different than peppermint and tasting like a gum flavor. 

The salad was dressed with a homemade yuzu kosho (yuzu is a citrus fruit and kosho means pepper).  Normally it's very salty and only a bit is used, but this dressing was easy on the sodium level and worked well as a dressing. 

The soup was a tomato gazpacho.  It tasted very fresh and was definitely made in house.  Its natural flavors were brought out by only a mere seasoning of salt.  

The quiche's scent of butter quickly hit my nose when the plate was placed in front of me.  There was a squash or a sweet potato quiche to choose from.  I went for the squash.  The large chunks of squash melded well with the butteriness of this pie.  The flaky crust, sprinkling of cheese and bacon (few pieces, but just enough to impart a light flavor), made this quiche a nice treat.

It has a cafeteria feel; casual with people always coming and going, especially since it seems to be not only a spot to eat, it's also a community centre.  

Trattoria La Stella: Stuck in the 90`s in flavor and decor

Area:  a 5-min. walk northwest of Fushimi Station 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Trattoria La Stella トラットリア　ラ　ステッラ
Map and info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230102/23000721/dtlmap/?lid=tocoupon2

Hours:  Lunch 11am-2:30pm, Dinner 5:30-10pm




Although the website says lunch is served until 2:30pm, I've come at 2pm before and they were already closed.  So this time I took advantage of a 1:30pm start lunch break and came here.  It looks like an old run down Italian resto from the outside, so I never considered entering.  However on the web, it seems to have gotten a good star review (3.43 stars).  

Even on the inside it looks run down and outdated with blue and white tableclothes (mine had a cigarette burn hole in it).  The white chair covers were visibly held together by safety pins.  

The pasta lunch (¥900) came with a panini and small salad.  The salad was dressed with a garlicky white concoction; not a Cesar or French dressing, I'm not sure what it was, but it was very mild.  The focaccia bread used for the tuna panini was nice; a subtle olive oil flavor and moist with a crunchy top crust.  The omelette was standard, nothing really stood out here.  

There were 3 pastas to choose from. Tuna tomato sauce, sausage cream sauce and shellfish cabbage oil sauce.  I went for the oil sauce .  It was covered in way too much black pepper and the sauce was more of a soup broth than oil. The shellfish, called kobashiira, were like baby scallops, but I think it's actually a part of the clam family.  They were soft and a portion of them were minced, which made the sauce a bit thicker in consistency; this was a nice touch.  It's too bad the black pepper overpowered the mild seafood flavors.  The spaghetti noodles were probably just dried pasta, but were al dente.  

Moitie Moitie; A great restaurant alongside the river

Area: a 5 min. walk west of Fushimi Station 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Moitie Moitie  モアチェ　モアチェ
Map and Website:  http://moitiemoitie.jp/access/index.html

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-2pm, Cafe 11:30am-9pm, Dinner 5:30-9pm



I've had my eye on this slightly fancy restaurant for a while, but their lunch ends at 2pm, and they only serve desserts afterwards.  On other occasions I've come at 1:30pm but it seems they aren't open for lunch on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Finally I was able to catch the right day and time.

I had the day's special lunch (¥1500).  There is also an option of a half course and full course, but are of a special occasion price.  The options of appetizers and mains are however interesting (foie gras, lamb roti are some examples). 

The first course was a cold, new onion (shintama negi) soup.  It had a nice natural sweetness from the onion, and was creamy without the cream taking over. The drizzling of olive oil and pinch of black pepper was the perfect garnish.  

The bread was standard, it came slightly warmed with a side of butter.  The white roll was slightly sweet, almost like milk bread.

The main was a matsuzaka (apparently a famous brand) pork confit (cooked in own juices).  As such the flavor coming from the fat was the only seasoning in the sauce along with the nice char from the cooking process.  The roasted vegetables went well in this dish as they also imparted a grilled flavor.  The basil sauce was not overpowering and could be enjoyed as a dip, as it was not poured on top.  Not salty at all (some might say it would need salt), it was a nice dish overall to truly enjoy the specialty of matsuzaka pork, the fat.  It was so soft and juicy with some sinewy parts that would just make you chew and savor the flavour longer. 

Dessert was a chocolate cake with kocha (black tea) ice cream. The cake was a dense and almost ganache like (but with flour).  The mango swirl went nicely with the ice cream.  The coffee was an americano, it was bold in flavor and tannins. 

Muy: Did the bottle of salt fall into the pan?

Area:  Midland Square ４F  ミッドランドスクエア　(On the east side of Nagoya station)
Restaurant:  Bar de Espana Muy  バル　デ　エスパーニャ　ムイ
Website and Map:  http://www.spain-bar.jp/muy-nagoya/map.html

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



Today's special lunch plate was a salmon bake (¥1250).  The salad, of lettuce and shredded carrots was dressed with an olive oil emulsion that was too salty.  The salmon was a tad overcooked and was served with a salty tartar sauce.  It was kind of disappointing in that it's not much different than what can be cooked at home, if not worse.  The accompanying rice was nice however, with a saffron flavor.  The egg omelette had lots of spinach and bacon, but again was way too salty for my taste. The half cooked inner layer made it pleasantly silky, but it's unfortunate that the salt level was not controlled.  If I hadn't known where the fries were from, I'd say they were from Macdonald's, not any different in shape or taste.

Bejiroka: Meal probably packed with all sorts of nutrients

Area:  about 200m west of Kokusai Center station 国際センター駅, or a 1 min walk from exit 10 of Unimall ユニーモール
Restaurant:  Bejiroka ベジロカ
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230101/23051390/dtlmap/?lid=tocoupon2

Hours:  Lunch 10am-2pm, Sun-Thurs open until 12pm, Fri + Sat + holidays open until 2am




This restaurant seems to be popular among the ladies, probably due to the vegetable theme.  Lunch is a choice of a pasta or a vegetable curry set.  On weekends there is also some kind of spicey stew, but that was all sold out by the time I got there (I arrived at 1:30pm, LO is 2pm).   With the pasta lunch (¥1320) you get a choice of a veggie tapas, or a dessert.  I went for the former.    The potato salad was a bit different in that it used minimal mayonnaise, and was served with croutons and worcestershire sauce.  It all went very well together especially with the smokiness from bits of bacon mixed throughout.  The bean salad was the only protein from this meal.    It was a mixture of chick peas, kidney beans and a dull green, circular bean (which I'm not sure but may be a green mung bean).  The mild mustard and olive oil dressing matched well.  The third tapas was a mushroom sauté salad with again, an olive oil flavor but this time, pepper was the accent.

What I probably enjoyed the most was the salad bar.  Well, it's more like a veggie dip bar.  You fill up a glass with your choice of veggies and then you can try 2 dips and an herbed salt on one plate.  One dip was a Japanese style while the other was a creamy veggie purée.  The fun part was that it was the first time that I've seen a lot of these veggies.  For example, ice lettuce (looked as if it were covered with dew and was naturally slightly salty).  Urui was like a leek, but more mild in flavor.  Salad celery was pink and reminded me more of a radish.  Nabana was similar to a mustard green.  

Today's pasta was tomato miso with plenty of veggies. The miso flavor was mild but gave the tomato sauce a certain creaminess.  Nothing really stood out in this dish except for the fact that it was packed with vegetables, unlike the pasta normally served in Japan which often is scarce in toppings.