Nikubarudakara: soft NIKU but needs some oomph

Area:  about 300m southeast of Fushimi Station Exit 5 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Nikubarudakara  二クバルダカラ　
Website and map:  http://www.ajiwai-group.com/nikubar/access.html

Hours:  Lunch 11am-2:30pm (Mon-Fri only LO 2pm), Dinner 5-11:30pm (LO11pm)



I've always thought that if a Japanese restaurant had the word baru in it, this meant that it was a Spanish style restaurant.  The music at this restaurant sounded very Spain-like, and with the atmosphere of a summer patio bar (doors and windows open) and the large display of wine bottles, I suppose it could be a Spanish bar.  However, looking at the lunch menu and being called nikubaru (meat bar), it just seems like a steak restaurant.

There were a few lunches to choose from, a hamburger patty, grilled rump, or a beef tongue stew.  All came with a salad and soup, and a choice of rice or baguette.  The salad was a small salad dressed with a simple French dressing.  The soup was a consommé that tasted like it was made from a bouillon cube which is surprising considering this is a beef specialty place.  It may be that the saltiness came from the pieces of sausage floating around but it still tasted like the powdered stuff. The baguette was crispy and light.  I normally prefer my bread with more density and chewiness; this one reminded me of the tasteless, airy bread that Italians use to compliment their saucy pastas.  

The meat in the stew was indeed so soft that it could be pulled apart with just chopsticks.  The sauce was quite salty and almost tasted like canned sauce, lacking depth.

This restaurant has a lot of different locations around the city, but I'm not so sure I'd come back, for lunch at least.  

Saigon Deux: Vietnamese, but different than what I'm used to

Area:  about 500m north of Kokusai Center Station, Exit 2 国際センター駅
Restaurant:  Saigon Deux  サイゴン２
Website and Map:  http://cafedufi.com/saigon

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-2pm, Dinner 6-10:30pm (10pm on Sun and Holidays), closed Wed


I've been craving the salty fish sauce flavored Vietnamese food lately, so when I came across this restaurant I had to try it.  I went with the popular 780 yen combo lunch.  It included a salad, pho, and a rice dish.

First the salad.  It was colorful and dressed very lightly with seemingly only vinegar.  The rice dish was a curry using many different spices making it quite different than the Japanese curry.  It however did not remind me of the Vietnamese I'm used to eating.  It had noticeably had sansho or Japanese pepper in it.  The pho also was not the beef pho I'm used to.  This one was a chicken breast meat soup so it was quite different than the beef soup that's usually simmered for hours. The meat however, was pretty juicy.

I also ordered a spring roll on the side (280 yen).  Perhaps the seafood one would have tasted more like the rice paper fried rolls that I like, but this was the only one available a la carte at the time.  It had larger sticks of vegetables in it that went nicely with the sauce.

Although I was a bit disappointed because it was not the Vietnamese food that I know, the flavors were overall a nice change.  I have heard that depending on where in Vietnam you are, the local tastes are quite different, so perhaps this restaurant's flavors are from a different area than the Vietnamese restaurants I know back home.  

Honboh: modern Japanese works well in this setting

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Area:  about a 3 min walk northeast of Kokusai Center Station 国際センター駅
Restaurant:  Honboh ホンボウ
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230101/23046662/dtlmap/

Hours:  Lunch 11am-2:30pm (closed Sun), Dinner 6pm-1am (closed Wed)


This little restaurant is just off the main Endoji 円頓寺　arcade shopping street.  It's based in a building that looks like an old house, and it does not have a big sign, so it is easy to miss. I think it might be associated with a tiny gallery shop closeby.

The inside furniture and decor are very simple, with the natural color of light wood and white as its theme.  It almost reminds me of a basement reno, but more stylish.

I went for the higawari lunch B (todays's special lunch).  The plate with the salad included an eggplant that was soaked in an ume (pickled plum) flavored sauce.  Shishito (like tiny green peppers) had a dashi/bonito flake seasoning, a standard flavor, as was the soboro.  Soboro is basically ground meat simmered in a Japanese style sauce that gets concentrated into the meat.  

Iwashi  (a type of fish, strong on the fish smell), simmered in an ume sauce had an interesting flavor.  It was basically a sweet soy sauce-based teriyaki flavor, but with the sweetness and sourness of a green ume plum.  It was sweet and salty at the same time, but it worked well to lessen the smell of the fish.  The cucumbers and daikon were slightly pickled with salt. 

The dishes come on a wooden tray fitting with restaurant's decor.  The music was a jazz piano medley.  

I would definitely make a return when I feel like light Japanese food with a twist!

Cafe de Lyon: Duck and Camembert, thumbs up (updated)

Area: Kokusai Center Station 国際センター駅 (about 400m North of Exit 2)

Restaurant: Cafe de Lyon カフェ　ド　リオン

Website: http://cafedelyon.net/

Map and info: http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230113/23008508/dtlmap/?lid=tocoupon2

The lunch plate and beef stew look delicious at this French cafe, but yet again, I was too late for the lunch menu.  The stew might be available after lunch hours on a regular day, but on this day, they were closing early and only had sandwiches.  I chose the duck and camembert cheese sandwich (850円).  Thick slices of cured duck meat and camembert cheese definitely goes well with ample crispy, deep green lettuce in between toasted bread.  The thin layer of dijon mustard 

is also a good addition to the duck.  The plate also comes with a light mango pudding to cleanse the palette from the cracked black pepper on the duck.  

It's a small, quiet and quaint little cafe.  It has the feel of a western countryside cafe, almost as if visiting a friend's house.  I will have to go back to try the stew someday.  If you go for the morning or lunch service, it seems they have a limited amount so you may want to go early or reserve!

I was able to come back to try their morning service.  Instead of the regular blend coffee, I decided to try the monthly special since I made the trip all the way out here (¥550).  It was a bean from Kenya, and it was described as having a fruity wine flavor, with a grape like acidity. It did have a body like red wine.  A nice cup of coffee, with good acidity.  The ham, cheese and lettuce mustard sandwich was light and went with the coffee maybe because cheese often goes with wine(?).  It was served on sesame and regular bread (not sure if the sesame really makes a difference in flavor, but it's pretty.  The simple, nicely seasoned egg salad was on both regular white and brown bread.  The yogurt was a plain yogurt topped with pineapple, banana, strawberry, kiwi and strawberry jam.    The toast was a choice between maple and cream cheese.  I wanted something different so I went with the cream cheese.  The cheese was thinly spread and then toasted so it camouflaged with the toasty color of the toast.  It gave just a mild cheesy and toasty flavor almost like the burnt edges of cheese on pizza.

I will try to come again for the stew and yet again update this blog entry!

Well I did make it back again, but the beef stew was all sold out, so I went for the French plate lunch (980 yen).

The soup was a potato potage, creamy but yet had texture of a mashed potato.  The salad had a light dressing and could have use more.  Japanese salads, I find, are often under-dressed.  The fried fish and vinaigrette salad was a bit too vinegary.  It reminded me of Japanese nan ban zuke, so I'm not sure it was really French.

For the gratin, I chose the recommended Hokkaido broccoli and crab penne gratin.  It was milky with a Japanese processed cheese-like browned topping.  In all this lunch did not make me think of France, but it was nice for a light bite.

Dessert came on the house, a chiffon cake with a really thick delicious cream that went really nicely with the juicy melon.  The iced black tea was a strong blend that matched perfectly with the sweets.  

Dragon Bamboo: If you're ok with consuming shark fin

Area:  B1 level of Spiral Tower (just south of Nagoya station) スパイラルタワー
Restaurant:  Dragon Bamboo  ドラゴンバンブー
Map and website:  http://www.dragonbamboo.jp/shop/index.html

Hours:  not listed on website



 I never felt inclined to try this restaurant before because Chinese food in Japan seems to be all the same.  However upon leafing through a Nagoya food magazine, I came across this shop.  It's a shark fin ramen and tan tan men (spicy taiwanese style ramen) shop.

I ordered the 25g ramen shark fin soup (¥1100).  And a salad (¥230) on the side.  The salad used vegetables from the local farm that this restaurant uses.  It had a good variety of vegetables and an Asian style dressing (but thankfully different from the usual).  It also had a nice crunch due to the fried wonton bits and fried noodles.

The soup's flavor was similar to a soy sauce based ramen, but it was not at all as oily as a pork ramen.  The interesting part is that it's full of collagen which makes the soup a bit thicker.  I must admit that the fin itself has not much flavour, but the texture is unique, almost like a stringy mushroom.  The noodles were thin and actually seemed more like the Chinese noodle soup's I've had back home.  

The dessert included, was of course, an-nin dofu, an almond flavored tofu-like pudding.  This one was very milky and had a slightly sweetened liquid floating on top.  It was a refreshing taste after drinking the salty soup.

The jazz music in the background and dim lighting gave this Chinese restaurant a more upscale atmosphere.  Although the shark fin was different than what is offered at the common chinese restaurant, the rest of the menu seems standard with cha-han (fried rice), and tan-tan men.

Bar Nagoya V: a nice change for lunch

Area:  about 150m south of Fushimi Station Exit 4 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Bar Nagoya V (Five)  バルナゴヤ　ファイブ
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230102/23050554/

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-2pm (LO 1:45pm), Dinner 5:30-11:30pm


This is supposedly a Spanish restaurant; I thought it might be a nice change to try it one day when I was able to make if in time before last order came around.

The lunch (under 1000 yen), included a soup, appetizer plate and main.  First the soup:  it was similar to french onion soup without the cheese.  It was lightly seasoned letting the sweetness of the onions to be prominent.

Next the appetizers:  the carrot salad was lightly dressed, the cabbage had a wafu (Japanese style) dressing, the fried fish was a bit salty and slightly vinegary.  The bean salad with onion and fish (reminded me of pickled herring), was also a vinegary slaw.  The potato frittata was simple, but soft and juicy.  The cream croquette was a fried mashed potato, bacon and white sauce (what the Japanese call Bechamel sauce) ball.  Something about this made it taste like western fare.

The main was an ajillo.  Very garlickey as it should be, this one was not too salty.  The chicken breast meat was juicy.  The bread had a nice thick crust and was pretty dense on the inside.  Not only was the texture a pleasure, the flavor was also nice.  Dipping it in the garlic oil of the ajillo just enhanced this flavor.  The mentaiko (spicy cod roe) mashed potato smeared on one slice was not so strong on the mentaiko flavor, so I feel it could have used more roe and less potato.

The techno dance music fit the casual atmosphere of this bar.

PaPa Soup: The Key word here is NATURAL

Area:  Just outside Exit 2 of Marunouchi station 　丸の内駅
Restaurant:  PaPa Soup  パパスープ
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230102/23052055/

Hours:  Mon-Fri 11:30-5pm


I thought the lunch menu was only served until 2pm, but I was glad to be able to order it at 2:30.  Today's plate lunch (￥850) included the main, a choice of house-made bread or rice, a small appetizer, salad and a small cup of soup (3 to choose from).  Today's main was kara-age.  Its batter had black sesame seeds and kaki no tane senbei (Moon-shaped rice crackers, usually a bit spicy in flavor).  This gave it a nice crunch and toasty flavoring.  It lacked a bit in other marination such as soy sauce or ginger, but the chicken itself was pretty juicy.   The sauce was a mayonnaise-based dressing.  

The appetizer was a squash mash with crunchy little bits of onion.  This was also very light on the seasoning.  The takenoko (bamboo), konbu (seaweed) and bonito flake ohidashi  (veggies and dashi dish) was a standard flavor.  Although plain in flavor, the muesli bread had a nice dense texture.  The croissant was buttery and flaky, apparently using ingredients imported from France.  

Of the pumpkin soup, red pepper soup and green veggie soup, I chose the cold one to drink on a hot day like today (green).  I think it included celery (I always find celery's flavor to be pretty prominent in dishes).    

The main point here is that everything tasted healthy.  I believe the seasoning was almost none existent.  Having said that, it's not a bad thing; I quite enjoyed all the natural flavors.   

Even the ice cream given to me on the house was not very sweet, and used Hokkaido cream and vanilla beans imported from France.

Bistro Daurade: House-cured meats stand out here

Area:  about 500m south east of Fushimi Station 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Bistro Daurade  ビストロ　ドラード
Website and info:http://www.daurade.jp/index.html
Map:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230102/23029870/dtlmap/?lid=tocoupon2

Hours: Lunch 11:30am-2pm, Dinner 6-10:30pm, closed Sun

Today I went for the slightly more expensive Daurade Lunch (1500 yen).  The difference is just that instead of the vegetable soup as the appetizer, you get to choose from 4 selections.  The chef's salad seemed to be a popular choice, but I was advised that the quiche comes with a salad.  Since I chose the quiche as my main I didn't want to go overboard on eggs and order the omelette appetizer.  The soup takes 15 min to prepare, and on a hot day maybe not so favorable.  I went for the mushroom pate.  It was seasoned very nicely; not too salty at all, allowing the flavor or the mushrooms and liver to be prominent.  The accompanying housemade pickles were only slightly vinegary. Myoga and renkon (lotus root) pickles are definitely something you'd only find in Japan!

The salad alongside the quiche was dressed very lightly.  It was the arugula that gave it punch.  The sausage was mildly spicy, and pretty standard for a sausage (although this thick type of sausage is kind of rare in Japan, so it was nice).  The quiche was a spinach and bacon one.  It had a cookie-like shell, a good texture, but I think I might like a more buttery essence to my quiches.

Playing on the speakers was French folk music, so it felt a bit bistro-like.