Cancale: Hungry after lunch hours?

Area:  JR Towers at Nagoya station 12F
Restaurant:  Cancale  カンカル
Website and Info: http://www.cancale.jp/access.php

Hours:  11am-11pm (LO 10pm)


This bar/bistro/cafe serves lunch until 3pm, but turns into a cafe after and still serves food.  I came at cafe time, so I had a small menu to choose from.  There's pasta, french fries, sausages etc.  I went for the hamburger doria (¥1000).  It came with a salad as well.  I was surprised at the volume of this salad; normally accompanying salads in Japan are scant.  It was well dressed with a nice vinaigrette and had a good variety of vegetables (including edible petals and alfalfa sprouts, a rarity).  This time there was enough dressing to coat every bite.

The doria was filled with shimeji mushrooms and okra as well as kernels of corn.  I'm not so sure the sliminess and flavor of the okra went well with the sauce, but it gave the dish crunch.  The sauce was a simple tomato sauce, probably made fresh, seasoned with only a slight amount of salt and lardons.  The hamburger patty, on the other hand, was heavily seasoned, so perhaps it all balanced out with the sauce.  The meat was soft but not mushy and still had bite.  The melted cheese topping was a good match for this dish.  

Mont Briller: monsieur, ou est le FRENCH?

Area: B1 of Castle Plaza Hotel キャッスルプラザホテル  about an 8 min walk east of Nagoya Station, Exit 11 of Unimall ユニモール
Restaurant:  Mont Briller  モンブリエ
Website and Info:  http://www.castle.co.jp/plaza/restaurant/monbriller/index.html

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


This is a newly opened restaurant (2014) in the basement level of the Castle Plaza Hotel. It's a French theme (by name, the lunch seems almost Italian with pastas) with very French-like non-vocal music and a European feel.

I went for the non-pasta lunch (1200 yean).  The soup was a chilled kabocha cream soup.  It was milky and sweet with only the slight flavor of the Japanese squash.  The floating baguette soaked up the olive oil and was a nice accompaniment to the soup.  The bread was brought hot and crisp.  It was a focaccia but with no herbs.  Very light in density and the top was probably brushed with oil afterwards to make it almost seem fried.  

The red and white strips on the salad I thought were radish, but somehow they tasted like beets (perhaps it was only the sweet corn dressing that gave it the sweetness that beets have).  The round, deep purple veggies were radishes, tasting like the little red radishes I know from home.  Underneath was raw kabocha cut thin, lacking flavor because it was raw.  The green leaves looked brown and wilted. The roast pork was so dry it was flaky like canned tuna, but harder.  Because of this dryness, it took in the sauce almost immediately.  The sauce didn't have time to spread out and cover the whole pork medallion.    I didn't really get a sense of the mustard in the mustard sauce.  The potato was nice and mildly salted, with a roasted flavor but were so dry it had formed a white surface area.

I don't remember what the dessert was, but I guess it was that memorable!

Gordo Cafe: Regular dishes, but done well...and all with friendly service

Area:  Fushimi station underground shops 伏見駅  at the end of the passageway
Restaurant:  Gordo Cafe  ゴルドカフェ
Website and Info:  http://gordocafe.jimdo.com/

Hours: 7:30am-6pm (LO 5:30pm), closed Sun and Holidays


This kind of looks like an old run down cafe in an old, almost abandoned underground passage way at Fushimi station.  However, it got a good review on Tabeblog, so I decided to try it out on a day when I could make it in time for the 2pm ending lunch service (¥700).  Everyday is a different choice of typical Japanese favorites (the menu is posted weekly on the website) .  Today's choices were either a meat croquette or ankake pasta.  I rarely eat croquette so I went for that.

I was happy that it came with a good volume coleslaw and lettuce.  The coleslaw was actual coleslaw and not just shredded cabbage with dressing.  This one had been marinating and it's the first time I've seen this is Japan.  The cucumbers were seasoned with a sweet vinegar (sunomono).  There was a cold pasta salad seasoned lightly with oil and reminded me of a veggie pasta my mom back home sometimes makes.  

The meat croquette tasted like meat loaf but the texture was more like mashed potato.  It was covered in a sauce made with Worcestershire, a staple in Japan where there is panko crusted food.  The miso soup had pieces of fried tofu, wakame, enoki and a great addition of shiso.
  

The dessert and drink set (an extra ¥100) allows you to choose 2 desserts, or mini sandwich, or onigiri. Desserts included sweets like coffee jelly with anko (red bean paste), and grapefruit or lemon and honey jelly.  I had read about their popular ogura toast sandwich (butter and anko) on the internet, so I picked that one.  It had a lot of anko and could have used a bit more butter!  The white grapefruit jelly was just the right amount of sweetness and the sourness went wonderfully with the cream topping, almost like a creamsicle flavor.  The jelly was soft and melted in the mouth.

The cafe was filled with old men and single young office ladies.  It's good value for the filling meal,  and the soft piano music and vocals playing in the background make this a nice rest place.  

Nagono Tea Room: Step into old England

Area:  350m north of exit 10 or 12 of Unimall  ユニモール, underground shopping area on the east (Takashimaya) side of Nagoya station
Restaurant:  Nagono Tea Room  那古野 ティールーム
Map and website:  http://www.nagono-tearoom.com/map.html

Hours:  11am-6pm (Weekends and holidays until 7pm), closed Tues, Wed, Thurs


This is definitely a cafe where you won't see many men coming to drink a pot of tea.  The menu seems very English afternoon tea-ish, in that they serve scones and pie on a two-tiered set.  They also have a variety of sandwiches such as cheese and cucumber, smoked salmon and cream cheese, tuna or tuna with shrimp.  All come with a salad.

You can build your own combo of housemade soup, sandwiches, cake and scones as well as a drink.  Depending on the combination, if it fits one of the sets in the menu, there is a small discount.  

Because the pots are big and heavy, everything is brought to you on a trolley cart.  There is a teapot cover provided to keep the hot water warm.  Here, the hot water comes in the pot and you pour it over a strainer into your cup (is this the English way?).

Flowery tablecloths, antique looking lanterns and the orchestral string music playing also gives for a European and English feel.  

The salad was dressed with a creamy thousand island.  The sandwich had thin slices of cucumber and processed cheese.  The bread was lightly buttered and was fresh.  I'm not much of a tea drinker but the Ceylon tea went well with this sandwich.  The crunch of the cucumbers and chewiness of the thin bread and creaminess of the butter and cheese was all a good combination.

I came back to try the english style scones.  They were very plain, but came warm and surprisingly stayed warm for a long time.  The clotted cream went very nicely to liven them up.  This time I went for the coffee which was pretty standard, not too watery neither too strong.

On yet another occasion, I went for the soup and toast tea set (1050 yen).  I chose the Nilgiri tea which was almost like the Ceylon I had on my first visit.  The squash soup was thick, sweet and had a homemade feel with little bits of squash floating around.  It was lightly seasoned allowing for the natural sweetness too be prominent. The toast came with easily spreadable whipped butter, and more importantly with the crusts attached for a nice crunch and toasty flavor.  

Antique bakery: Perhaps they are better for their sweets

Area:  close to the Kintetsu side of Sunroad サンロード, the underground shopping area at Nagoya station
Shop:  Antique Bakery  アンティーク Heart Bread
Info and Website:  http://www.heart-bread.com/shop/

Hours: 9am-8:30pm

I've seen this bakery get a little PR on TV, and although their most popular item seems to be the large chocolate danish ring, I decided to get a few items for lunch.

First, the salmon spinach quiche (328 yen).  It had a nice and flaky crust, with a lightly seasoned but juicy interior.  Overall a standard quiche.  Next up, the chicken bake with tomato (250 yen).  The chicken  was a bit dry from the roasting, but had the sweet teriyaki sauce and Japanese mayo (a no-fail combo) helped offset that.  The bread was slightly sweet, as typical Chinese or Japanese bakery breads often are.

For dessert, I went for the Valois butter croissant (86 yen).  I'm not sure if it was supposed to be different than a regular croissant, but it wasn't anything too special, as was too light and crispy throughout for my liking.

If you have a big sweet tooth, you should try the toronama rusk とろなまラスク.  Little pieces of rusk coated in a sweet caramel are like heaven for those that are craving sugar.  I've seen it sold in convenience stores in little packages around the puddings!

Dining Glamour: Where's the bbl tea?

Area:  about a 4 min walk northeast of Nagoya Station
Restaurant:  Dining Glamour  ダイニンググラマー
Website and Map:  http://d-glamour.jp/outline/index.html

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-3pm (weekdays only), Dinner (reservation only)

Lunch is served until 2pm, but if you come after 1pm you get a free drink! There were 3 lunches to choose from, the pasta of the day (¥750), fresh pasta (¥850) or the rice dish.  All came with a carrot salad and dessert.

The carrot salad was nicely dressed with a light creamy dressing. The long strands of linguine like carrot makes me wonder how they do it, but it gives for a nice crunchy, easy to chew salad.   

The fresh pasta was cooked to a good al dente, obviously fresh pasta when bit in to.  It was almost like a soup pasta as the sauce was not that thick and more like milk. But even so, it was certainly not lacking in mentaiko flavor.

 Dessert was a rare cheese cake which tasted more like a castella cake, probably not housemade,  Coffee tasted a bit reheated, but for the price of this meal, I won't complain.  

It was filled with university aged women getting together for lunch, as well as businessmen, and women dining alone.  A Beatles CD was playing over the speakers.  Somehow it gave me the feeling of a Chinese bubble tea place;  trying to be modern and stylish, and almost there but somehow falling short.  It could be the lack of decor or the preparation area counter that gave this feeling.

Le grand bol: Cha-siu is not only for ramen

Area:  about 3 min northeast of Marunouchi Station, Exit 1  丸の内駅
Restaurant:  Le Grand Bol 　れぐらん　ぼう
Website and info;  http://www.a-ambiance.co.jp/grandbol.html

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-3pm (LO 2:30), Dinner 5-10pm (LO 9:30), Sat 11am-2:30pm (LO 2)


The sign said lunch last order is at 2:30pm but perhaps I was too close to that cutoff time that the closed sign was already put up.  So on another day, I came a bit earlier.  I was able to enter and order!  The restaurant is called "The big bowl" because they specialize in donburi dishes, or rice bowls.  Their number one popular dish is the cha-siu, or slow cooked pork rice bowl.  I of course had to try the cha-siu, but I am a huge fan of rei-men, cold noodles, especially on a hot day like today.  The rei-men came with a slice of cha-siu and an onsen tamago (like a soft boiled egg, only softer), similar to the rice bowl which only that had more pork.

It was a salad rei-men with a nice variety of vegetables.  The noodles were a first for me.  Apparently from Hida, Takayama, these noodles were thin, but had a nice chewiness to them that rei-men should have.  Since they were thin and kind of stuck together, they picked up the light and vinegary dressing well.  

The cha-siu was indeed nice.  It was fatty so it melted in my mouth and although it looked like it was smothered in a concentrated sauce, it was not as overpowering as it looked.

Kalapana: Hawaii + Nagoya combo

Area:  about a 5 min walk northeast from Fushimi Station, Exit 1 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Kalapana  カラパナ
Map and Website:  http://kalapana.info/shop-info

Hours:  Mon-Fri (weekends and holidays are private functions only ) Lunch 11am-3pm (LO 2:30pm), Dinner 5:30-10pm (LO 9:30pm)


 The specialty here is Nagoya ankake pasta mixed with Hawaiian flare, namely spam. There is a huge list to choose from.  Each topping is matched with one of three types of spam; regular, garlic and reduced sodium.  Perhaps being female、the shio koji (salted fermented rice used to tenderize meats and to add a healthy sodium to dishes) stir fried veggies enticed me, so I ordered the Mirakan (¥650).  It came with reduced sodium spam, which really didn't have any meaning since the ankake sauce was so salty.  It did however have nice spicy tang and there was a good char on the noodles (typical of yakisoba).  I'm not sure how to explain the flavor of the sauce, but I feel like it's made from a beef consommé and tomato sauce mix, seasoned with hot sauce and pepper, then thickened with a starch and water mixture.

The drink bar included flavored coffee and all you can eat kakikori.  I've never been to Hawaii before, but at all the Hawaiian restaurants in Japan, the coffee seems to be flavored.  It reminded me of the Starbucks or Second Cups back home where there are flavors such as Irish cream, mocha and hazelnut.

For volume and Hawaiian flare I might come back to this restaurant, but only if I'm prepared to get really thirsty after, due to the saltiness.  Next time the plate lunch might be better (but there are only 10 every day so I'd have to get there early!).