Saturday, 14 February 2015

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.

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