Lupinus: A little bit of western

Area:  about a 5 min walk north of Nagoya station
Restaurant:  Lupinus ルピナス
Website and Info:  http://hitosara.com/0006039599/

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-2:30pm (LO 2pm), Dinner 6-10pm (LO 9pm)



This restaurant looks like an older fine dining restaurant that still might be on the pricier side for the dinner time menu.  Lunches, however, are all under ¥1000, and there are 4 to choose from.  I chose the chef's recommendation of the day (¥900).  First came the bread, a whole wheat baguette, it was not warm, but still had a good soft inner, and crunchy outer core.

The main, came with a salad and french fries.  The salad was so lightly dressed with an Italian dressing that you could barely tell it was dressed.  The steak was cooked to a medium rare.  I don't know why, but they never seem to ask how you like your steak done here.  It came swimming in a tomato sauce that unfortunately tasted like the canned stuff just warmed up with nothing added.  The restaurant's specialty seems to be the use of fresh ingredients, but I wonder about this sauce.  I preferred the part of the steak that wasn't doused in sauce.  It was seasoned with only a minimal amount of salt, so you can season it to your liking.  Here, there was actually salt and pepper on the tabletop (instead of the usual nothing or soy sauce and shichimi).  The steak was soft and did have some fat laced throughout, but was more concentrated on the outer sections. I've never seen red meat this color of almost a hot pink before, but it was soft and although I do like fatty meat, red meat is good once in a while especially when you want to have meaty flavor.  The french fries were addictive and I don't usually like french fries that much.  Maybe it's the lack of fries in Japan or maybe it was the crunchy and salted outer portion, but I ate it all.

The music playing was Mariah Carey (just to give an idea of the atmosphere), and there were some couples, and an all chick group dining there as well.