Area: about a 5-min walk north east of Kokusai Center Station 国際センター駅
Restaurant: Seiyo Shokubo Ijimaya 西洋食房 飯島屋
Map: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/n090101/map/
Info: http://www.hotpepper.jp/strJ000394274/
Hours: Lunch 11:30am-3pm (LO 2pm), Dinner 5-10:30pm, closed Sundays
Despite the completely Japanese name, this is a French cuisine restaurant. The interesting part is that it's French home cooking. The lunch of the day seemed Japanese in style though, since it included miso soup and rice, but I ordered it anyway as opposed to a more expensive course meal. I asked about substituting miso soup and salad with bread and something else. They said it would be fine but for an extra charge.
The soup was a squash soup. It was sweet and milky with a familiar spice that couldn't put my finger on. It was so sweet that I thought I almost tasted mango juice in it!
The main was a fish piccata with potato in a Lyon style white wine butter sauce. A piccata is fish or meat covered on an egg batter and then pan fried. This piccata was almost like eating an omelette. This style of cooking is probably used to keep the meat moist, which it was except for a few small sections. The egg flavor with the sauce was a nice match and was seasoned well Onions, red pepper, potato and slivered almonds accompanying it made for a well balanced meal.
The champuru (an Okinawan stir fry usually including tofu and goya bitter melon), was more Japanese in flavor. It also included shimej and katsuo flakes and was seasoned simply with just salt and pepper and a bit of red chili for heat The salad was just cabbage with a mildy seasoned dressing. Coffee was also included in the meal, but it was small and obviously not fresh.
The interior seemed slightly outdated. Piano and guitar music gave for a more romantic feel, but the air con was a bit cold.
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