Giraffe Bistro: different than a teishoku, bread with Japanese food

Area:  about 400m east of Marunouchi station  丸の内駅
Restaurant:  Giraffe Bistro  ジラフ ビストロ
Map and info:  http://r.gnavi.co.jp/na1t600/

Hours:  Lunch weekdays 11am-2:30pm,  Dinner 5:30pm-1am


When I asked for the recommendation, the waiter pointed out the tsukune burger (tsukune generally means ground meat formed into a ball).

This lunch (\800) came with an appetizer of sesame okra, salad with Italian dressing and bacon bits, and kinpira gobo (stir fried burdock root with a soy sauce and sugar based seasoning).  The appetizer was pretty standard.  Soup was also included and this time was a cabbage and tomato broth.  Again, nothing stood out here.

With the main, there was battered and fried sweet potato and eggplant, home fries and moyashi (bean sprouts);  all went nicely with the dish because they soaked up the sauce.   The burger was soft, peppery with a touch of nutmeg.  It went well with the sweet teriyaki sauce and the runny sunny side up egg.

The bread was warm, soft and fluffy but still had a nice chewiness.

The music playing was a bit difficult to hear but sounded like instrumental blues.  

The coffee was a let down, definitely not fresh.  The meibutsu  (a word to describe the shop's signature dish), an nin dofu (almond flavored) dessert tasted like regular almond pudding, but it did have a mochi mochi (slightly chewy) texture, different than the norm.

  

  

I came back on another occasion because I wanted to try the Hida gyu (a high quality, expensive beef from the Takayama area) lunch (\1000).

The appetizer this time included a chilled steamed cabbage salad with perhaps a miso dressing and finished with sliced pork.  The salad was the same as before, with an Italian dressing.  The gobo nimono (burdock root simmered in a dashi and soy sauce based liquid) was standard.  The soup was a cabbage and bacon bit soup.

I asked for bread instead of rice because I actually liked the bread the first time I came.  The thinkly sliced Hida meat had fat nicely marbled throughout which gave it very nice flavor and texture.  The sweet sauce might have gone better with rice since it was fairly salty.  The grated daikon helped to mellow this out, and also helped to soak up the sauce.  

Dessert (an extra\100 with a coupon), was a sweet potato cake.  If you've been to Japan before, you can probably imagine the flavour and texture just by looking at the picture.  

Pssyla: 2 crepes in one meal....is this normal?

Area:  a 10 min walk west of Yabacho station
Restaurant:  Pssyla ピュスラ
Map and info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230103/23041451/dtlmap/

Hours:  11:30am-4pm, closed weekends and Mondays



This is a crepe and gallette specialty cafe.  The lunch set comes with a salad, gallette, dessert crepe and a drink (about \1200).

The salad was a creamy mayonnaise tuna pasta salad.  It had rarely seen in Japan fusilli and wheel shaped pasta.  The gallette I chose was an anchovy, tomato and basil one.  It was crispy and had a toasty flavor coming from the buckwheat flour.  All of the flavors melded well together with the sprinkling of mild black pepper.

The shop's walls are lined with photos from the owner's travels around the world, mainly South America and Europe.    I suppose this is why it's called a gallery cafe.  Also, there are items on sale from the visited places.  

The dessert crepe was I chose was blue cheese and honey.  The crepe itself was mochi mochi, (had a soft chewiness).  It was not very sweet, so the sweetness in this dish came from the drizzling of honey.  The blue cheese was a nice and strong one, just the way I like it.  The honey seemed very natural as it had a crunchiness like sugar crystals.  The toppings were spread on the crepe before being folded in quarters, so the flavors were dispersed well throughout.  

The music playing was instrumental, mostly saxaphone;  I didn't care for this as I associate sax music with cheesy romance scenes in movies.  

The coffee was fresh, and went well with dessert.

Gallery Cafe Nuno: was worth the trek out

Area:  about 30 min walk north of Inba station 印場駅 (Meitetsu Line)
Restaurant:  Gallery Cafe Nuno  ギャラリーカフェヌノ
Website and Info:  http://yaplog.jp/cafenuno/
Map:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230114/23008825/dtlmap/

Hours:  9am-6pm, closed Sundays


It was quite a trek to come out to this gallery cafe in the country side of Nagoya, so you can imagine my surprise when I was offered an English menu.  Apparently, there's an international school nearby.

I chose the sandwich lunch (\800).  First came the soup, a cold potato potage.  It was mostly potato and not cream or milk but was still smooth.  The cream came as only a drizzle on top.  The carrot salad was dressed with a bacon flavored dressing with an essence of vanilla.  

The mushroom and chicken sandwich was warm and seasoned with rosemary.  It went well with the mustard spread.  There was a choice of bread, kuro-sato (black sugar) bread or campagne (French bread).  I chose the crusty type;  it was toasted nicely with a slight sourness.  

The music playing was a soft piano music.  This matched the natural decor and the shops artworks, landscape paintings and hand-made pottery.

 For \500, I added a dessert and drink.  The crispy on the outside, dense on the inside, slightly buttery egg waffle was almost like a pancake in taste and texture.  The roll cake was also on the eggy side, almost like a castella cake.  In typical Japanese style, these desserts were only mildy sweet.  

Marunouchi Spagecchi: once a year is good enough

Area:  1 block east of Marunouchi station 丸の内駅
Restaurant:  Marunouchi Spagecchi  丸の内スパゲッチー
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/en/aichi/A2301/A230102/23053199/

Hours:  Lunch 11am-3pm,  Dinner 5-9pm, closed Sundays and Holidays


This is a meat sauce spaghetti senmonten (a restaurant that specializes in one dish).  Senmonten's are an interesting concept because they usually serve variations of one dish.  I often wonder how frequently regular customers will visit.

These spaghetti noodles were soft, almost like yaki-soba noodles, but boiled.  The sauce was sweet, similar to a pasta senmonten I visited before called “And”.  The eggplant topping (\850) was not too soft and had a nice char.  The crab cream croquette was standard, but the white sauce in it did go well with the meat sauce.  The slice of bread had a mashed potato spread, just like potato-mayo salad.

I did come back, but a year later, and had the spinach topping, which was just boiled spinach with no seasoning (I had to use lots of Kraft-like grated cheese).  This is perhaps a once-in-a-year go-to senmonten.

Nagagutsu to Neko: Coffee is definitely its specialty

Area:  about 300m south west of Sakae Station 栄駅
Cafe:  Nagagutsu to Neko  長靴と猫
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230103/23000260/dtlmap/?lid=tocoupon2

Hours:  9am-8pm


At this coffee specialty house, there are a variety of beans to choose from.  Although pricey, they do hand drip them (ensuring its freshness).  If you sit at the counter, you even get to choose your own cup from a variety of shapes and colours.  I was caught by surprise at this, so I quickly chose the cup in front of me.

The food menu is small, with some cakes and sandwiches.  The hot sandwich (ordered by the patron beside me), looked really nice, a good toasty colour. It was a pressed sandwich, so I'm sure it had a nice crunchy crust.  

The first sip of coffee, black, had a nice roasted flavor, quite bitter but fresh.  Adding cream mellowed out the bitterness and brought out the sweetness from the roasting.  I had seen in a magazine that there was a cookie set.  For ¥210 you get 3 small cookies, German style.  It wasn't in the menu but when I asked it was available! 

One cookie was an almond, another was an only slightly buttery shortbread and the last was a sugar coated one.  All were mildly sweet, perfect with the coffee.  

Cafe Dodo: a gallery cafe with Japanese cafe comfort food

Area:  about 200m east of Yabacho Station 矢場町駅
Restaurant:  Cafe Dodo  カフェ　ドゥードゥー
Map:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230103/23010039/
Website:  http://cafe-dodo.com/

Hours:  12pm-12am (LO 11pm)



This gallery cafe is a small shop hidden on the 3rd floor of a building in the small streets around Yabacho station.  It has a lofty feel and homeyness due to the sofas and dark wooden tables.

Today's plate lunch included hijiki, very standard in flavor.  The carrot salad was a stir fry with mentaiko, which actually worked nicely.  Not too salty, it had a different flavor than usual.  The salad's dressing was like a creamy shiso and chipotle flavor.  Whatever it was, it went very nicely with the Doritos sprinkled on top.  The ginger pork was very gingery and sweet, and made me want to dig into the white rice.  The Japanese like to describe food by how well it goes with rice, so I guess this dish was high on that ranking.  The soup was a simple consommé, tasting like a bouillon cube.    

For 250 yen extra, I added the house-made chestnut pudding.  It had a buttery shortbread cookie on top, almost tasting exactly like the ones I used to make for Christmas every year, so that was nice.  I was at first a bit disappointed with the pudding because aside from the chestnut piece on top, I couldn't really taste it in the milky pudding.  Just as I was going to give up eating it, I hit the chestnut pudding in the bottom of the cup.  It was slightly sweet with a hint of chestnut flavor and had a thicker texture (real chestnut had been finely puréed).

Unicorn: a complete meal and a good opportunity for a lunchtime glass of wine

Area:  a few blocks west of Hisayaodori station 久屋大通駅
Restaurant:  Dining Bar Unicorn  ユニコーン
Website and Info:  http://www.bar-unicorn.com/cgi-bin/unicorn/siteup.cgi?category=5&page=0

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-3pm, Dinner 6pm-5am


Upon entering, the first thing you'll see is a bar, then walking through, there are low tables and sofa seating and also regular seating.  With the piano music playing, it felt like a lounge.

I was surprised that for the lunch set drink, alcoholic beverages were a possibility.  I took the opportunity and ordered a glass of red wine since it was recommended with my choice of lunch: the Unicorn lunch ¥1000 (the chef's pride, simmered pork and cabbage).  

The cabbage salad was dressed with caesar dressing.  The accompanying veggies were pickled, possibly housemade.  They were refreshing and not too vinegary.  There was also a matching slice of salami.  

The pork was stewed in perhaps white wine, with onion, cabbage and carrot.   Although a bit stringy, it was soft enough that there was no need for a knife.  It was topped with cheese and had a strong olive oil essence.  It was lightly seasoned, so the sweetness of the vegetables and the pork flavors shined.  This went really well with the wine which was a medium body and came at room temperature (usually the Japanese like to chill all their wines, red or not).

The soup was a regular wakame soup.  Dessert was a mango mousse with pear chunks. Tasted like something you'd find in costco or m&m's (premade in large quantities).