A while back I’d caught a passing rumour about an interesting French restaurant over in the shitamachi part of town and filed it away, and this time I finally got the chance to go. Keeping your ears open all the time really does pay off when it matters. Mind you, there are more than a couple of restaurants I only know by rumour, so who knows when I’ll get round to all of them..
Caudalie is a small French place near Ueno run by a skilled chef and sommelier. The name Caudalie is apparently a wine term, a unit for measuring how long a wine’s finish lingers. In Korean it tends to get written “Kodari”, but properly it should be “Kaw-da-lee” with a long vowel, right? It has nothing to do with Korean kodari, the half-dried pollack. It sits in a residential neighbourhood roughly on the far side of Shinobazu Pond. You can walk from Ueno or Okachimachi Station, or come from Yushima Station. Because this area is shitamachi, it had never crossed my mind to come out here, but maybe because it’s close to Ueno, it was easier to find than I expected. I wish I’d known about it sooner.
The entrance
It’s such a tiny French place you could easily walk right past it. This is when finding your way with an iPhone comes in handy. I haven’t checked whether the Galaxy can do directions too..
Water glass
A fun touch. It’s small and the budget is modest, so I didn’t expect much, but you can tell they’ve paid careful attention to every corner of the place.
Beer
It felt a bit much to order wine at lunchtime, so just a glass of beer. Thinking about it now, maybe I should have gone for Champagne.
Baguette and butter
Even the bread is out of the ordinary. They must be getting it from a really good bakery.
Soup with venison
The red bits on top are the venison. I’m not particularly a fan of venison, but they’ve used its rough, gamey character as an accent in the soup really well. Simple and comforting, yet it really gets to you. A good dish.
Squid as a starter
Nicely grilled squid that you dip into carefully made sauces. As I remember, one was paprika and the other basil. Sauce is the lifeblood of French cooking, and every now and then when I eat French food without sauce (if such a thing exists) it gets me a little annoyed. This is proper French cooking, and it’s been a long time since I had any.
Steak for the main
The steak was cooked nicely too. The course I ordered was definitely the 3,000-yen one, yet it came as a full course with soup, a starter and a main, and not a single thing fell short. The value was so absurd I couldn’t help being amazed. I’d come after hearing it called the best-value French restaurant in the universe, and I had to agree.
Fish main
We ordered one of each main. The fish was faultless too, in portion, quality and cooking alike.
Duck
This was mine. Maybe because of the price they’re not using top-grade meat, but the cooking is a work of art. The meat wrapped in cabbage was a real treat as well.
Chocolate cake for dessert
A seriously delicious chocolate cake. If you had it with tea at a café, wouldn’t the dessert alone cost 1,000 yen? Eating this much on a 3,000-yen course made me feel quite guilty.
Fruit terrine
Less impact than the chocolate, but a properly made terrine.
Espresso
According to someone who had it, it was a bit weak. But there’s no need to make a big deal of a weak espresso at a French restaurant.
Petits fours
These little sweets are properly delicious too. The meringue, the chocolate and the cookies are all at a high level. The tableware, the service, even small details like these are perfect. After eating like this, I’d believe it if they said it was 5,000 yen.
Herbal tea
The herbal tea I ordered. Very satisfying ^_^
The value is off the charts, so if I ever lived in Tokyo I think I’d drop in every weekend. Expecting a place like this in Korea.. is probably still a bit too soon.