I usually go to Tokyo about once every two months, but this time I went back after just one. Once every two months really does feel a bit short. There are so many people I want to see, but I never have enough time and end up missing them. This time I gave myself more breathing room and got around to a good variety of places to eat.
Flower display at Marunouchi Brick Square
Marunouchi and Ginza are full of unusual things, so I often end up there shopping for gifts. There are plenty of products you can’t buy anywhere else, even in Japan. You could call it another Japan inside Japan. That day I popped in briefly before lunch too. I had a lot of appointments, so if I didn’t keep moving I’d never make it on time.
Right after buying omiyage I headed to Mikawa, the tempura place. It’s known as one of the top tempura restaurants in Tokyo. I’d been meaning to try it someday, but it didn’t live up to my expectations…
The entrance
It’s so small that it’s hard to find unless you know where it is. Not that it was that hard for me, since I have a Tabelog pro account.
Looking at the menu that day, the 1,050-yen weekday lunch isn’t available on weekends… Hmm. There’s also a 3,150-yen tendon, but it’s not great value for money so I wasn’t keen. My companion, though, said that since we’d gone to the trouble of finding the place we should just have it, so I agreed.
Apparently you can only sit at the counter if you order a course, and as you’d expect from a top tempura place, the courses aren’t cheap. So we went into a private room instead.
Tea
The cups and the atmosphere are lovely, but the prices are scary… People say the dinner course is good value, but coming at weekend lunchtime there doesn’t seem to be much to eat…
Tsukemono
You get daikon, cucumber, takana and so on. They were very high-quality pickles, but is this really the side dish for a 3,150-yen lunch…
Shijimi clam miso soup
A properly made miso soup.
Tokujo (premium) tendon
Just as I’d expected at the start, 3,150 yen felt excessively expensive. The taste was fine. It was definitely refined, but it lacked impact. Someone like me who’s fairly used to tempura can still appreciate the flavour to some degree, but an ordinary diner might be even less satisfied than at Tenya, the tendon chain. Had I known it would be like this, I’d have been far happier just going to Isehiro for a yakitori-don. A 1,000-yen tendon would probably have left me more satisfied, but that’s all my own misjudgement…
Sake flask and cup set
I thought they were decoration, but apparently customers can pick and use them. They’re the work of craftsmen, so they somehow have a sense of class. This doesn’t seem like a place for casual drop-ins. If I try this place again, it’ll be the dinner course.