Matagi is a robatayaki in Roppongi. The senior member who handles Tokyo for the gourmet club I’m part of said this place looked good and suggested we go, so I went in with high hopes. When I looked it up beforehand, it turned out to have a fun concept. The owner was originally a hunter, and every morning he brings in meat that he or his hunting buddies caught, selling only that day’s catch. To get fresh meat he commutes every day from a place called Hayama in Kanagawa Prefecture, so apparently they close at night before the last train leaves. It’s said to be popular with wine lovers too, since you can bring your own wine for a 3,150-yen corkage fee. Oh ho.. what happy news.. This time, for various reasons, I couldn’t bring any wine, but next time I’ll definitely give it a try.. And the house wine wasn’t bad at all.
Burnt-out charcoal
I thought it was just for decoration, but later they light it up for you.
Mozuku
This is the otoshi. Come to think of it, I’ve never had mozuku with any special flavor. Maybe because it’s always eaten with vinegar.
A glass of draft beer
Starting with a draft beer as always.. I’m seriously wondering whether I should drop these default shots from now on.
Stuffed deer
It hangs at the front entrance. That glaring look is a bit.. kind of cute, isn’t it..
Wild boar
Quite a seductive pose. Besides this there were some birds flying around too, and the atmosphere was casual yet calm.
Only once you order food do they bring the charcoal.
This isn’t our charcoal, it’s the next table’s. They were grilling raw cutlassfish (tachiuo, 太刀魚), and it looked so good that I ordered it, but they said it was already sold out. Boo hoo. The sad fate of first come, first served.
You put a wire grill over it like this and cook.
This is what real robatayaki is.. that’s what I felt. Old traditional Japanese houses had a hearth like this right in the middle of the house. People cooked there and drank tea there. So for Japanese people it may not be such an unusual thing.
Our table got some fine charcoal like this too.
I asked, and they said it was nara-zumi, oak charcoal. Even the charcoal fire is something special.
This is the dipping sauce.
It seems to have daikon, green onion, katsuo dashi and vinegar in it. The vinegar’s sourness really comes through. They gave it to us to dip the fish that was about to come.
Kinmedai (golden-eye snapper, 金目鯛) for searing
The flesh is practically glowing. It isn’t cheap, but the portion is huge. I liked it even before I ate it.
You grill it like this and eat it.
I’d never had fish seared like this, so I was a little nervous. ^_^ You grill the skin side first for about 5 seconds, then flip it over. When the color has changed just enough, you dip it in the sauce and eat. After all that careful grilling I took a bite, and the flesh was sweet like candy. So sweet my head went blank and I set sail for the astral plane. How on earth can something be this good! That big chunk melts away in an instant like ice cream. So this is the real power of ingredients. I’m trembling..
Koshiabura
I ordered it because I heard it’s the tastiest of Japan’s wild mountain greens, and it really does have a distinctive flavor. It’s so different from Korean namul that I’m not sure everyone would take to it, though
Hana wasabi
They said it’s in season right now, so I ordered it. Clean, with a striking sharp tang. Not just the meat, the side dishes are good too.
Wine
The house wine, but the aroma really bloomed and it went well with the meats, which you could call Japanese-style gibier. We ordered it along with the meat, after the fish.
Pheasant
Meat that was probably running around in the mountains just a few days ago. This is half a bird, with a variety of cuts on the plate.
Grilling it like this.
It’s not for searing, so you just cook it through properly.
And eating it like this.
The senior from the gourmet club grilled it for us himself with exquisite skill. I’m still lacking in that department, so I’m weak at this kind of thing. Even at barbecues I hardly remember ever grilling the meat myself. It looks delicious just to look at, but when I actually ate it, wow.. The meat is firm and springy, so how can it also be this full of juices? Not as much as the kinmedai, but it tastes as if the meat had a little sugar sprinkled on it. On top of that it has a deep wild flavor that fish doesn’t have, so I could hardly imagine any meat being better than this. Because of the meat I had that night, I’ve decided to break up with chicken for a while.
Wild boar meat
Visually it’s almost on par with beef. I grilled it well and ate it, but it wasn’t any better than good-quality pork. Probably because it’s not the season right now. I’ll have to come back in winter and try again.
Watercress salad
Eating only meat felt a bit much, and I saw the next table having it and it looked fresh, so I ordered it, but it was just so-so.
Venison sashimi
This one was frozen, and the taste wasn’t all that special.
After eating well and drinking plenty, we paid about 13,000 yen per person. I think if we hadn’t ordered the wine, we could have kept it under 10,000 yen.
Shoyu ramen at Azabu Ramen
Going straight back to the hotel felt a bit dull, so I ordered shoyu ramen at the ramen shop right in front of my hotel. It’s a chain called Azabu Ramen, a popular ramen spot in this area with quite a few branches around. This shop mostly goes for a refined Tokyo-style ramen. Looking at the bowl they brought out, the upscale name Azabu Ramen suits it well.
The noodles
Wavy noodles are a hallmark of Tokyo ramen. The broth is clean and there’s plenty of topping. Perfect for one bowl before heading home. Actually there’s also a place near here called Akanoren, famous from Hakata, but I’d already had plenty of tonkotsu, so this time I went with this one.
Bean sprout topping
About halfway through you can add the topping to make it a bit spicy. It’s really fun to be able to enjoy different variations in a single bowl of ramen ^_^ And with that, today’s lecture on restaurant-hopping comes to an end.