Hanzomon and Kojimachi sit right next to Akasaka. It looks like a nothing-special neighborhood, but it’s actually the center of Japanese politics, with the Imperial Palace, the National Diet Building and the Prime Minister’s Official Residence all clustered together. I happened to have a lunch appointment near Hanzomon, so I ended up visiting Mitachi Triangle, a French restaurant that’s well known around here. Dinner runs about 8,000-10,000 yen, but the place is famous for a lunch that isn’t expensive and is very satisfying.
The entrance
The restaurant isn’t hard to find, but the entrance is tucked away at the back, so it’s easy to miss.
The menu is lunch courses: Lunch A for 1,600 yen and Lunch B for 2,000 yen. We ordered two Lunch A’s.
Ham spread
This is the house specialty. Most Western restaurants give you butter, but here you get a special ham spread. Spread on bread, it isn’t greasy at all and gives you an instant sandwich flavor. With just this I could eat bread endlessly. They say they sell it as a take-home gift too, but it was off sale because it’s summer.
Bread
An ordinary style, but with the ham spread it just keeps going down.
Soup
A soup with a deep, rich flavor.
Salad
This one was a bit ordinary. Not that it was bad. The more vegetables you eat, the better, after all.
Crab pasta
This is what my friend ordered. You can taste the rich crab flavor in the broth. The noodles were cooked a little past al dente, and I did wonder what an Italian dish was doing at a French place, but if you ordered this at a regular pasta restaurant one plate would easily top 1,600 yen, so no complaints at all.
My dish, eggplant and sawara (Spanish mackerel). I didn’t take a picture of the menu, so I don’t know its exact name…
The portion is huge. Taste-wise it’s not top-tier, but it holds its own anywhere. The sauce is handled properly, too. It’s far better, in both quality and quantity, than the main course at Troisgros I went to before.
Watermelon shortcake for dessert
After eating this well, you get cake and tea for dessert. It’s a shortcake topped with whole chunks of watermelon. It looks a bit small in the photo, but it’s actually about 1.5 times the size of a normal shortcake. Fresh watermelon in summer is delicious enough on its own, but made into a shortcake its sweetness gets amplified several times over. I’d never once imagined you could enjoy the softness of cream together with firm, juicy watermelon, so it was a really great experience. French desserts should have this kind of element that surprises you ^_^ A truly satisfying lunch.
I thought Cressonnière was good value for money too, but compared to this place it’s a notch below. I’d like to go back. I should find out whether they do the cake as takeout ^_^