This post was written in 2008. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.

If I only ever had the chance to eat one meal in Tokyo, I think I’d pick this place, with a little hesitation ^_^. Kurofunetei is a yoshoku (Japanese-style Western food) restaurant near Ueno Station.
Being a long-established place, it gets plenty of customers without any advertising, but it had recently been on TV and it was Golden Week on top of that, so it was absolutely packed. When we went at lunchtime there were about 15 groups waiting ahead of us. (By the time we finished and left, the wait had grown to around 20 people.) It’s a four-storey building, and the line stretched all the way down the stairs to the second floor. That’s a pretty bad state of affairs. Honestly, I wish places like this wouldn’t get advertised at all. But unlike in Korea, the service and the food didn’t slip one bit even with crowds pouring in. Nobody gives you the side-eye if you order a little and sit for a long time, and they respond right away to even the smallest request. You could feel the class of a truly great restaurant. The wait was long, but it wasn’t unpleasant at all, and it made me want to come back again and again.
First, a test shot

Maybe because we got a window seat on a sunny day, I was in a great mood.
Today’s assorted starter, one portion

The torigai (Japanese cockle) on this plate was a work of art. Is a yoshoku place even allowed to have fish this fresh? Isn’t that a crime? How are the seafood restaurants supposed to make a living? Everything else on the plate was above average too. The two of us ordered just this one plate and were cutting it up with chopsticks, when a waiter promptly came up from behind and brought us forks and knives. French-restaurant service at a yoshoku place.
This is bouillabaisse in cream sauce.

It’s a cream sauce but not heavy at all, and the clean, refreshing flavour of the seafood really comes through. It looks ordinary, but the taste is anything but. The seafood in it was really generous and in great shape. It would have been even better in winter, but it’s still perfectly satisfying now.
Served onto a plate…

Itadakimasu~ Let’s eat~

The house signature omurice, half size

Being able to order a half portion is one of this place’s features. Even the half isn’t particularly small. Maybe about 70% of a regular omurice place’s serving. We had another place lined up after this one, so we got the half size just to have a taste.
I ate a few spoonfuls to taste this omurice, but forget the flavour, I couldn’t even tell what I’d just eaten. It melts away the moment it hits your mouth. The rice is good too, but the egg is as smooth as ice cream. With the sweet-and-sour ketchup, I was flooded with regret for ordering only a half.
A cross-section of the omurice

Looking at the photo brings the taste right back, and it’s torture. It’s a personal favourite, so I’ve recommended it to a lot of people, and it hasn’t let anyone down yet. That said, once you’ve had omurice here you’ll never look at omurice the same way again, so if you’re the type who thinks “what’s the big deal about some omurice,” you’re better off not coming.

The omurice was so good that we ordered the other house signature, hayashi rice. Half size, of course.

The side dishes come separately.
You just pour this demi-glace sauce over the rice.

I’d been disappointed on my previous visit so I wasn’t expecting much, but this time it was spot on. The rich sauce, made by patiently simmering the meat, comes together with a fresh, slightly sweet finish. It felt a notch below the omurice, but I still got to taste the essence of Japanese yoshoku.

At the door

The waiters were working so hard. About half of the people who showed up checked how many were waiting, gave up and went home, and yet the line didn’t get any shorter.
There can’t be many places that give you this much satisfaction for the price. (Not that it’s cheap…) I’ll just have to pray that the hype cools down soon and the day comes when I can eat here without queuing.

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