There's a place for you at these 8 eateries in Tokyo's Sangenjaya neighborhood

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🤗 LOS TACOS AZULES

I didn't realize that my favorite thing in Tokyo this time was a small store that makes tacos.

The store is not far from Sangenjaya station and opens at 9am. The store's small blackboard menu is filled with a variety of tacos that incorporate Japanese ingredients and cooking techniques, so if you're having trouble choosing, you can just order a morning tacos omakase.

Chef Marco Garcial is from Mexico, and he believes that for tacos to be good, they need good tortillas. For this reason, he imports blue corn (azul is the Spanish word for blue) from his home country in Mexico, makes fresh tortillas every day, and bakes them on-site in the back of the kitchen for his customers, making them warm and fluffy, and a certified tortilla that will be delicious no matter what it is rolled in.

As for the tacos' filling flavors, they're also full of imagination. Pepper leaf bamboo shoots with Mexican green sausage, a very Japanese-Mexican fusion with; just done Japanese egg rolls, cut in the middle and slightly melted egg yolk texture, sandwiched between some silverfish to increase the freshness of the flavor; carnitas from Mexican cuisine, pork is tender and succulent, with the store's sauce, and all of a sudden, there is a strong Mexican flavor.

The store is small, and when full, it can only accommodate a dozen or so customers, but there are as many as five clerks because the tacos are made to order, which is time-consuming and time-consuming. Naturally, the price of tacos here is a bit high, with a small one costing 500 to 700 yen, but in terms of flavor, it's no worse than the tacos I've had in some of the finer restaurants in Mexico.

I just ordered from the menu this time, but next time I stay at Sancha, I'll try the breakfast tacos omakase.

Address: 1-17-9 Uema, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

Tel: 03-5787-6990

Tabelog Rating: 3.77

🤗 Ginza Brasil Asakusa Branch

Stop by this store for a bit of carbo-loading before you head out to the Hababashi prop street in the Asakusa neighborhood.

Opened in 1948, the store is located on the second floor of a shopping street in Asakusa, and the interior is decorated with the atmosphere of the Showa period. The interior is decorated with the atmosphere of the Showa period, and many old people sit there all morning with a cup of coffee and a newspaper, giving the shop the old-fashioned flavor of a Cantonese teahouse.

The restaurant's signature dish is the fried pork cutlet sandwich. To quote the title of the store's first review on the Japanese food review website tabelog: “The best tonkatsu sandwich on earth”.

Probably because it's made-to-order, the menu notes that the serving time will be more than half an hour. When I was ordering, I looked at the picture and thought that the portion would not be so big, right? As a result, it is really so big ...... pork chop fried crispy, with sweet and sour sauce, in a short time, like a wind wind eat all, even if the eating appearance is quite indecent, but also completely do not care about.

Also ordered a cheese toast, the aroma is rich, the portion is also huge, so big that I did not eat lunch that day did not feel hungry ......

Address: 2F, 1-28-2 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo

Tel: 03-3841-1473

Tabelog Rating: 3.60

🤗 Sézanne

When Asia's 50 Best Restaurants was released this year, I saw that the first place went to Sézanne at the Four Seasons Hotel Marunouchi in Tokyo, and I thought I'd make a date for a meal when I'm going to Tokyo for the May Day holiday.

Chef Daniel Calvert worked at Belon in Central, Hong Kong, before moving to Japan. At the time, I loved Belon's Drunken Pigeon, a dish of pigeon cooked half-cooked in yellow wine with romaine lettuce and pickled leafy herbs, which looked slightly pink on the outside and tasted intoxicatingly soft and tender in the mouth.

One of the reasons why I wanted to come to Sézanne was because I was curious about how the chef would incorporate Japanese elements into the menu. For example, an appetizer of Hokkaido scallop bisque is filled with oil refined from wasabi leaves and horseradish, giving the richness a Japanese freshness.

The rice pudding dessert I enjoyed the most this day was made from Koshihikari rice, with a variety of citrus fruits as colorful accents, and the highlight was the yuzu peppercorns, which are commonly used in cooking, and actually went very well with the dessert. Although I had predicted that it would be Japanese, I didn't realize that it could be so Japanese.

Address: Pacific Century Place, 1-11-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Phone: 050-5890-5240

Tabelog rating: 4.26

🤗 Tiger peak

I didn't order sushi or kaiseki this time in Tokyo, I ordered an Itamae Chinese meal.

After the meal, the chef chatted with the guests at the bar.

Japanese neighbor: This is the first time I've had Chinese food like this, it's very interesting.

Chef: Thank you for the compliment, actually what we do is mainly Cantonese cuisine blabla......

The restaurant's main concept is a small portion, multi-course Itamae Chinese cuisine, which focuses on Cantonese dishes, interspersed with some Japanese stereotypes of Chinese food, such as Peking's representation of roast duck and Sichuan's representation of dan dan noodles, and even some Southern Oceanic takes on the dish, such as stir-fried waterlily greens with Malayan marjoram and abalone.

Although the menu states that there are a total of 22 courses, the portion sizes are really exquisite, a small platter of dishes was served and 4 courses went by. Two of my favorites were the spring rolls, which were wrapped with thick and juicy stone snapper and coriander, with salt and lemon juice, which looked more like tempura than spring rolls; and the shark's fin rice in clay pot, which was stewed in a rich broth that was a perfect match for the fragrant rice.

Other dishes were generally on par, with some presumably improved for local tastes. The roast duck was more crispy and fluffy than I expected, while the barbecue pork was relatively lightly seasoned and lacked the characteristic charred flavor of teriyaki.

Address: 1F PAL Building, 3-8-7 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Tel: 03-3478-7441

Tabelog Rating: 4.14

🤗 Kobe Yakiniku Kangoku Sangenjaya Honten

As night falls, the narrow streets and alleys around Sangenjaya begin to bustle with activity. Even with your eyes closed, it's hard not to be attracted by the sound of glasses clinking, lively conversations, and the smell of meat coming out of the exhaust vents.

I arrived about 20 minutes early and tried to get in early, but was politely refused by the waiter: “Sorry, it's already full, so please follow the reservation time”. Through a crack in the door, the aroma of barbecued pork was clamoring for my nose. Now I was even hungrier.

I went around and came back, and entered on time. This yakiniku restaurant specializes in Kobe's Tajima beef and Ota beef, and has only one L-shaped bar, making the atmosphere even more crowded.

Although it is a small barbecue meat store, but a variety of popular barbecue meat parts have everything: was crowned the “Queen of meat” title of the tenderloin, the thickness and beautiful grease lines make people's fingers move; shoulder tender meat ミスジ cut very thin, in the iron plate a little bit of hot would have been tender enough; thick cut beef tongue eaten in large mouths, and then drink a big mouthful of cold Beer, is the supreme enjoyment of yakiniku restaurant.

Earlier simply like barbecued meat, now prefer to turn to a variety of offal: beef louboutin pas cher simply boil a little, with scallions and lemon juice and then dipped in a little sauce, crisp and refreshing; crispy and thick yellow throats cut flower knife seasoning sauce, the entrance to the crunchy popping addictive; tripe in the thickest of the upper ミノ, grilled to a slightly charred, it is more chewing more and more flavorful.

Of course it's good, the only problem is that after adding more and more dishes, I realized that the check had far exceeded my budget at the time ...…

Address: 2-13-19, Sanken Chaya, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

Tel: 03-3410-1129

Tabelog Rating: 3.54

🤗 EUREKA！

Earlier when I was learning about sake, I watched a movie titled “カンパイ! Nihonshuに恋した女たち” (Cheers! The Woman Who Fell in Love with Sake), a documentary about a couple of girls who work in the sake industry. Recently, I finished a book called “最先端の日本酒ペアリング” (Cutting Edge Sake Meal and Wine Pairing) in order to learn more about sake pairing. Both have a common protagonist, Marie Chiba.

Marie Chiba, a finalist, visited a number of sake breweries to learn about brewing in order to better learn about sake, and now runs a small store called “EUREKA!” that specializes in sake pairing.

According to Marie Chiba's theory in her book, wine pairing generally involves taking a bite of a dish followed by a sip of wine, allowing the wine to form a pairing with the lingering flavors in the mouth, while sake pairing allows the dish itself to be consumed along with the wine, creating a marvelous gustatory response in the mouth.

According to Marie Chiba, sake pairing is not simply about matching the same flavor profiles, but also about complementing each other's palates in a variety of ways. For example, with a thick-cut fried ham wrapped in blue cheese, I was expecting a yamabushi type of sake, but she brought me a turbid wine instead. She explained that the wine portion of the cloudy wine acts like a grainy sweet and sour sauce, adding richness to the savory flavors of the ham and cheese, allowing both the meal and the wine to finish cooking and presenting themselves in the mouth.

Address: Azabu Empire Mansion 2F, 4-11-28 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Phone: 03-6805-0760

Tabelog rating: 3.32

🤗 Future Japan Hotel & SAKE BAR

Hidden in the basement of Shibuya Parco is a make bar, and I'm not sure if it's because the word “future” is in the name, but a large portion of the selection is the popular craft sake, which is a traditional sake that is flavored with various flavors, like craft beer. like craft beer, to create a wide variety of flavors (or flavors of the devil and the snake).

The store's one-hour time limit for sake releases is only 2,700 yen (excluding tax), so if you're into craft sake, it's the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the de-mining. I tried the new Hana Breeze from Inari and Tequila, the strawberry version that I hadn't tried before from Happy Taro, and a couple of Shokusen. The Flower Breeze with hops was as good as expected, and one of the margarita pizza flavors in the Shokuhon was as hard as expected ...…

Also, the store is a Kubota contract store, so a Kubota side-by-side comparison would be nice, by the way.

Address: Shibuya Parco B1F, 15-1 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Phone: 03-6455-3975

Tabelog rating: 3.30

🤗 Red Ghost

One of the reasons I came to Tokyo this time to stay at Sangen Chaya was so I could come to Akagi every night and have a couple of cheap fourteeners.

As an early Takagi Sake Brewery contract store, you can drink Yatsushiro at a relatively low price in Akagi. Although there is a very limited range of yatayoi on sale, you can often get fresh sake at these fast-moving stores. For example, the Double Rainbow Ryuuki I came across this time was 3,300 yen a glass, and it was only two months old.

The store is open until 11:00 p.m., and last order starts at 10:30 p.m. You can't order additional food at this time, but you can walk-in and have a couple of cups, eliminating the need to queue up or make a reservation, and then walk leisurely back to your place before closing the store, which is very comfortable.

Next time you come to Tokyo, stay at Sangenjaya.

Address: 2-15-3, Sanken Chaya, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

Tel: 03-3410-9918

Tabelog Rating: 3.59