Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part III

It's taken us a while but hubby and I are slowly exploring the Roppongi area for good food ^.^

This Hainan Jeefan Shokudo in Azabu-Juban was a discovery from last fall. Hubby and his colleagues stumbled upon it and that was that. Funny enough I don't like the Singapore chicken rice, but I'll give them due credit that the chicken rice here is out of this world! My god that breast meat is unbelievably tender and juicy. How do they do it?! Anyway, I prefer their curry to the chicken rice, because it tastes like mum's curry ^.^

Hubby just can't have enough of this chicken rice, while I can't have enough of this curry.

Gonpachi is totally touristy, and honestly I think the food here is meh at best. Supposedly, this is the restaurant that inspired Quentin Tarantino's House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill Vol 1, where Uma Thurman's The Bride battles and defeats Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii.

But as you can see, the restaurant looks nothing like the one in the movie. The tiniest resemblance I see is the balcony that runs the entire second floor (third photo down), but that's about it.

Hubby's been here a few times for work related functions, and I've been twice. The second time I went we had the course meal, which was a little better than the a la carte menu but still nothing special. Also, it was extremely loud there, because the waitstaff constantly shouts and screams because they think it's entertaining or something. We won't go back if we can help it.

Aside from Hainan Jeefan Shokudo above, Roti Roppongi is another great find this past spring. They also have a branch in the Midtown building, but we've never been since they have a different menu and we like the Roppongi menu better.


For the past month we've been finding ourselves lunching here a lot, like one a week, kind of embarrassing ^.^" Ironically enough, we haven't ordered their rotisserie chicken yet even though this is their signature dish. Every time we go, hubby keeps ordering a burger while I stick with my favorite chicken salad (...and stealing his fries). Burgers and fries are our measure of homesickness, so I guess that just means we're a little homesick xD

Lunch comes with a drink, and among the choices includes this rose lemonade (left). One time I ordered the caramel latte (right) and regretted it, not because it wasn't good but because it was gigantic. Huge. I wish I'd put my hand next to that cup to show you how big it was. That cup must have been as big as my face. It was ridiculous.

Here's my favorite chicken salad. I hate salads, but I love this salad. It's very flavorful and the chicken is super tender. May be one of these days I'll order the rotisserie chicken after all!


These are all the different burgers hubby's tried so far. There are more because they change their weekly specials but I haven't gotten to those photos yet. Will post later.

Gotsui (okonomiyaki) was a recommendation from a friend who'd traveled Osaka and said she thought the okonomiyaki here was better than what she had in Osaka. That's a huge praise, because as you know, okonomiyaki is a regional cuisine of Osaka. So of course hubby and I have to give this place a try.

...And sadly, I can't really decide if it was because our friend had raised our expectations too high or what, but the food here didn't leave any particular impression with us. We might go back and try it again.

Having spent too much time in the Tokyo Midtown building last fall, I switched to loitering at the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower instead. Who would have thunk I'd be a mall rat at this age? Ha. Here are some photos of the beautiful blooms this past April.

Hubby and I grab lunch together even more often now, 3-4 times a week versus twice weekly before. Sadly enough, further exploration of this building only prove our initial impression correct, that many of the food options here are just underwhelming. Don't ask me why or how. I'd like to know the answer myself. That's not to say I don't like anything, there are a few places I love, but I'll start with the bad first.

First terrible choice: Blue Lily. I don't have a food photo for this place, because the one time hubby and I ate lunch here, the food made us ill. And it didn't even look appetizing. Our lunch arrived and we cringed just looking at it--everything was swimming in grease! We felt gross eating it, and our stomachs gave us hell afterwards. Never again.

Second terrible choice: Kasumi-cho Soba Masudaya on the restaurant (5th) floor. Hubby and I tried this place twice, and each time we were disappointed. It didn't taste like Japanese food at all but more like something we'd get at home trying to pass for Japanese food, below average at best. In a dense city with some 88,000+ restaurants (as of 2011) and more Michelin stars than Paris, below average food is terrible food. I'm not being snooty or harsh. That's just statistic.

Third terrible choice: AS Classic Diner. I've actually been here 3 times with different people who insisted on trying it. I hated it every single time. The third time I went I ordered the "buffalo wings," and the wings came out soggy and not fully cooked or fried, soaked in some sort of runny, clear garlic sauce that didn't remotely resemble buffalo wing sauce, and yes, it tasted gross. That was the last straw for me. Will not go back. Ever. Not even for friends.

Blah choice: Il Ritrovo. Been a couple of times with hubby. He thought it was average. I thought it was blah. Moving on.

Another blah choice: Betjeman & Barton Tea Room. This place isn't terrible, but it's not good either. The menu is very small and limited, and it doesn't change much, if at all. Seasons be damned. I've tried several items on 4 visits and nothing's wowed me so I stop going.

Now the good stuff: E.A.Gran on the 4th floor. This cafe serves lunch (soups, salads, burger, pastas, etc.), coffee, alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, etc.), and desserts (cakes, pies, tiramisu, ice cream). That's a huge menu to undertake so I won't blame them that their burgers, pastas, and most desserts don't impress. I don't order anything alcoholic here, and they also have very few tea options (in tea bags, not loose leaf).

However, their "Salad Plates" and "Lunch Plates" are fantastic! Here are 2 examples of the "Lunch Plates," and you get a little bit of a lot of things. At left are 2 small slices of yummy flaky toast (tastes like a croissant actually!) with sweet cream, a tiny cup of delicious cream of mushroom soup, a few bites of great salad, good potato salad, good pickled carrot salad, and either boiled egg and meatloaf or the Japanese version of meatloaf, aka the "hamburg steak," either choice is delicious because I've had both as you can see. 

The tiramisu (left) is great also, not too sweet with a great balance of mocha. Avoid the seasonal mango shortcake (right) if you can. I can taste the artificial flavoring in the cream and frankly, it tastes like plastic. Yuck.

Funny enough, the seasonal mango mint sparkling is quite tasty!

Their mocha (left), cappuccino, and latte (both at right) are adequate for me but might provoke a snort from other coffee buffs.

As usual, I'm saving the best for last: Harbs is a cake shop, tea room, and cafe all in one. And surprise, surprise, I love this place ^.^ Let me count the ways: big cake list with ever changing seasonal options, big tea list also with seasonal options, nice tables and comfy seats, and lovely serving staff. Can't complain!

One of my favorite teas they served is this fresh fruit tea. It's literally a pot of black tea steeped full of cut fresh fruits, so you drink the tea first and then you eat the fruits! They'll also serve a side of honey, with which I sweeten my tea and then I use the leftover for my fruits. Heaven!

Clockwise from top left: genmai, herbal, lavender, and orange mint teas. You bet I've tried almost all of their teas!

This sakura tea was a seasonal offering in the spring, and if I remember correctly it was strong green tea with pickled sakura blossoms, two each in the pot and the cup. When I poured the tea, the sakura unfurled and floated as I sipped. Beautiful, hmm?

The current seasonal offering is this honey lemon tea soda (left), which is literally black tea, Perrier mineral sparkling water, and slices of lemon steeped in honey. Tasty, but not worth the 880yen they charge, especially when I can make this at home using better ingredients. I'd rather pay for something I can't make or don't have. The royal milk tea (right) is good too but is super heavy, and I suspect they use cream in it instead of milk. I've ordered it a few times now and regretted it every time.

Okay, the cakes. It's no secret I have an insatiable sweet-tooth so you bet I love the cakes. But I have standards, and no I don't love all their cakes. To be honest, I think many Harbs cakes are loaded with mere heavy whipped cream as oppose to butter cream, etc., which I think is kind of cheating. Most cakes in Japan are this way so Harbs' hardly unique, but everyone's doing it doesn't make it "right." That said, when Harbs does get it right, they hit it out of the park.

Hands down my favorite cake there was the seasonal white chocolate cake: vanilla cake moistened with liqueur and sprinkled with bits and pieces of nuts throughout, white chocolate butter cream icing, white chocolate shaving on top. Just divine. I ordered it every time I went until they stopped serving it :( Bring it back, Harbs!

This was another seasonal offering that I sadly only got to try once before it went away. It was called the chocolate berry king or something  like that. Listen, I love chocolate but dislike chocolate cake, and yet they won me over with this chocolate cake. Got to respect that. Also the chocolate butter cream frosting was delicious, smooth and chocolatey but light and not too sweet. After I had this cake I took hubby back a few times, and every single time they turned us away with a mile-long line. By the time I decided to get it to go once and for all so he could try it, they had stopped serving it :( Bring this back too, please?

The below were also seasonal offerings though I didn't like them as much as the two above: mocha (or was it coffee?) cake, so strongly flavored of coffee that it was bitter, strawberry queen cake (or something like that...), good, but again just strawberry loaded with heavy whipped cream, key lime cheese cake, good, but a tad too tart.

I'll note that Harbs serves a few lunch items also, variations of this sandwich below. I made the mistake of ordering lunch here once and learned a hard lesson. First of all, it's white bread in Texas toast cut (read: super thick). Secondly, their "bacon" is actually Canadian bacon, i.e. thickly sliced ham, very fatty, pork belly ham. When my "BLT" sandwich came out, my arteries clogged up from me just looking at the plate--the whole thing was swimming in pork grease still dripping from the "bacon." I ended up using the bread to mop up the grease and cut out half the fat from the under-cooked "bacon." Because it wasn't bacon to begin with so they didn't cook it to a crisp like we do at home. Finally, for a "BLT" I got all of 1 slice of tomato and 1 leaf of iceberg lettuce, a terrible joke. For the sake of your heart, don't repeat my mistake.

Still love Momodori, although the service here's wearing my patience thin. Several times now I asked for less rice and my order came out with a full bowl of rice, which I then had to dig out half and save myself the bloating afterwards. I love rice, but I can't eat a lot of it, and I'm resentful they keep messing up my orders.

Hubby and I still frequent the North Tower for lunch, especially Afuri Ramen. We prefer Afuri over Ippudo, because while they're both ramen, one has a much lighter taste than the other. 

Hubby loves the signature broth with yuzu that's unique and unlike any ramen broth we've had. There's also a spicy broth that sells out all the time, so I still haven't had the pleasure of trying it yet.

My favorite so far is the tsukemen with spicy dipping broth, and I always order extra pork belly to share with hubby ^.^

And we still love Dashi Chazuke En of course. The current seasonal offering has unagi with sashimi (bottom), so I just give all my sashimi to hubby and he loves it ^.^

Since this past January, we've stopped going to Midtown so often (got sick/bored of it...), especially when Saikabo is no longer there. Now we only go for quick Uniqlo or grocery stops on the way home from work. Here are the last of the holiday lighting and decoration.

There's a Dean & Deluca store there as well as a Dean & Deluca Cafe, which is odd because the store itself already has a cafe in it. Here's my cafe latte, matcha latte (left), salted caramel latte, and coffee jelly (right).

Toraya is a Japanese sweet shop and cafe/tea room with a bigger branch in Ginza. They also serve a few items for lunch. I've been here only once to tried their signature anmitsu. Meh. Nowhere near Kanoko's quality or taste and way more overpriced. Will not return.

There's also a tiny in-and-out-lunch-stop branch of Senriba Nangshang Shorong (千里馬 南翔小籠). I came in once and ordered the standard mapo tofu for lunch. The mapo tofu was really good, but they must have dumped an entire container of salt in there. It was so salty I picked out just the tofu to eat and left everything else. Will not return.


See my previous posts:
- Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area
- Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part II