Tag: Kanda

An izakaya in Kanda serving smoked foods: Kemuri

Just across Takemura (one of my favorite sweet cafes in Tokyo) I noticed an izakaya. Looking at the menu affixed outside I noticed that they specialized in smoked foods. Very interesting concept! I had to try it.

The visit

It was early on a Saturday evening and I was the first customer. I sat on a bar chair in the ground floor room (a bit uncomfortable). They also have tables upstairs.

I ordered their mixed platter with five items. It has BBQ pork, duck, bacon, rice cake, and olives (two). It was ok, but that one of the five promised items was a pair of olives seemed cheating.

They had smoked mentaiko that was good as usual.

Finally I had their smoked salmon salad that was quite good.

The check

The check for these three snack-size dishes was 4,080 yen (38 USD). For what it was, it was too much.

The concept of a smoked food izakaya was great, but it was poorly implemented. The food was clearly an afterthought, just a side for drinks. It is not an izakaya where you can have a serious meal. What a shame.

Where in Tokyo:
1 Chome-11-5 Kanda Sudacho, Chiyoda City.
In Japanese: 〒101-0041 東京都千代田区神田須田町１丁目１１−5.

Dining at Yabu Soba, one of Tokyo’s soba temples

Kanda is home of two of the oldest and most respected traditional soba restaurants in Tokyo: Matsuya and Yabu Soba. In December 2019 I was able to get in at Yabu Soba (my attempts at Matsuya sadly failed because every time I was in the area the queue was just too long).

The visit

I guess the trick was arriving quite late (past 2pm) on a weekday, but there was no queue.

The restaurant is located in traditional building. The shop dates back to the XIX century and the name literally means “shop in the bush”, a reference to the bamboo plants that used to be found in the area. The original building was destroyed during the Kanto Earthquake of 1923, but the current building was rebuilt just a few years later and it serves as a reminder of the old Tokyo.

I ordered their standard soba noodles and a tempura mix as a side. The noodles in the hot tsuyu sauce (made out of soya sauce, konbu, and fish flakes) were exquisite. They also have udon and cold soba and dishes combining noodles with other ingredients (the soba with duck slices was quite attractive).

Their noodles are of course handmade using a ration between soba flour and normal flour of ten to one and they claim to source the highest quality soba from around Japan.

One of the feature of this restaurant is that you get a pot of soba-yu, which is the water used to cook the noodles. You are recommended to add it to the broth when it runs low. I tried it and I what I got was a tasty soup.

The tempura was probably not the most exciting side dishes (oysters and anago were available!), but it is such a traditional pair for the soba noodles that I obliged. The mix carried broccoli, shunjiku, smelt fish, lotus root (stuffed with minced chicken), sweet potato, and an oyster. Simple, but every piece was carefully fried and made out of quality ingredients. Definetely I like the side dishes in these restaurants.

The check

The check was 2,470 yen (23 USD). The soba was just 825 yen. Traditional, touristy, but still a must-go for soba.

Where in Tokyo:
2-10 Kanda-awaji-cho, Chiyoda-ku.
In Japanese: 〒101-0063 東京都千代田区神田淡路町2-10.

Traditional Japanese desserts at Takemura in Tokyo

Takemura is a traditional dessert cafe in Tokyo, in Kanda-Sudacho, an area full of interesting eateries (two of the best soba restaurants in Tokyo are located nearby). It was founded in 1930. This kind of stores are called kanmi-dokoro (甘味処, “sweets place”) and are rarer and rarer in Tokyo.

The visit

The venue occupies a traditional house and has both normal table seats and a few tatami seats. They do not like pictures inside, so I do not have an image of the interior.

Attention, the place is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

They offer you a bowl of hot water with cherry flowers when you seat down for an order.

They have a menu translated in English. The translation is impeccable, but there are no pictures. They have a lot of traditional desserts. In my first visit I tried their mistumame with boiled apricots (anzu). The main feature of mitsumame is small cubes of agar jelly called kanten, a white translucent jelly made from seaweeds. It came with a green tea and a syrup to pour over. It was an unexpectedly tasty dessert.

On my second visit, I tried their Age–manju that is a deep-fried version of the classic manju, a Japanese pancake filled with red bean paste. This is one of their signature dishes and they sell them also for “take-out”. I found them a bit heavy.

Since it was the end of the year, I also tried their ozoni (or zoni) a Japanese New Year mochi soup. It was a savory soup (probably with dashi stock) with rice cakes (mochi), nori, and some vegetables. I did not like it!

The check

The first dessert cost 750 yen (7 USD). Very honest price considering you also get a cup of tea.

The second visit cost me 1,320 yen (12 USD); the age-manju were 500 yen.

Where in Tokyo:
1 Chome-19 Kanda Sudacho, Chiyoda City.
In Japanese: 〒101-0041 東京都千代田区神田須田町１丁目１9.