Forty and some food festivities

[LadyC]

FS Tokyo is a small hotel, around 60 rooms. It sits at the South end of Tokyo Station and some rooms overlook the train lines. Our room overlooked the train lines which my son loved and provided hours of endless entertainment for him as he pointed out all the Shinkansens going past. Due to the early start, it was a room service dinner (tasty but expensive) and an early night.

 

[LadyC]

Our first dinner in Tokyo was at a restaurant called Sushi Bar Yasuda in Minato. This was our second visit, our first being last September. We came across Yasuda through watching Anthony Bourdain. Yasuda had a sushi restaurant in NYC for about 25 years and is well known with Americans. He moved back to Tokyo a few years ago and started all over again. He is a bit of a character and speaks English perfectly, so we had some interesting conversations about the produce and where it comes from. A lot of the fish he serves is not from Japan - instead Australia, Canada, Russia, Norway to name a few. It is probably considered a touristy place as on both occasions all the diners were not Japanese.

 

[LadyC]

The gorgeous sake glasses

 

[LadyC]

Some of the tasty sushi. You might be able to see the tiny pinch of salt on the last one. Some of the sushi had a tiny bit of salt added - Murray River salt!

 

[LadyC]

And some more sushi

 

[love_the_life]

You're whetting my appetite to go back to HKK and Japan. Love the pics.

 

[LadyC]

You're whetting my appetite to go back to HKK and Japan. Love the pics.

I already want to go back! The food in Japan is just amazing.

 

[LadyC]

We had the omakase menu which has a minimum of 12 pieces. Our meal included tuna, mackerel, baby sardines, fresh water eel, prawn, clam, two types of uni and we finished with a baby sprouts hand roll. Very tasty and worth visiting if you enjoy sushi.

I think we had about 14 pieces each. Two serves of sake and mineral waters also. About 38,000 yen, so around $420aud.

 

[LadyC]

Now I need to say this upfront - i am not stalking KitKat! Because you might think I am with the next few posts

 

[LadyC]

So our next big dinner was at Sushi Yos**take, a 3 Michelin starred sushi restaurant in Ginza. We didn't know much about it before we went, just that it was supposed to be good as we had some friends who went and said it was the best meal they had ever had. It is a small restaurant, 7 seats plus a private room. Hidden on the 3rd floor in a back street of Ginza, it took us a little while to find it as the taxi driver dropped us at the wrong building. They only offer a fixed price plus omakase menu.

 

[LadyC]

The chef, Masahiro Yos**take, runs the sushi counter with two sous chefs for the 7 customers. We had a quick chat at the beginning and when we identified as Australian, he mentioned he knew Tetsuya and that Tetsuya had eaten here. We mentioned Waku Ghin which is a favorite of ours and he was familiar with that. Now on to the food. Apologies but i cannot remember the details of everything we ate but i will provide info where i can remember.

 

[LadyC]

We started with two types of uni, with seaweed salad and mountain yam. A great mix of flavours and textures.

That was followed by fish, octopus, abalone and the abalone liver with rice.

 

[LadyC]

Then it was followed by another piece of sashimi. After that was a delicious baby octopus and green leaf salad with a mustard vinaigrette.

 

[LadyC]

The chefs at work

 

[LadyC]

Let the sushi begin - calamari followed by something i can't remember, tuna, tuna again and clam.

 

[LadyC]

And more sushi before finishing with a tuna hand roll and some miso soup. We left it at that but the other diners all ordered additional sushi items.

 

[boomy]

Great pics, I miss Japanese food already. Still looking for a really good Japanese restaurant in Australia.
Try Kyubey in Ginza if you have time, it's fantastic.

 

[LadyC]

In summary, an amazing meal. Whilst not everything is to my taste (personally abalone is over rated), the quality of the ingredients and the dedication of the chefs is superb. We were a little sceptical before we went but really loved it. Highly recommend and would definitely go back.

We shared 2 serves of sake (or what ever it is called) and a number of mineral waters. Including tax i think it was 61,600 yen. So around $670aud.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Great report ​LadyC.

 

[LadyC]

Great pics, I miss Japanese food already. Still looking for a really good Japanese restaurant in Australia.
Try Kyubey in Ginza if you have time, it's fantastic.

We did Kyubei when we were first in Tokyo in 2013 - it was great and we were lucky to be served by the owner/original chef.

There is a new Japanese restaurant that had opened here in Melbourne i am keen on trying - called Minamishima - but i will wait a while. First as we have just come back, all those japanese tastes are fresh and i don't want to be disappointed. Secondly, both the wallet and the waistline need a break!