January, 2011

Ginza is a must go place now in Tokyo for shopping and eating. Thanks to the influx of new international shops like Forever 21, the disco like Abercrombie & Fitch, Uniqlo or the revamped department store Mitsukoshi (also with tons of new eateries on level 12), the once slightly dowdy mecca for "women of a certain age" and "businessmen of certain proclivites" is altogether quite groovy.

So in Ginza, you can shop for the new, but eat in the old, Ginza has lots of what Japanese call "shinise", old established eateries that are institutions. Like Toraya, the venerable wagashi (Japanese sweets) institution that does afternoon tea to perfection. Toraya is famous for Yo-kan, azuki bean and agar agar jelly that is served with matcha or strong green tea. For the western version of Toraya, go to West, a cake, sandwich and tea place that is olde Europe in mood finished off by classical music. It's tiny but well frequented, mostly by shopped out ladies. I love the ham sandwich, which is quintessentially Japanese--fluffy bread with its carefully removed ends and a hint of mustard.

Lunch big in Ginza--plenty of fantastic kaiseki restaurants to go to, and most do reasonable lunchtime bento for about 3,500 yen. Like the one Michelin hatted Uchiyama is a favourite of ours (see picture on right and bento below)-it's understated decor, the crisp personalised service, the very traditional Japanese cooking with fresh seasonal ingredients is really worth it if you want the "authentic" culinary experience. Bento lunch with Taichazuke (snapper rice with tea, served with sesame sauce, a traditional dish) is about 3,500 yen. Kei visited recently for dinner and had the seasonal kaiseki menu including crab, and raved about it. We both love the grilled gomadofu (sesame "tofu" made with arrowroot).  If you can't get into Uchiyama, go to Asami, which also does "authentic". Kei went for lunch in December, 2010, and was suitably impressed. No website, but phone number is (03) 55651606 and open lunch and dinner except Sunday. Lunch about 2000-3000 yen, dinners are 15,000-20,000 yen (about $200 AUD), which is a similar price range to Uchiyama.

For some innovative fusion, go to neo French Yugao. Kei did the dinner menu (8,800 yen to 16,800 yen) and was wowed. The dishes were so delicately presented, and the tastes were subtle yet exciting, she reported. It's sister restaurant on the floor above Fujitsubo which is "Japonisme" fusion is on my list of to go eateries (courses are 13,800-18,800 yen).

Shiseido Parlour is a beautiful building, the original home of the international cosmetics brand. There's a great modern art gallery downstairs, and one of the best yoshoku restaurants in Tokyo and busy tea room upstairs. Check out the fabulous design of the cookie tins on the ground floor, though the cookies are a bit average. For fresh scrumptious anpan (red bean buns), go to Kimuraya.

The great tea store Uogashimeicha has a nice tea room close to the Dior store. And around the corner is also the famous Akebono wagashi (Japanese sweets) store which has a beautiful seasonal window you can't miss. Also close by is the "fruit shop" with a difference is the well-known Sembikiya which has awesome fruit parfaits and very expensive melons that people always go gaga over.

by Masako Fukui

keiskitchen.com.au content by Masako Fukui is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.