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sanji
Sat Dec 08, 2007 3:10 pm

Re: Roppongi restaurants - European food
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Cogito (コジト) - French ****

Address - 東京都港区西麻布3-2-15 (next to Roppongi Hills tower)
Opening hours - 12:00-24:00, closed on Sun
Telephone - 03-3796-3838
Menu - in Japanese and French
Michelin Guide 2008 - 1 star

Following the publication of Michelin Guide 2008, Olrik and I decided to visit that place for lunch... to discuss about the future of Secret Japan web site!

Cogito is a small restaurant located behind Roppongi Hills. The interior is characteristic of a French bistro, made mostly of wood. On the ground floor, there is a large bar counter (where people are not eating), a couple of tables, a separation and some other tables under a glass ceiling. There is a single, little bit larger table on the second floor, where the kitchen is located. The overall impression is that this place follows the typical settings found in many French restaurants in Tokyo.

The tablecloth and the napkin were made of paper, which is not really what you would expect from a restaurant listed in the Michelin. There are 3 menus available for lunch, priced at 2000, 3500 and 5000 yen (all prices do not include a 10% "service charge"). We all went for the 3500 yen one, which offered a good selection of starters and main dishes.

Among the starters, we decided for a terrine de chevreuil, which was simply fantastic; made of venison meat with some foie-gras, with just some pepper, salt and two types of mustard, this dish, served with a small salad and some bread, was clearly the best of that menu; it was followed with a potage of sweet potatoes, which was tasty without being to heavy.

While the iberiko pork was nice and well-prepared, the biggest disenchantment came from the blanquette de veau. This typical French dish is made of veal, but unfortunately in Cogito it was served with plain beef - the difference between those two meats being easily noticeable. The cream sauce was well-prepared - although it is normally not served with green vegetables - but still, the meat announced on the menu was not the one served; more disturbing, even after asking twice the waiter to confirm with the cook which meat was used, we did not get any answer.

For a normal French bistro, this would already be a problem; for a * restaurant, this is simply unforgivable.

A choice between 3 desserts was proposed (blanc-manger, gāteau au chocolat and pear with champagne jelly and ice cream); all were quite nice, but the portions were rather small. A coffee/tea was also included in the course.

Clearly, the food was nice. Even more clearly, this place is not worth its place in the Michelin Guide. You will find tens of French restaurants on Secret Japan web site that propose similar quality, usually for slightly cheaper prices.