#1: Re: Harajuku & Omote-Sando - Japanese food Author: fvz
Azuma - Kobe Beef ****
Address - Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Jingumae 3-27-17 Teizu Bldg. 2F
Opening hours - Open Lunch and Dinner every day
Telephone - 03-3497-1373
Menu - In Japanese
Credit Cards - OK
Azuma is fairly elegant, but in a cold, functionalist sort of way, with immaculate steel plates to cook the meat and bare, white walls, but the food is good and interesting, which to me is always important. The seats are few and all around Azuma-san who, wearing a chef's hat, cooks right in front of you. As at Tanuki (see review) watching him work is a delight: his hands fly left and right, preparing dishes in a zip. The meat is extremely tender, juicy and already cubed for you so that you can dip it with your chopsticks in the garlic sauce. They don't have just meat, you can for example have garlic rice with scallops in sea-urchin sauce and other stuff like that. Unfortunately, it's sort of expensive, around 4000 per head, but definitely worth a shot. From Harajuku Station, go down to Laforet, turn left, then almost immediately right into Harajuku Dori, then right again on the last street you find. The sign, the name Azuma (same character as for Higashi) the menu and everything else are only in Japanese.
Kamahachi - Tofu kaiseki
Address Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Aoyama-5-6-25 Eiwa Bldg
Opening Hours 11:30 to 10:00pm
Telephone - 03-3400-7851
Menu - In Japanese
Credit Cards - OK
I always felt that eating tofu was a little like trying eating air, great for a diet but not to the palate. The other day I nonetheless went to Aoyama Kamahachi, an eccentricity if you think it's a restaurant whose menu is based on tofu. Just tofu. Only the Japanese can get away with this sort of thing.
The place, located near Spiral building, is elegant and classy in a very Japanese way, but the atmosphere is sort of spoiled by continuous bustling and voices. The main thing here is a 4500 yen menu, which comprises six entries. Of those, I remember tofu with unagi, stewed tofu and vegetables, and tofu ice-cream. Service was very good and the waiter-owner very kind. All in all a pleasant experience that I can recommend to all of you who are into things Japanese. According to a friend, it's open also for lunch but it's good only at dinner.
Aoyama Kamahachi, whose sign is of course in Japanese only, is next to exit B3 of Subway Omotesando station, few meters to the left of Spiral building.
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