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Aoyama

Kidoguchi Sushi / きどぐち Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan

Published September 13, 2019October 8, 2019by Peter Cucè in Aoyama, Sushi

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Little Darling Coffee Roasters Minami Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan

Published September 13, 2019October 9, 2019by Peter Cucè in Aoyama, Coffee & Tea

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Exploring food, coffee & cafe culture in NYC and beyond.

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One of my favorite coffee shops in Tokyo, Sydney-offshoot @single_ojapan, specializing in - you guessed it - single origin coffee, is definitely off the beaten path with their roastery and tasting bar in residential Sumida. Although its southern adjacent neighborhood, Kiyosumi Shirakawa, gets most of the credit for its coffee scene, a better one is growing here in Sumida. Single O’s friendly baristas will tell you all about their coffees, give recommendations, and make great drinks, both espresso and various forms of pourovers.

A 10 minute walk north will take you to @leaves_coffee_roasters attractive street corner roastery in a somewhat more commercial area of Sumida, just a few blocks from the Sumida River waterfront. Interestingly, this is where one of my hometown favorite coffee personages, @paoloohno of Regalia Roasting Collective @regaliacoffee, did a master roasting class a few months back. ```
#tokyo #japan #日本 #料理 #東京 #coffee #specialtycoffee #espresso #thirdwavecoffee #cafe #cafeculture #coffeeroaster #thirdwavewichteln #soe #singleorigincoffee #sumida #kiyosumishirakawa #cafe #cafeculture #カフェ　#コーヒー　#咖啡 #コーヒー好き #コーヒーショップ #australiancoffee #japanesecoffee #tokyocoffee #coffeeroastery #baoandbutterjapan

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The three omakase sushi lunches I’ve had during this Tokyo trip were all great for their respective price points ($50, $35, $23), with the Tsukiji Sushidai Honkan / すし大本館 meal falling squarely between the other two in terms of number of courses, rice quality, and overall experience. The fish quality at all three lunches was high - the differences were more about variety and creativity.

Frankly, I was astounded at what you get for $35. Unless I counted wrong, it was 11 items (consisting of nigiri, maki and tamago) plus miso soup, with one of the maki being an option between uni and ikura (my companion chose the sea urchin - I went with the fish eggs), and a final nigiri where the master gives you the option to choose any fish - mackerel lover that I am I asked for sanma (too early in the season) and settled for a beautiful piece of saba.
My buddy went with a gorgeous piece of fatty tuna. Since this shop is right outside the old Tsukiji market, the freshness and quality are high, and each piece had all the flavor and appropriate texture you could hope for.

Tsukiji Sushidai Honkan / すし大本館 is a huge tourist attraction and luckily I was able to find the correct one on Google Maps - there are a few places with similar names.
After our Turret Coffee experience, my pal and I headed over to the sushiya and arrived just after their 10:30am opening to find that we’d missed the first seating. However, there were only two groups ahead of us, and we were seated within 10 minutes.
The somewhat nondescript restaurant has three levels, each with a sushi bar; we were shepherded to the basement, where two spots were waiting for us at the counter. Nearly all customers were foreigners - and they are catered to with English menus.
Service was friendly, and they do have English. When we left, there was a line down the block.

#sushi #lunch #food #foodporn #foodphotography #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #tokyo #japan #日本 #料理 #東京 #寿司 #料理 #握り #

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The closest thing to volcanic ash I’ve consumed since last year’s Bearpond Espresso experience, this @turretcoffee ristretto is the darkest, dankest, shortest espresso I’ve experienced thus far. Apparently some people like that sort of thing.

#tokyo #japan #日本 #料理 #東京 #coffee #specialtycoffee #espresso #thirdwavecoffee #cafe #cafeculture #thirdwavewichteln #ash #tsukiji #turretcoffee #cafe #cafeculture #築地 #カフェ　#コーヒー　#咖啡

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It’s hard to find a better bargain than the high quality, nine course ¥2000 ($20) omakase lunch at midrange sushi spot Kidoguchi / きどぐち, a meal that will run you ¥12000 at dinner time - albeit with more food. Located on a side street off busy Aoyama Dori, Kidoguchi also offers a Y3000 lunch with more pieces. Make a reservation if you plan to come (they have some English). #sushi #lunch #food #foodporn #foodphotography #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #tokyo #japan #aoyama #日本 #料理 #東京 #寿司　#青山

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There are a few branches each of @higuma_doughnuts and Coffee Wrights around town and I had planned on hitting each at some point this trip. Serendipity brought their collaboration shop @coffeewrights_omotesando along my path on the way to sushi lunch with an old friend in Aoyama.
After imbibing all or part of six or seven coffees of varying quality, starting with @littledarling_coffeeroasters and ending with @koffee_mameya, and walking a fair distance on a mostly empty stomach, I realized that a kinako doughnut was just what I needed to make it there without fainting. Of course I had to try their espresso as well.
The doughnut - a light, chewy, slightly sweet yeast doughnut dusted with kinako (roasted soybean powder) - was a delight. The coffee however suffered greatly from comparison with my previous stop, the justly-lauded Mameya. Although well-extracted, the muddy espresso had no highs and no lows no acid - it just was - and I felt no compulsion to finish it.
The space itself is beautiful, with multiple types of seating arrangements, on multiple levels, open to the air, lots of light. A great place to read and gaze upon the Omotesando street life.

#tokyo #japan #aoyama #日本 #料理 #東京 #寿司　#青山 #donuts #doughnuts #coffee #specialtycoffee #thirdwavecoffee #foodporn #foodphotography #food #omotesando #thirdwavewichteln #表参道 #コーヒー #咖啡 #カフェ #cafeculture

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Little Darling Coffee Roasters @littledarling_coffeeroasters is a gorgeous, Instagrammy place that is somewhat hard to find, and if you’re coming for coffee or food, I don’t recommend you bother. After traipsing through a local park trying to track down the dot on Google Maps, I realized I had to walk around the block to get into Share Green Minami Aoyama @share_green_minamiaoyama, a very cool adult playground type of spot in an interstitial Tokyo neighborhood, with a vast faded green turf surrounded by buildings, cabanas, park-y areas, some office buildings, and lots of foliage.
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Little Darling Coffee Roasters inhabits a giant, hangar-like space on the northern side of Share Green. Given the beautiful space and good design elements, I was excited to try their offerings. Although it was fairly early in the day, I ordered their so-called Japanese bao sandwich along with my espresso and received a dry mantou containing chewy, overcooked sukiyaki-style beef and a piece of dry tofu - except for a chopped green onion and julienned daikon garnish no other elements were present - and no flavor either. The coffee was seriously over-roasted in the old-school Japanese style, so I gave up on Little Darling entirely, found my way out of Share Green and headed out to Aoyama proper to meet an old friend for lunch.

#coffee #cafe #cafeculture #thirdwavecoffee #tokyo #japan #aoyama #minamiaoyama #sharegreen #japanese #baoandbutterjapan #南青山カフェ #カフェ #南青山 #青山カフェ #リトルダーリンコーヒーロースターズ #coffeeroaster #コーヒー #bao #mantou #日本 #東京 #咖啡 #thirdwavewichteln #coffeeshop #specialtycoffee

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After arriving back in Tokyo relatively late from my sojourn to Gunma and checking into my Akasaka hotel, my first thought was to find a great place to eat nearby. With the help of a local friend and Tabelog (the Japanese Yelp - but only for food), I located a highly-rated nearby horumonyaki (grilled offal) spot named おやじのおとうと (literally Father’s Father, although it probably has some cultural or pun meaning that I don’t get), and after a few flybys, finally built up the cojones to go inside alone.
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This basement restaurant had fewer than 10 tables of varying size, all with charcoal braziers and hoods, and all full except for one large table and one small one, and no bar - there were no other foreigners there and limited English. I was directed to the largest table and given a menu, all in Japanese. Luckily I could read most of it, which was strictly animal parts, many written in katakana.
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Since it was pricey (most items were close to the $10 mark or higher), I decided to just order a limited selection - in any case it was quite late and I wasn’t super hungry, so I located a few organs I was in the mood for: heart (haatsu), liver (reba), and pancreas (shibire) plus kimchi and rice with raw egg (*tamago gohan). The one quirk about this place is that you can only make one order. No ordering extra items later if you’re still hungry. -
What a tremendous meal. Each order was relatively small and arrived cut into two to four pieces - the liver was also marinated. The waiter turned each piece once or twice and moved each to the edge of the brazier when deemed ready. All of the meat was meltingly tender, juicy and extremely flavorful.
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I’d love to return sometime albeit with extra humans.
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*If you’ve never had raw egg over rice (“tamago kake gohan” - sometimes shortened to “tamago gohan”), you’re given a bowl of rice, a raw egg, a small extra bowl and some soy sauce. Break the egg into the extra bowl, add a little soy sauce, mix, dump over the rice and eat (there are other variations). Yum.
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#food #foodporn #foodpic #instagood #foodlover #eeeeeats #foodpost #instafood #japanesefood #japan #tokyo #日本 #東京 #料理 #晩御飯 #horumon #offal #organs #痺れ #レバー #ほるもん #赤坂

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If you happen to find yourself in Nakanojo 中之条町, Gunma Prefecture, with some time to kill waiting for the bus heading to Shima Onsen or train returning from there to Tokyo (or elsewhere), you’re naturally going to leave the tiny train station and head out looking for sustenance. This town of fewer than 20,000 isn’t much to look at (and was seemingly uninhabited during our visit), but does boast a few promising restaurants. Unfortunately some, including the best looking spot, a fairly high end soba restaurant, were on vacation.
Right next to the sobaya is an unassuming tonkatsu shop (竹の家 / Bamboo House) that we decided to try, and upon ordering a couple of different lunch sets, were rewarded with well-cooked, juicy, good quality cutlets - and blessed air conditioning to escape the brutal humidity. The interior seems fairly standard, but then as you gaze about, your eye lights upon some quirky elements including a whimsically decorated second level high up in the rear of the shop, with various mythical creatures perched on the floor and affixed to the rafters.
There is also a vintage poster of what I took to be a film actress named Rubin Riki, but it turned out I was reading the katakana backwards - it was an old poster for Kirin Beer! LOL
Afterwards we visited an artisanal miso shop across the street (こうじや / Koujiya) and picked up some bags of their product. They also produce some creditable homemade gelato, so we got a scoop each of the lemon and the miso. Pretty good stuff.

#japan #tokyo #nananojo #tonkatsu #miso #gunma #shimaonsen #whimsy #baoandbutterjapan #中之条町 #日本 #群馬県 #豚カツ #味噌 #みそ #ジェラート #food #foodporn #foodphotography #japanesefood #料理 #美味しい #美食

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Tokamachi’s Nishino / にし乃 has very good hegisoba made from local buckwheat, with seaweed incorporated, (although not quite as good as previously posted Abuzaka’s). They started us off with a little dish of marinated local eggplant, along with a bowl of gratis nuts that you could prise the meat out of with a toothpick while waiting for the main event, which in addition to the aforementioned hegisoba, included perfectly fried seasonal tempura, and a serving of udon. (I posted this place before, but I got some better photos out of the camera since.) ##soba #hegisoba #funorisoba #tokamachi #japan #niigata #food #foodporn #foodphotography #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #料理 #そば #へぎそば #布海苔そば #日本 #十日町 #美食

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Shiten / 志天 has to be visited at lunchtime for their kakiagedon set. While there we had to try their soba, because while titularly a soba restaurant, I had never gotten past all their other goodies to try theirs. They are good at frying, which makes for a good kakiagedon (seafood and vegetable tempura over rice). Afterwards we stopped by @ikote_official, Tokamachi’s gorgeous community center / restaurant / cafe for a little karaage snack. It was a good day for “age” (deep frying). #japan #tokamachi #niigata #seafood #fish #soba #aji #anagozushi #tempura #shimesaba #food #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #oishii #foodporn #foodphotography #日本 #新潟 #日本 #新潟 #十日町 #美味しい #料理 #唐揚げ #かき揚げ丼美食

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I’ve visited Shiten / 志天 twice during this trip (but five times overall), once for a tremendous dinner, where we ordered all of the daily specials, primarily fish and seafood, and the next day for lunch - more on that next post.
Every single dish was beautiful, but the one I’m still dreaming about is the sous vide beef liver sashimi, vibrant, sweet and bursting with flavor - only Y980! I’m not likely to have that again any time soon, at least not for anything south of $25.
Other food, all ridiculously cheap:
- shimesaba - vinegar pickled mackerel (Y680)
- asari no sakamushi - clams steamed in sake (Y680)
- anagozushi - freshwater eel sushi (Y850)
- tekkamaki - tuna roll (Y750)
- aji no tataki - chopped horse mackerel sashimi (Y580)
- aji no shioyaki - salt-grilled horse mackerel (Y580)
- shunno tempura - seasonal vegetable tempura (Y1280)

#japan #tokamachi #niigata #seafood #fish #soba #aji #anagozushi #tempura #shimesaba #food #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #oishii #foodporn #foodphotography #日本 #新潟 #十日町 #美味しい #料理 #刺身 #しめ鯖 #穴子寿司 #鉄火巻き #天ぷら #レバ刺し #美食

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After two visits, I thought I couldn’t love @abuzaka.sobanosato (Soba No Sato Abuzaka /そばの郷アブザカ) more than I already did until I read their website. Surrounded by rice fields, in a mountainous farming region of Tokamachi, Niigata that receives heavy snowfall, the restaurant grows all of its own buckwheat and rice (koshihikari) and a large portion of its vegetables, except those that it forages from the surrounding region, or buys from local farmers.
For each visit, there was a line outside the door waiting for them to open, and after you eat there, you can see why. For around $15 equivalent per person, you not only get a choice of hegisoba or udon, created using their own buckwheat (some of the best soba I’ve had), but also unlimited helpings of their fresh, delicious primarily vegetable creations, including gorgeous crispy tempura.
All around Tokamachi and some other parts of Niigata, you’ll find hegisoba, sometimes called funorisoba, a variety of soba made with seaweed (funori) mixed into the buckwheat, served on a tray called a “hegi” and formed into wrapped sinuous bunches that harken back to the region’s textile past.

#soba #koshihikari #rice #japan #niigata #farm #buckwheat #hegisoba #funorisoba #funori #seaweed #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #tokamachi #oishii #food #foodporn #foodphotography #新潟 #十日町 #料理 #美味しい #satoyama #里山 #布海苔そば #へぎそば #日本 #こしひかり #ごはん #美食

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With three visits to Tokamachi under my belt, it’s surprising I hadn’t been to Takahashi (お料理処たか橋) yet, a wonderful izakaya. In addition to a new-to-me drink, the tomato sour (tasted like tomato soda with alcohol), and a lot of beer and highballs (a big thing in Japan - there are even several canned versions in vending machines and every convenience store stocks them), we had an array of superlative dishes.
We were just starting on our otoshi (お通し), food to have with your drink, of deep fried fish and eggplant, when a glorious sashimi platter was brought to the table laden with hamachi, amaebi, squid, scallop, tuna, ahi, shimesaba and akadai among other things, and we gradually worked on it throughout the meal, as other dishes followed quickly after including sweet, crunchy deep fried shrimp, tamagoyaki, juicy, moist, flavorful karaage, fluffy croquettes, prosciutto salad, delicious broiled mackerel and culminating with the classic meal-ender, yaki onigiri.

#japanesefood #izakaya #tokamachi #niigata #japan #food #foodporn #foodphotography #baoandbutterjapan #otoshi #fish #seafood #sashimi #karaage #tamagoyaki #yakionigiri #tomatosour #日本 #十日町 #料理 #唐揚げ #お通し #卵焼き #oishii #美味しい #新潟 #美食

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First meal in Tokamachi at fave soba shop Nishino included tempura of course plus udon along with the standard hegisoba.
Unfortunately some of their great non soba dishes are only available for dinner.
Afterwards we hit the onsen and enjoyed delicious local carrot and tomato juice.
#soba #hegisoba #funorisoba #tokamachi #japan #niigata #food #foodporn #foodphotography #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #料理 #そば #へぎそば #布海苔そば #日本 #十日町 #美食

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Akasaka coffee hideaway @glitchcoffeebrewed is the pourover offshoot of @glitchcoffeeroasters and is on the basement level of @9H capsule hotel.
The friendly barista takes the time to produce each drink (hot or iced) from one of the handful of beans available each day.
Mine was a beautiful clean floral Ethiopian. Along with the original Glitch, this is one of the better shops in Tokyo.
#coffee #cafe #thirdwavecoffee #thirdwavewichteln #specialtycoffee #coffeeroaster #tokyo #japan #cafe #cafeculture #baoandbutterjapan #akasaka @pourover #カフェ#コーヒー #東京 #日本 #赤坂 #咖啡

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It’s sad that my photos are so awful and don’t catch the wonder of @takupan_yakumo, a tiny bakery in small town southwest Tokyo that we happened upon last year on the way to Yakumo Saryo and made a pilgrimage to this year.
I can’t even describe the beauty of their melon pans, maple buns, pear brioche, pain au chocolat. Everything is so cheap too. We bought 10 things this time around on the way to said restaurant and then gorged on them after checking out the Mori Digital Art Museum.
You must get there.
#yakumosaryo #takupan #bakery #tokyo #japan #dessert #pastry #タクパン #yakumo #meguro #東京 #日本 #八雲料理 #パン #food #foodporn #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #美食

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After a fun afternoon exploring Yanesen with my old NYC buddy @monkichichan, we dined at Nezu bib gourmand udon spot Kamachiku (釜竹). The homemade udon (thick and thin varieties) is top notch and the space is gorgeous, housed in an old redbrick storehouse. One interesting otsumami (drinking food) we ordered was tuna guts. The lighting was terrible though so please excuse the photos.
#tokyo #japan #nezu #yanesen #restaurant #udon #japanesefood #baoandbutterjapan #東京 #日本 #根津 #釜竹 #料理 #food #foodporn #foodphotography #eeeeeats #美食

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I don’t know how many people would get out to Jiyugaoka, but the best pourover of the trip so far - a clean sweet Kenya from @andcoffeeroasters (and a good espresso too - from @fuglencoffeetokyo) was acquired @alphabetacoffeeclub, a multi-roaster cafe and craft beer shop with clean blond wood design and friendly service by skilled baristas. Good job ladies.
There is a good craft beer can selection plus a handful of draft beers - nice tap handles. Maybe I can get down there toward the evening before I leave to sample both liquids.
#coffee #cafe #cafeculture #thirdwavecoffee #specialtycoffee #craftbeer #japan #tokyo #jiyugaoka #日本 #東京 #コーヒー #咖啡 #thirdwavewichteln #baoandbutterjapan #coffeeshop #tokyocoffee #tokyocoffee #東京カフェ #美食

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Really good old school Ikebukuro yakitori spot filled with locals including many families. It’s possible a foreigner had never darkened their doors previously.
Yakitori was fatty, juicy and real-er than the refined sort you would have in Torishin for example. I wish I had a photo of the liver but I dropped it on the floor. We wanted to try more stuff but minimum order of 2 skewers of each type.
Loved this spot and would love to return.
#food #foodporn #foodphotography #japanesefood #tokyo #japan #ikebukuro #yakitori #baoandbutterjapan #日本 #東京 #池袋 #焼鳥 #料理 #美食

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The ¥12000 seasonal lunch (base price ¥8000) with tea pairing at Yakumo Saryo, a seed bank of Japanese cultural artifacts and cooking methods presenting as a refined kaiseki restaurant, had some dishes that I’m still thinking about, including a delicate, delicious tempura selection and a wonderful sukiyaki style beef preparation.
I discovered Yakumo Saryo via @sugarednspiced’s 2016 blog review (a wonderful blog I’ve been reading since the pre-Instagram era and used for research for many destinations) and visited in 2018 for an idyllic breakfast. If one wishes to eat dinner there, they must first have lunch, so this meal was an investment for my next Japan trip :)
YS requested that the lunch not be portrayed on Instagram, so I’m including some photos from last year’s breakfast instead.
Make a reservation here via email for your next Tokyo trip - start with breakfast and make sure to request the big table - you won’t be disappointed.

#lunch #yakumosaryo #meguro #japan #tokyo #kaiseki #food #foodporn #foodphotography #東京 #日本 #目黒　#会席料理　#料理 #baoandbutterblog #美食

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