Lol, a bit of a shock logging in to the blog to find out it was down. But have no fear, its up and running again!
Anyway was my birthday on the 7th of March. Celebrated by going out for some nice lunch with the Missus. Here is a quick write up.

So the venue for lunch was the Monnalisa, a small French restaurant in Ebisu that had 1 Michelin star.

My first qualm was with how small it was. The table was ridiculously small and our table was way too close to other people. It was to the extent that you heard everything that they said. While I understand that this is Japan and there is little space, you dont really wanna be worrying about knocking your drink over cause there is no space on the table when you are paying top dollar.

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I am a quarter century. Up until now I never really thought too much about how food tasted. Buy me a box of House Special Chinese Fried Rice and I would be the happiest man in the world.

My experience of dining in the UK was limited to a few local Chinese and Indian restaurants and maybe a few Thai places. I cannot really say I ever dined anywhere memorable or went to a restaurant that made me really feel anything.

Coming to Japan changed that slightly. There is a lot of eating out in this country. I have eaten in many different places and many different types of foods. The best places I have eaten at were mainly at company events. These would be at decent looking places where we would pay about 3000yen (21GBP/30usd) in advance and get a party course. The food was decent but nothing to really write home about, but probably better than anything I had experienced in the UK.

Sky Restaurant was a life changing experience for me. Paying that much for food, eating food that tasted that good, and dining with such a great view and environment has introduced me to a whole new world. The excitement and anticipation of waiting for each dish, wondering how it will be presented and how it would taste was really cool.

That restaurant was hands down the best one I have been to thus far. And to think the food only cost 10,000 yen (70gbp/100usd) and it does not even have any Michelin stars. There are a lot of 1-2 star restaurants in Tokyo and even 9 3-star ones where meals cost upwards of 20,000 yen (140gbp/ 200usd).

I think I might have just opened up Pandora’s box. Because my curiosity has got me wondering how good it can really get.

I now plan to go to somewhere nice once every 1-2 months. The only problem I foresee is finding a few lunatics willing to spend 100-300usd on a meal….

I might have to start up a society of high end diners who are willing to follow me on my quest to taste some of the best cuisine this planet has to offer.

Yesterday we went to eat at a high end restaurant. It was in an area called Ikebukuro, on the 58th floor of a department store called Sunshine City, at a place called Sky Restaurants. Sky restaurants are made up of three themes Japanese, French and Contemporary. They just opened last week, March 18th.

Why are they called Sky Restaurants? Because they are 210 Meters above ground and have a superb view. Take a look here:

http://www.ginza-cruise.co.jp/ikebukuro/index.html

Here is a picture I took of the scenery. I took it with a compact digital camera so I could not really get too good of a photo.

We reserved a table at the Contemporary restaurant at 8PM and ordered the Five Cuisine Course which consisted of:

Starters
Appetizers
Fish of the Day
Light appetizer featuring organic vegetables
Meat of the Day
Dessert

From each course you had a choice of 2-5 dishes.

Starters

This was not something you could choose. We received a form of Miso soup. It was bean based and came with a pea inside of it. It tasted ok. It did not have any fancy spices or seasoning inside it. It was just the bean in a mousse form. So it was either you like the taste of the bean or you didn’t.

Appetizer: Assortment of today’s hors d’oeuvre “Jubako Style”

With a choice of 5 appetizers I decided to go with the hors d’oeuvre. Three of the appetizers are within the cost of the course, but the other 2 cost extra money to order. The hor d’oeurve was the most expensive appetizer: P

My food came in a brown closed brown box. The waiter opened it up and there was food on the top and bottom. The presentation of the fish was beautiful. I was also impressed with the taste. It was fresh and seasoned to perfection. This was my 2nd favorite dish of the night.

The Fish: Tuna rare saut with various spices and Korean chilli burnt butter sauce

Ding ding!! And the winner is!!!!!!

This was hands down the best dish of the day. The tuna was so succulent and tasty. Below it was buttered risotto which was the best I have tasted in my life. The chilli sauce, while not hot, gave the tuna the extra zing that it needed. If we were at a cheaper restaurant I would have licked the whole plate. I wish I could have got more of that…

Light appetizer featuring organic vegetables:
Suruga bay sakura shrimp and spring cabbage salad, Chinovinaigrette

This dish was ok. Nothing great. I was expecting some juicy meaty shrimps, but to my disappointment it was tiny deep fried shrimps. They were really crispy and tasted nice. Along with the shrimp was some crispy deep fried seaweed. The shrimp and seaweed were salty and the cabbage was crispy and sweet. I felt that they complemented each other well. Also I have to say I never knew cabbage could ever taste so good.

The Meat: Smoked Lamb roast with bone, flavored with cherry blossom tree and with Kenji tomatoes

I found out last night that I am not too much of a fan of smoked meat. But even still, this was some good lamb. The best I have ever eaten. It was juicy, succulent and rich in taste. The red sauce it came with went really well with the lamb. I should have asked somebody what was in it. The green plant looking thing was also edible. It was thick and crunchy. The tomatoes were just regular baked tomatoes. This was the 3rd best dish I ate.

The Dessert: Fromage ~ selection of cheese with melba with a light honey scented pain d’ epics

With a choice of cheesecake and normal cake I decided to be adventurous and get the expensive cheese. I made a big mistake. It came with 2 crackers which were nice and 4 or so pieces of a gingery cake/bread. I don’t think the cake slices went well with the cheese. I regret ordering this. I should have just got the cheesecake. It was the only bad thing I ate all night.

During the night we were given freshly baked breads and drank different type of wine. I had strawberry plum wine, a sweet wine and some mango juice.

There was also a birthday cake for the birthday girl. Unfortunately we were all too stuffed to even eat it all…

The only bad experience was the floor staff. It was a lot of trouble trying to get someone to take your order. Almost as if they were not paying attention to the people dining. But the chefs were awesome.

Based on the people sitting around us, it seemed like we were the only people eating the course. Across from us was a group of three who ordered one plate of spaghetti between them and drank water all night. I am happy that not only were we able to experience such a nice restaurant, but that we also got to dine like kings. Total damage for the three of us was 30,000yen (208.8328 GBP or 306.499USD) .

In the coming months I plan to visit the remaining two Sky Restaurants. I think I have just found a new expensive hobby. If anybody has any dining recommendations, do drop me a line.

Thanks