chowmouse's Profile
Karuizawa recommendations
You're not there anymore, but just wanted to chime in to say Karuizawa has some amazing European-style bakeries and cafes. Don't remember any names but they're all in that old Karuizawa section of town.
Lord Stow’s at EXpresso 咖啡吧 – Delicious Portuguese Style Dan Tat (Chinese Egg Custard Tarts)
Sorry, I meant KFC's in HKG. And not all of them have it. Maybe others may disagree, but I really like them. They're a little oily, but always warm and perfect texture. Not quite as perfect as Lord Stow's though.
Lord Stow’s at EXpresso 咖啡吧 – Delicious Portuguese Style Dan Tat (Chinese Egg Custard Tarts)
Lord Stow's Portugese egg tarts are sold as Andrew's Eggtarts in Japan. In Japan, they used to have about 10 stores (including Tokyo) but I guess now they've had to shrink the operation to just the Kansai area, with tiny shops in Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto. Although sometimes you can still get them at department stores in Tokyo as part of their seasonal promotional events.
Yeah Lord Stow's is the best. I've had similar tarts in Portugal, but they didn't compare to Lord Stow's. I did not know that you could get them at the Excelsior Hotel. Actually, KFC sells pretty good Portuguese egg tarts... next best thing to Lord Stow's in fact.
Breakfast or Lunch Buffet in Tokyo/Yokohama area
I've had a look at their buffet menu on their website. Looks pretty good, thanks! I've stayed at Shinagawa Prince a couple of times, but somehow missed that buffet.
Breakfast or Lunch Buffet in Tokyo/Yokohama area
We'd like to get recs for a great breakfast buffet (preferably breakfast, but also open to lunch) in Tokyo/Yokohama area. What we're looking for is probably going to be in a hotel, since we like to enjoy Western (cereal, yogurt, pastries), lots of fruits & salad, and Japanese all at once. It'd be a major plus if the place features some Chinese items (noodle bar, few dim sum items) on top of all that... but that might be asking too much.
We've had some amazing breakfast buffets in Hong Kong's 5-star hotels. I'm wondering if there's anything like that in Tokyo.
best vegetarian restaurant in tokyo? also, okonomiyaki!
Oh oops, I've taken a vegetarian friend to one of those shizenshoku buffets in Saitama. She really enjoyed it, but it hadn't occurred to me that something like dashi might be off-limits to her.
best vegetarian restaurant in tokyo? also, okonomiyaki!
You should try Harvest (it's actually pronounced Ha-a-be-su-to and the restaurant name is in hiragana). It's an all-you-can-eat "shizenshoku" buffet. What's shizenshoku? It literally translates as natural food in Japanese, although it's not necessarily organic. Lot of healthy veggie items, although some fish/meat items as well. Mostly washoku-style items, although some Western-style items as well. Very difficult to describe here, but I think you might like it. I really love it, and you can't get this sort of buffet outside of Japan.
It's on the 8th flr of Lumine department store, which is on the west side of the Ikebukuro station complex. Lumine is connected to Tobu department store. You should be able to find it if you follow the signs for Lumine.
Have you also checked out the basement deli section of Seibu department store at the Ikebukuro station? Huge variety of tempting prepared food, including stuff that vegetarians can have.
HELP NEEDED! Tokyo\Kyoto\Osaka...foodie on a budget!!!
Plenty of great budget eating right inside the massive kyoto station complex. See the kyoto station topic:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/706835
You may want to do some search because Shinjuku, Osaka and the fish market have all been covered repeatedly (including budget eating) on other threads.
Best BUFFET restaurant in Hong Kong?
That's pretty classless of them to make you pay almost twice as much when the problem was with the restaurant for not having stocked up properly.
Has anyone been to Angelini's antipasti / dessert buffet?
HELP NEEDED! Tokyo\Kyoto\Osaka...foodie on a budget!!!
Japan is far better than US, Canada or Europe in terms of finding great cheap food. Since you're asking a fairly broad question, the best advice I can give you is offer some general tips and a list of good chain places.
Tips:
* Depachikas are deli sections in the basement of department stores. Amazing array of all kinds of food from bento to croquettes to yakitoris to gourmet salads to desserts. Some of the bigger ones I've been to include Seibu (Ikebukuro) and Isetan (Shinjuku).
* Don't discount preprared food at convenience stores. Makis, bentos and omusubis at convenience stores are always fresh and tasty. They will heat up food for you.
* There are fun food theme parks and complexes where you can get amazing food and fill up cheaply. Examples are Namjatown in Ikebukuro and Okonomi Village in Hiroshima.
Great chains:
* Takoyaki - Gindaco: 500yen gets you 8-piece takoyaki. Gindako's always reliable and I much prefer these to those mushy tofu-like Kansai takoyakis.
* Curry - GoGoCurry: 700yen gets you amazing katsu curry; curry is thick, black and deep with a hint of sweetness.
* Burgers (and a lot more) - MOS Burger: Far better burgers than anything you'll find in the States, I admit. They also have shrimp burger, rice burgers (my fave), outstanding seasonal items. Prices on par with Carl's Jr, but better quality.
* Bakeries - Vie de France, Pompadour: Japan's bakeries are superior to just about anywhere else in the world, I feel. My favorites are Vie de France and Pompadour. Andersen is also not bad; completely different in offerings and quality than the Andersens in the Bay Area. Lots of amazing and creative sweet and savory items.
Going to Yank Sing for the first time
Yes, I too recommend Rincon Center. They validate parking for weekend dim sum, so don't forget your ticket.
It's ideal to pace yourself and to not grab too many items too quickly. But with cart places, the danger with not grabbing an appealing item when you first see it is that you may not see it again (unless it's a bread and butter stuff like hargau, which you're guaranteed to see again and again). Having said that, my experiences at Yank Sing have been that pretty much everything you see on cart comes around time after time. So I do think you can pace your ordering without worrying that you may not be able to get something later.
Hope you like Yank Sing. It's expensive and has its distractors. But I think it is the best dim sum in the city. Definitely get their XLB.
Namja-town on weekend
Can someone tell me just how the crowd is at Sunshine Ikebukuro's Namjatown on weekend nights? Will there be long lines to order? Will there be sufficient table space to be able to sit down and eat?
I have been to Namjatown a bunch of times, but I have purposely only gone on weekdays thinking that weekends might be crowded (which I hate). On weekdays, my experience has been that it's been pretty empty even at lunchtime. But later this year, I'll have a friend visiting Tokyo for one day, he loves gyoza, and Namjatown would be the kind of place I know he'll enjoy. But the only conceivable time when I can take him is a Friday night.
Bakeries in Tokyo
There are plenty of great patisseries with amazing French pastries. Hironobu Tsujiguchi is a famous pastry chef who has a few stores out; the only one I've been to is Mont St Clair. It's very good, you'll probably find that the stuff there is about as good anything you'll find in Paris. But it's just standard French pastries and not what I would go to Tokyo to load up on personally.
I know you say you're not really into bread, but I would encourage you to check out Japanese bakeries nonetheless. All kinds of unique savory stuff (curry, piroshki donut, Japanese-style nan bread), flaky buttery croissants, some amazing chocolatey stuff. There are several prominent bakery chains. My favorites are Pompadour and Vie de France. You can find both throughout Tokyo. For example, both are located inside the massive Ikebukuro station complex.
Best Pho in Newton/Waban/Needham/Watertown
To my knowledge, Pho Le in Atrium is the ONLY Vietnamese restaurant in the areas that you're mentioning. In fact, I am not familiar with a single Vietnamese restaurant in the Metrowest area, which to me is just unbelievable.
Fortunately, Pho Le is pretty good, better than most Chinatown places in my opinion. Next town over from Newton, there's Lemongrass at Coolidge Corner. That place isn't bad, although I think I like Pho Le better.
Curry
I'm like the OP... I love traditional thick Japanese-style curry, even though it seems like places that serve up European-style or Indian-style curries are getting a lot of attention these days.
I realize this is a chain place, but I really love GoGo Curry. There's one near Shinjuku station. Their sauce is very dark, viscous with complex flavor that's a little sweet.
There's a place called Moyan Curry in Ikebukuro, pretty close to Tokyu Hands. It's really a hole in the wall, but to me it's a real gem of a place that serves up great traditional Japanese curries. http://www.moyan.jp They have lunch-time buffet, but I haven't had their buffet.
Who makes the best pizza in New England?
I second Hot Tomatoes in Williamstown. They are a bit of a hit and miss (more often hit than miss). They have awesome pesto that's very flavorful. But sometimes they don't use enough pesto on their pesto pizza, and then their pizza becomes ordinary But when they make it right, I believe I have not had better pizza anywhere else.
Which dim sum place has BBQ PORK PUFF (Char siu so)?
I tried doing something similar once (complaining about getting an item with filling that had something other than what I thought the lady was saying). But the person didn't understand me and then they had to go call a manager and it just became a big scene. Unfortunately I don't speak the language, and I've come to accept that you sometimes have to pay for miscommunication and just let it go at these dimsum places.
Which dim sum place has BBQ PORK PUFF (Char siu so)?
Finally got a chance to go try China Pearl in Chinatown and their char siu so. Man, this was one of the most disappointing dim sums I've had even in Boston. I think CP in Chinatown is still connected w/ CP in Woburn, because they have a lot of the common inventive items and they both use very thick dumpling skins. But everything at Woburn is much fresher. I went to the Chinatown location pretty much the same time I usually go to the Woburn one - 11am.
Basically, every single non-steamed items were completely cold and nasty. Of course this included char siu so... it was completely cold with very starchy/greasy pie part and stale-tasting pork filling. And although the steamed items were all warm and fresh, they just weren't that good.
Best BUFFET restaurant in Hong Kong?
I've seriously considered going to Navio many times, but each time I keep balking. It is so expensive. Do you remember what kind of dim sum items they have there?
Has anyone been to Angelini's buffet? Talking about the one inside Kowloon Shangri-la. Supposed to have great antipasto and great desserts. Not sure what else the buffet includes.
Sunday brunch - SFO Hyatt (Swiftwater Cafe) or HMB Ritz-Carlton (Navio)?
That's great. Looking forward to hearing what you thought of the brunch buffet.
Does dim sum just suck in San Fran?
I'm talking about dim sum now. Yank Sing is, for the most part, like $8-$10 per dim sum order. Koi Palace is more like $3-$5 for most items, which is pretty much in line with most places in Millbrae.
Yank Sing is the most expensive dim sum place I've been to in the US.
Sunday brunch - SFO Hyatt (Swiftwater Cafe) or HMB Ritz-Carlton (Navio)?
We ended up going to the top of Mark Hopkins for brunch several months ago, but I forgot to report back (sorry!). The food, view, setting were all good. Sorry the memory's a little hazy for me to recount at this point. But I wanted to share my experiences from the brunch at Hyatt's Swiftwater Cafe a couple weekends ago.
It was $38 per adult and they validate parking. I believe champagne's included, although we didn't have any. The brunch is laid out in a nice airy setting in the atrium of the hotel. There was an omelette station with an impressive array of ingredients to choose from, including shrimp and sausage links. They had freshly-made buttermilk pancakes and a carvery station, too. They had croissants, which were just okay. The salad section was a little disappointing for me. There weren't any unique tossed inventive salads there. If you like cold cuts, smoked fish and cheese, I guess this place offered a decent variety. They had sushi rolls... not bad, although only 3 different kinds.
The hot foods section was nothing special. There was bbq'd beef, garlic mashed potato, sea bass with pineapple chutney (not nearly as tasty as it sounds, as the sea bass was a bit bland), steamed veggies, mac'n cheese, pork egg roll. This section included some sampling of dim sum which did the job for me. Dim sum included char siu bao, shrimp shumai, pork dumpling. These certainly don't match the quality of Koi Palace or even Dim Sum King, but they were quite a bit better than I expected.
Probably the best section was desserts. Very good variety of decent desserts including opera cake, coffee mousse, dark-chocolate mousse, choco-dipped strawberries, rice pudding. Very solid . On the other hand, really disappointed that they didn't have more fruits. They only had melons and the dipped strawberries. No pineapples, berries (other than dipped strawberries).
I may go back to this place at some point, and I think the price of $38/person was fair. It definitely met some of my needs... it had the dim sum essentials that I could enjoy; also very nice desserts. On the other hand, I was disappointed with their salad selections, lack of fruits, and breakfast offerings (eg, no muesli type stuff).
Does dim sum just suck in San Fran?
I've been reading the recent posts with much interest... about the Vancouver comparisons and about Yank Sing. I'll make these points:
- I have not found dim sum in the Bay Area that compares to Hong Kong's. I guess that's an obvious.
- Vancouver (Richmond)'s Sun Sui Wah is the best dim sum I've had outside of HK, but I don't feel it's significantly better than Zen Peninsula. It is better, but not by too much.
- I've been to one dim sum in Toronto... that was Grand Chinese Cuisine inside Airport Doubletree. It was pretty much on par with Sun Sui Wah, in terms of quality. What they lacked was the variety. That place alone is proof that better dim sum can be had in Toronto than in SF.
- SF still has lots of great dim sum options. Shortly after returning from a HK trip, I went to Koi Palace and still enjoyed it immensely. I too was down on Koi Palace for whatever reason for a period of time, but I have now again reconciled with the fact that their dim sum is still about the best there is in the area. My personal favorite is Zen Peninsula, though. I know people like to rip Yank Sing, but I personally feel it is definitely the best in the city and is pretty much on par with Koi Palace. Of course, it's hard to justify paying double the price as Koi Palace.
Kyoto Station Dinner Rec?
There's got to be over 100 places to eat inside the Kyoto station building complex. I've had great takoyaki, croissants, sorbet, ramen, etc, all inside the station.
I really like Ramen-Koji, which is an arcade/collection of half-dozen or so ramen shops representing different regions of Japan. It's up many floors on the escalator that goes up from the concourse.
Also I enjoyed Harvest, which is actually a buffet featuring what the Japanese call "shizenshoku." Shizenshoku has become somewhat popular in Japan, and it literally translates as natural food although it's not quite organic necessarily. They have a lot of vegetable-based food items, lot of them prepared in washoku style, although they also have some meat/fish items, some Western-style items... hard to describe, but it's supposed to be healthy food served buffet-style. Harvest is actually a part of chain. It's located in the basement shopping arcade area called Porta below the north side of the station.
I'm sure there are more gourmet type restaurants inside the station that are very good, but I can't help with those high-end restaurants. When I'm in Japan, most of my visits are to cheaper places.
Tonkatsu eatery without seafood options?
Futaba in Ueno has only two things on the menu... tonkatsu either a la carte or teishoku. So that might work out for you. Very succulent tonkatsu, but still wasn't worth the price. It was like 2500yen.
Yeah it's pretty hard to find a tonkatsu restaurant that doesn't serve fried shrimp. I've had great tonkatsu teishoku bunch of times for less than 1500yen at other places. So Futaba wouldn't be worth it for me. Maybe Tonki is cheaper.
Baumkuchen at Waffle Kunugi (ワッフル櫟), Nishi Hiroshima
Well, according to this TV program I saw, that guy Juchheim (the founder of the current Juchheim brand) arrived in Japan as result of him having been taken as prisoner of war from an outpost in China. He stayed on in Japan after being freed and actually unveiled baumkuhen at an event held at the Atomic Dome in Hiroshima (obviously before it was bombed), so that must've been about 85-90 years ago.
Baumkuchen at Waffle Kunugi (ワッフル櫟), Nishi Hiroshima
Baumkuhen actually has a long tradition in Japan, whereas I don't know if anyone in the US even knows what that is. I've never seen it in the US.
I haven't had baumkuhen in probably over 10years and never thought anything of it when I did used to get them as gift or whatever way back when. But then I saw this hour-long TV program recently (in Japanese) about the original German couple (Juchheim) who introduced baumkuhen to Japan. They were at first in Yokohama then moved to Kobe. Then the OP's post intrigued me even more. Now I want to try it again.
Good monjayaki restaurant wanted!
I agree with jem589. I've been to Tsukishima quite a few times, and each time I went to a different random place and don't remember one being particularly better than the other, in terms of both monja and okonomiyaki. They give you the batter and the ingredients... you make it yourself but they'll help you.
Yeah I'm not a big fan of monjayaki either. But some of my relatives love it.
tokyo with kids
I love Santouka. I actually like it better than Ippudo or Setagaya Ramen in NYC, although it's personal taste and I'm sure others will disagree. Just remember, weekends are crazy at Mitsuwa in Edgewater... get there early if you go on weekends.
My other NYC faves for Japanese food are: GoGoCurry (best Japanese curry in NYC in my opinion, but it's really a take-out place); Sobaya (soba noodles); Katsuhama (tonkatsu); Otafuku (small hole-in-the-wall takeout place for takoyaki & okonomiyaki). Sorry to digress from Japan discussions.
Tokyo without the Fish?
Curry is about as Japanese as ramen and sushi, and you can enjoy those.
You can try a yakiniku place.
You mentioned above that you had okonomiyaki. You can always ask for no katsuobushi, just like I always ask for no mayo. Go to Tsukishima, Tokyo's okonomiyaki & monja capital, and you can create your own okonomiyaki at your own table.
Things like napolitan spaghetti, doria, guratan (gratin) may seem Italian but they're actually all purely Japanese creations. There may be variations of them that may contain seafood (eg, shrimp doria) but a lot of them don't.
Bakeries in Japan are great... the quality of cakes and croissants, as well as the variety and creativitity of the offerings, will blow you away. My favorite chain bakeries are Pompador and Vie de France.
There are many restaurants that specialize in fried teishoku (teishoku is combination meals... usually fried items, shredded cabbage, miso soup, rice, etc... skip the miso soup in your case). Fried items can include tonkatsu, cream croquette (another purely Japanese creation), menchi (yet another item you only find in Japan).
Also, if you head down to the basement deli section of a large department store, I guarantee you'll find some non-seafood item that will be palatable to you.
