Feasting Pigs

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jumped at the chance to visit this italian restaurant which has been on my bucket list since i began exploring food in japan. initially attracted by their famed roll cake, their other savoury dishes i also thoroughly enjoyed.
started with their refreshing pear and burrata, followed by their signature chilled uni cappelleni, in a light herbal dressing which was so so good especially with the chewy noodles. following was an offmenu lobster salad before their signature omelette and this round with white truffles. our last starter was my favourite, lightly battered and fried tara shirako with a slightly spicy arrabita sauce, so so divine.
to follow, we had 3 pastas to share. i’d say the pastas here tasted very rustically italian, strong flavourings and sauce focused, not the typical japanese italian style but to each their own. lemon garlic cheese was light and not too overpowering with acidity, oxtail was also very good. but my favourite was the ika-sumi, the squid ink sauce was rich and flavourful, coating the tagliatelle perfectly with some rough pieces of squid and cherry tomato, this was so good i could’ve had the whole plate myself.
next for main was a lightly grilled venison dressed with a balsamic glaze before ending with a their famed roll cake. no pistachio today (means i have to come back again), but a christmas version of strawberry with a light addition of white chocolate and perfectly soft and eggy chiffon, so so so good and completely worth the wait to finally get a chance to try this place.
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december 2023
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ブラータと洋ナシ burrata with pear (¥2000)
✨ウニ冷製カッペリーニ cold uni cappellini (¥2700)
伊勢海老のサラダ lobster salad
白トリッフオムレツ white truffle omelette
✨白子ムニエルアラビアータ shirako, arrabita sauce (¥2500)

レモンニンニクバターチーズ lemon cheese pasta (¥2000)
✨イカスミパスタika-sumi pasta (¥2400)
✨牛テールカチョエペペ oxtail cacio e pepe (¥2700)

えぞ鹿ロースト venison roast (¥3500)
✨✨いちごロールケーキ strawberry roll cake
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would revisit: yes
reservations: intro-only
price range pp: ¥10,000-¥30,000
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📍メグリヴァ
location: 1-10-5 kamimeguro, meguro city, tokyo
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one of the most sought after tables where chef serves a unique menu based on fermented dishes after his training in noma and kadeau in copenhagen, as well as a breif stint in italy. his menu in his small restaurant up in karuizawa revolves around light and refreshing flavours, and i truly enjoyed his winter menu as a refreshing break from washoku.
loved the texture of the first bite, yomogi mochi made with genmai and lightly fried. the ravioli was also one i really enjoyed, perfectly cooked pasta with a sakekasu broth was a good complement to the pork and fermented bakchoi (hassai) filling. the fugu dish was also really good, fugu shirako, topped with lightly seared fugu and fermented strawberry. slightly underwhelmed by his signature of smoked salmon with radish, but what followed was my favourite, deep fried celeraic which acts as a vessel to enjoy with ice cream and dried pineapple, as a person who isn’t a fan of these western root vegetables, this was incredibly tasty and completely changed my mind. what followed was a koi somen, wagyu with the sweetest aged sweet potato topped with butter, and a koi sushi. before ending with a pine ice cream and hazelnut cake with herbal tea. really great to see how such fusion of nordic fermentation techniques could work so well with japanese ingredients and delicate flavour profiles, highly recommend their non-alcoholic pairing. really interested to see what other seasons here brings.
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december 2023
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winter lunch course: (¥45,000 with pairing)
✨蓬餅yomogi mochi with caviar
✨ラビオリravioli with fermented bakchoi and kurobuta, sakekasu miso sauce and porcini oil
✨河豚白子 いちごfugu shirako, strawberry
サーモン 発酵生カブsmoked salmon, fermented kabu, tomato sauce
✨根セロリ 牛乳アイス パイナップルfried celeriac, celeriac milk ice cream and pineapple
焼き鯉 そうめん grilled koi fish with somen
短角和牛 2ヵ月半熟成焼き芋tankaku wagyu with aged sweet potato
鯉の寿司 koi fish sushi
もみのきの葉のアイス pine ice cream, chinese lantern sauce and chips
ヘーゼルナッツケーキ hazelnut cake
ハーブティー herbal tea
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would revisit: yes, another season
reservations: intro-only
price range pp: ¥30,000-¥60,000
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📍RESTAURANT NAZ
location: 134-3 oiwake, karuizawa
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another one of the most remarkable meals i’ve had this trip. helmed by a warm chef with a extremely bubbly team, this kaiseki has gained a lot of popularity and attention, deservingly so.
so grateful to be invited by another fairy god-mother to try their winter matsuba-kani course right before christmas. their ‘signature’ chutoro with an eggyolk sauce and gorgeous knife-work in the ika marks an incredible start to the meal. the first kani dish of the night was a form of a meatball in dashi wanmono, so concentrated in sweetness of crab and one of my favourites of the night. followed by simply grilled kani legs, a mix of kani and kani miso with a side of shari with karasumi, before the kani gohan. other plates in between of course featured his gorgeous hassun, with a theatrical lights off moment, it was truly a feast for the eye and stomach, featuring freshly fried and piping hot sweet potato tempura, ankimo, shirasu and some vegetable dishes. his freshly grilled unagi was also remarkable, super plump and meaty, before the final round of shiro gohan is served with ample compliments to your liking which i got everything - karasumi, ikura, egg yolk, akami zuke, jako, burdock. given his newly established sweets shop, his desserts were no less spectacular, featuring a persimmon panna cotta and a red bean and pear daifuku. thank you for the gorgeous meal, would love to come back and experience another season here.
side note: his dorayaki from his sweets shop are so so good, highly recommend the mascarpone one, fresh cream and azuki was also very very nice.
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december 2023
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december course (¥38,500)
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would revisit: yes
reservations: intro-only
price range pp: ¥30,000-¥60,000
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📍赤坂おぎ乃
location: 6-3-13 akasaka, tokyo
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standing as one of the most well-respected tempura-ya in tokyo and possibly across japan. the style here is known to be light and oil-free, where taisho serves each piece personally by hand to demonstrate his ‘oil-cutting’ technique where there is barely any residual oil. seasoning is also minimal, served mostly with only salt to promote the natural flavours of the top ingredients selected in the course. since we were here for the winter course, taiza kani was also served, but only in three bites with barely any variation between the three, all just dressed with kani miso. everything tonight was solid and executed with great finesse, ingredients from tsumami to vegetables and protein were also top notch, but the batter and style was personally not for me. perhaps in the way he ‘cuts the oil’, it results in what feels like a slightly gummy and soft batter, not the light and crisp style i prefer. the course was also extremely long, with a lot of food, slightly too much for me and i got super tired mid way. the whole experience felt luxurious, from the plates to the service, and also the way they are persuasive on asking guests to spend on big name wines. glad i tried this place out before more inflation hits, even though its not a style which will suit everyone, its a place i do suggest trying for all japanese food lovers to try at least once.
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december 2023
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dinner course: (¥60,500)
おつまみ: 河豚, 甘鯛, さわら, 一番出汁
starters: fugu, amadai, sawara, dashi

海老 prawn (one with salt, one with prawn dare)
海老の頭, 海老だれ, チップス付き prawn head
ゆりね lily bulb
✨河豚 fugu
椎茸 shiitake
キス kisu
✨かぼちゃpumpkin
白真鯛 shiro amadai
にんじん carrot
ヒラメ hirame
下仁田葱 leek
寄せ大根とカラスミ daikon and karasumi
蓮根 lotus root
✨さわら sawara
かます kamasu
ワカサギ smelt fish
✨筋子海苔巻き sujiko

蟹のおつまみ crab starter with miso
蟹脚と蟹味噌 crab leg with miso
蟹の大葉巻き shiso wrapped crab

柿のアイス persimmon dessert
✨かぼちゃプリン pumpkin pudding
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would revisit: try once
reservations: intro-only
price range pp: ¥60,000-¥100,000
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📍くすのき
location: 1-9-4 yotsuya, shinjuku, tokyo
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one of the first meals i’ve committed this trip was a journey up to the gifu mountains for this local gem. katatsumuri (the snail), is a rustic game meat and mushroom specialist restaurant, where the owner decides on the ever-changing menu depending on the catches and mushroom harvests of the day.
with connections to specialist butchers around japan, one can definitely expect a series of unexpected meats, from which we had a sample of bear, civet, duck, boar and deer upon our visit. we started with some welcome platters with ingredients and harvests of the area, fresh berries, chestnuts, and a series of ayu and komochi ayu which were salted and grilled, in tempura, aged and fermented. probably some of the best ayu i’ve had, fatty with a very mellow bitterness that was actually enjoyable unlike most. amongst the tempura selection, we also had boar, ebi-imo and moroko fish which were also delightful. the boar rib, deer meat dip, deer ankle tendon stew were also one of my favourite dishes today. followed by the fresh grill duck and mushrooms, then a assorted mushroom hotpot, where a series of meats are added like boar, bear and civet; all fresh enough to be eaten like sashimi. the hotpot is then brought back to the kitchen to be prepared as a zosui before ending with herbal tea and fruits. definitely a meal to remember, thank you for the gracious host for hosting.
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december 2023
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daily tasting menu (¥33,000)
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would revisit: try once
reservations: yes
price range pp: ¥30,000-¥60,000
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📍かたつむり
location: 502 nagataki, yamagata, gifu
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the last yakitori we went to this trip was the chataro, a shop which is known for their use of different origins of chicken for each cut, as well as a mix of duck and its innards rather than just chicken in its course.
this was my least impressed one of the three, taisho seems to prefer the use of high and strong fire for his grills which made the room quite smokey and stuffy, but on top of that some items were burnt or overcooked. pieces were also rather large in size so we were pretty stuffed by the end of it without having any of the rice courses. wasn’t fond of most the tsumami, i liked the tataki and fried breast in dashi but was particularly disappointed with the overcooked and dry chicken drumstick with cheese which is one of their signatures. with the skewers, it got a bit overwhelmingly smoke heavy with a burnt taste towards the end of the course, especially with the tsukune and quail egg. but enjoyed some pieces in the start like the breast and particularly the duck breast lining. also really loved their lemon sour and variety of citrus sours like mikan and kumquat. a good try, but not my favourite.
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december 2023
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dinner course (¥12,000)
✨地鶏 アスパラ菜花の揚げ出し fried chicken in dashi
地鶏 春菊 柿の胡麻和え chicken, shungiku mixed in sesame dressing
✨比内地鶏たたき chicken tataki
鴨ロース duck roast
比内地鶏手羽中 燻製チーズ chicken drumstick with cheese
地鶏ささみ三関せり山わさび chicken fillet with wasabi
手羽飯 chicken wing stuffed with sansho rice

✨胸肉 chicken breast
もも肉 chicken thigh
✨鴨の胸腺 duck breast lining
銀杏 gingko nuts
レバー chicken liver
砂肝 chicken gizzard
鴨ハツ duck heart
✨あいこトマトcherry tomato
地鶏ねぎま chicken negima
工門芋 taro
鴨つくね duck tsukune
燻製うずら smoked quail eggs
地鶏のスープ chicken soup
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would revisit: try once
reservations: yes
price range pp: ¥10,000-¥30,000
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📍とり茶太郎
location: tak building 1/f, shibuya, tokyo
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lately the most popular yakitori shop in tokyo, focused on wood-fire grilling (maki-yaki). taisho’s control in the wood-fire and skillset in grilling were indeed very well done, most pieces were at the right cookness, but seasonings were a bit fluctuating. tsumamis here were also very innovative, like the raw chicken with foie gras, chicken siu-mai, chicken rilette on grilled toast. the shoulder with harissa sauce which is one of the most famed piece was definitely enjoyable to eat, otherwise the negima, where the negi was stuffed within was also nice. classic pieces like liver was also done well. overall was a pretty short course, ending with their famed soboro don where taisho places a whole charred wood within the pot to release its smoky flavour. maybe because i’m not a fan of huge smoke flavours i didn’t enjoy the rice as it was extremely overpowering. the one with quail egg added made it a bit better but still was not a huge fan. ended the course with some lovely desserts though, a glucose syrup like covered grape which i expected it to taste like tanghulu from pictures but it wasn’t, and a super tasty salted caramel. overall an enjoyable meal, a unique concept to bring makiyaki into yakitori but binchotan for me is the way to go.
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course menu (¥16,000)
とりわさraw chicken, foie gras
薪焼き椎茸grilled shiitake mushroom
✨ 鶏焼売 chicken siu-mai in dashi
鶏出汁の茶碗蒸 chicken soup chawanmushi with mushroom
もも肉 土佐酢おろし chicken thigh with turnip
萩焼き蕪ミモレットチーズ grilled turnip with cheese
✨ 鶏胸肉のリエット chicken rilette on toast
伝助大根 daikon in dashi

ももchicken thigh
✨レバー liver
丸ハツ heart
✨肩とハリッサ shoulder meat with harissa
ももchicken thigh
手羽とネギ wing with spring-onion

薪焼き鶏そぼろの土鍋ご飯 smoked soboro don
シャインマスカット 果実飴 shine muscat candy
✨ 自家製燻製生キャラメル homemade caramel
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would revisit: try-once
reservations: introduction-only
price range pp: ¥10,000-¥30,000
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📍薪鳥 新神戸
location: akasaka-mitsuke, 1/f, akasaka, tokyo
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one of if not my most looked forward meal in japan this trip, so thankful for the opportunity to try this legendary yakitori-ya humbly standing in the back alley of meguro. a very textbook recipe, nothing lavish or out of the ordinary, just exquisite grilling skills by ikegawa san’s hands of lightning speed turning the skewers so they are evenly grilled all way round. grilling began after one stewed chicken on toast which set the scene perfectly. all were perfectly salted, flavoured and grilled, it does become a bit repetitive towards the end but not a single piece was off. incredible skills honed for may years creating a line of students of their own shops now, but the master still reins as the best at a distance. oyako-don and soboro don were also out of this world, really loved the cartilage pieces within the soboro don. other pieces i loved were the seseri (neck), kawa (skin), liver, sunagimo (gizzard), sauzuri (oesophagus), chouchin (ovary). his vegetables were also insanely good, on top of his legendary broccoli, the sweet potato was also a real highlight, shiitake and gingnam too. if invited, a place i’d say yes to again in a heartbeat, highly highly recommend.
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december 2023
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stop-course (¥15,250)
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would revisit: yes
reservations: introduction-only
price range pp: ¥10,000-¥30,000
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📍鳥しき
location: 2-14-12 kamiosaki, shinagawa city, tokyo
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christmas in japan, one of my favourite seasons in one of my favourite places in the world. so lucky to be invited by one of my fairy god-mothers to this dessert restaurant’s special christmas menu, and finally trying katsumata san’s creations. as one of the only times of the year he is serving mostly savoury dishes cooked with a french flair, it was truly one of a kind. really loved the elegance, precision yet simplicity in his cooking, served on the prettiest set of christmas plates and cutleries. thoroughly enjoyed everything at our lunch but my favourite today was his very well known beautifully thin chestnut puree, served with foie gras today which worked amazing together. the boar hamburger steak, paired with his tomato water was also amazing, as well as the homemade sesame oil used in the buckwheat and yurine dish which made the room smell like heaven. the palate cleanser ‘caprese’, which was made with pear, yuzu granita and basil infused sort of like panna-cotta was so delicate. ending with his grand christmas montagne consisting of a dark berry sauce, meringue and vanilla cream and his homemade petite four bites which were also so so good. really really hope to have the opportunity to try his dessert course one day and really looking forward to be back soon.
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december 2023
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christmas menu (¥46,800)
mushroom soup
✨buckwheat, yurine, shungiku
somen with butternut squash, uni, caviar
✨foie gras, chestnut ‘silk’ puree
spanish mackeral
✨boar hamburger steak, black truffles
amadai with sansho gohan
✨pear ‘caprese’ with yuzu granita, basil
✨christmas motagne
✨petite fours: sesame choux puff, matcha chocolate, chestnut macaron, satauma creme brulee, strawberry candy, fruit jelly
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would revisit: yes
reservations: intro-only
price range pp: ¥30,000-¥60,000
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📍YAMA 山
location: zex shirokane 1/f, shirokane, minato-ku, tokyo
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an unexpected encounter as our last meal on our trip to piedmont which deserves a post. was supposed to go for more italian food but caved in and went for chinese. but truly one of the best chinese spots i’ve had in europe recently (london included).
love the minimalistic interior with the use of blue and white chinas, staff were also incredibly friendly. started with their homemade lamb dumplings and shrimp dumplings, a bit thick wrappings but the filling was flavourful and generous. also got a round of their xlb which was heavenly, the italian pork used was generously fatty and along with the broth so flavourful. noodles were of the perfect texture which isn’t a surprise as we are in italy, perfectly springy and with chew, but funny how the rest of europe tend to overcook the noodles by miles. the dandan mian was my favourite one, mi-xian (rice noodles) with a tomato broth, pork mince and pickled veggies was also nice but could use a bit more depth. a very hearty meal which was a nice finale to our extremely carb-centric trip.
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november 2023
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cucumber salad (€5)
✨xiao long bao (€9)
shrimp dumplings (€7)
lamb dumplings (€7)
✨dan dan mian (€12)
✨xiao guo mi xian (€12)
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would revisit: yes
reservations: no
price range pp: €10-€30
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📍LAO TORINO
location: via giuseppe barbaroux 25, turin
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