Tokyo/Nagano/Toyama/Ishikawa Trip
Came back from a 2 week trip from Japan. Thought I would share with you my experience. Ask me for any more questions.
Matsumoto
Unagi Suppon Yamasei: Good unagi, preferred the sauced unagi as opposed to the white unagi (no sauce). Went for lunch set, also ordered liver skewer. They didn't have turtle soup for lunch. Unagi had a good char, I ended up ordered an extra portion and chef laughed at me. Chef spoke basic English. Not busy for lunch, easy reservation on Tablechek. Didn't check alcohol menu. Would return but a bit expensive compared to other unagi offerings in the city. 4/5.
山土: Chef/forager who cooked whatever is local/seasonal. A one man show with a female server to help with plating. Tasty food and showcased a variety of cooking methods from pickling, shabu, tempura, grill, sashimi, etc. Chef spoke no English, the female server had very limited English. Everything was foraged and her explanation of all veg was always "mountain vegetable". Overall a tasty meal, would go back. Paid for corkage 3k yen, didn't check alcohol menu but they a variety of wines and sake BTG 4.5/5. Booking done on Insta.
Toyama
Oryouri Fujii: A let down meal that I thought was overpriced. I thought the flavours were leaning heavily in the acidic territory. Couple of issues with the courses (eg, wife's shrimp didn't have one of the poop line cleaned, scales in my sashimi). I think you are paying quite a bit for the ambience as well as the ornate plating. I felt for 36k meal, it was quite poor value, very little protein and the vegetable in season that night was a roast onion and young ginger. Cheapest alcohol was a beer for 1.2k, I ended up having tea which was 1.5k PER CUP. Ended up paying over 5k for tea. Also in the room there was a two seater (me and wife) and another group of 4, one of the members of the other group was feeling cold and asked for a blanket but instead the main server told them that she will just turn off the AC, both me a wife ended up cooking in the restaurant. Don't recommend, feels like a cash grab geared towards foreigners, everyone spoke basic English 0/5
Gingyo: Izakaya place, not really fine dining but after a bad previous night at Oryouri, I wanted to drown my sorrows in alcohol. Tasty menu, but they only kept seats for 1.5 hours. The English menu had 80% of what they offered, the "wilder" things such as snails were only on the Japanese menu. Some servers spoke basic English. The cover charge was a plate of sashimi and drinks were mandatory (I think). Would come back, ended up spending 45k, 25k for food and 20k on alcohol. 5/5
Kanazawa
Tempura Matoba: Seasonal vegetable and protein sourced from the Ishikawa prefecture. Good food and service but one of the pricer options for tempura in Kanazawa. Don't have any other Kanazawa tempura places to compare to but I enjoyed the meal. I did think the tempura was a little on the thin side for my liking, probably just a preference more than a critique. Chef was smiling from beginning all the way to the end despite seeing couple burn marks on his arms. A bit pushy on alcohol or maybe it just attentive service (kept giving me the drink menu when I finished my drink). Alcohol markup was quite substantial, there were wines and sake that were selling for 3x retail. Enjoyable meal but not sure if I would come back since there is just so much good food in Kanazawa 4/5.
Kataori: Needs no introduction. I was hyped up about this place months before coming and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed the quality of the protein and the meal in general was quite protein heavy (every dish had protein). I saw comments before my visit regarding how bland the food was, didn't feel it was the case at all. Servers spoke little English, the wife spoke basic English. I paid 100k for 2 with 3 beers and half order of sake. Would come back, probably won't have the chance to however 5/5.
Koide: Izakaya place again in Kanazawa but it was more of an Omakase style izakaya since they was no menu. Food was great, a variety of crab, sashimi, fish, and some tempura. However I went for their Aramasa/Jikon selection. They had some rare Aramasa A-type sake for 20k a bottle. Ended up paying 120k for 2 with a bottle of aramasa and 3 cups of sake, food was 40k per head. Was gifted 3 mini bottles of Kokuryu to take home. Chef spoke no English, his wife spoke no English either. Felt the food was overpriced but had a good time regardless and I would come back just for the sake. 4.5/5.
Tokyo:
Sazenka: Japanese style Chinese food. Another place that needs no introduction. Being Chinese myself, I enjoyed all the dishes. The let down was the first dish, zucchini flower wrapped xiaolongbao, which ended up burning my tongue. Order the 110k set which came with abalone and their signature buddha jump wall soup. The cheaper set had live lobster which I sorta of wished for instead of braised abalone. Lot of use of shark fin which is controversial but their braised shark fin with noodles was one the highlights of the whole meal. I really appreciate the use of no MSG and their saltiness control was exceptional. They had a rare Kokuryu umeshu which was tasty. I regret not ordering their 17k+ tea tasting pairing because I tried couple teas a la carte and they were great. Not sure about value since the meal ended up over 300k after drinks and tea. Servers spoke English/Mandarin 4/5.
Sushi Nogi: One place that I saw mention on reddit as a value lunch play and I thought why not. When I was planning this trip, I couldn't get my regular spots and Tableall wasn't pulling through with my other choices. I was getting a bit anxious since my trip was coming up and I didn't have a sushi spot, I didn't want to bank on last minute reservations either. For lunch there were 3 couples at the table (including us), 2 were foreigners and one was local. The local was ordering sake heavily and chatting the chef up so much that the chef basically spent his whole attention to only that couple. Didn't announce the fish to me nor the other foreigner group, he was more interested in listening to the drunk local. The servers sometimes brought over an iPad to show the type of fish used but that service was spotty. Punchy shari, some pieces of fish were huge, but the fish quality could been higher. Also I thought the chef wasn't fair to certain people in the dining room, he cutting sashimi and he ran out of fish so some poor diner had a double stack of the tail end while others got loin cuts. Didn't get a chance nor asked about to order extras. It was also the first time in any sushiya where the chef makes a nigiri and just ate before serving anyone. Considering my stomach is the most important real estate when travelling, I wouldn't come back nor recommend. 0/5
Off to Copenhagen in couple months. In the meantime, are there any cities that anyone would recommend me visiting in Japan for food? I was maybe thinking about the southern area of Japan.