Nishiazabu Taku

This Michelin sushi restaurant is characterized by its rich food and wine. Figure 1: Eel, Figure 2: Shrimp (slightly roasted with straw, so sweet that I doubt life. Often, this kind of food with childhood taste memory can impress me more when it is cooked differently), Figure 5: Salmon roe with a diameter of 6 mm (I want to cry when I think of the 1 mm fish roe in China), Figure 6: After eating 15 pieces of sushi, I urgently need a bowl of soup, and then another 10 pieces.

Creative French cuisine, opened a year and a half ago, the scene where the chef said "The portion will be a bit big, please tell me if you feel it's too much" while the guests were drinking the clear soup was a bit familiar. Fortunately, the cuisine is completely different. The quantity is not large and the cooking is good. Starting from the first course, which is a sweet clear soup using only the head and bones of sea bream without any seasoning, it is a gentle and gradual menu that includes many seafood. While sipping the soup, I looked at the chef busy in the open kitchen and fell into thinking. Chef Yasushi Minemura is a tall man, with his hair shaved short on both sides, and only the top part of his head is long enough to be braided on the back of his head. The beard starting from the sideburns covers the side face and chin, surrounding the bright and cheerful eyes in the middle. All in all, it was different from what I imagined and tasted in my mouth. The elements are so complex that it’s hard to summarize, just like the chef’s experience. When he was young, he went to Tokyo to become a bartender. Unexpectedly, he learned French cuisine in Ebisu, and then went to Italy for a few years to study. After returning home, he was asked by a wealthy man in Kobe to cook at a mysterious membership-only restaurant. There are too many styles to summarize, and the tableware also includes knives, forks and chopsticks. Inspired by sushi, amuse consists of a sweet and sour rice sauce spread on the bottom, a piece of waxy smoked hairtail, and a pinch of sweet but not spicy wasabi on top. The smoky aroma hits your mouth, like drinking tea in a tea field before dawn, which is very appetizing. The hot mayonnaise made from mature vinegar and champagne is soaked in your hands whenever you have free time. When you need to free up your hands for cooking, you ask the cook to continue the foaming. It feels full of air, and the soufflé is no match for it. The white asparagus itself is average, and the French and Italian food in this season are not difficult to eat. Then came the first half of the main course, a... familiar Akaza Ebiso soup. The shrimp meat itself is as firm and elastic as Pamela's veteran, and the soup that has been cooked for a long time is still without seasoning but extremely rich. It's fresh, but not as good as Bon.nu's bowl of lobster soup. Halftime. “Because the first half of the main course tastes very strong” (it’s true), “so I’ll have a cup of Taiwanese tea to wash my mouth.” Black abalone and asparagus served with homemade butter for dipping bread. It's quite satisfactory. The one with the least memorable points so far forms a huge contrast with the next one—— The main fish dish that night was a 2.5 kilogram golden sea bream, which was quite fat. The fatty fish is cooked thoroughly and then grilled over charcoal fire until fragrant. Each guest eats one fish. Robert Welch's spoon has a unique curvature with a thick base and a thin edge. When paired with the fresh and sweet clear soup made from clams, it always feels like you are kissing when you drink it. The soup is garnished with light sansho pepper and cherry tomatoes to add a layer of flavor. The golden sea bream itself has no flavor, but the soup contains the essence of heaven and earth. After another mouth-cleansing side dish, the palate-clearing Hyuga Granité (smoothie?), the main course of meat dishes came - a piece of good beef with refreshing fat and a piece of bamboo shoots that astringent in the mouth. The caramel made from only the sugar in the bamboo shoots was poured on the plate, bringing out the aroma of the meat and saving some face for it.

The sashimi at the sushi restaurant is very fresh and feels very authentic because there is mustard sauce between the sashimi and the rice! If you don't like spicy food, remember to tell the restaurant in advance.

The restaurant is simply cozy, more spacious than cozy. Most of the people dining here are locals. I could secretly overhear a father at the next table playing a game of "Who finishes reading the description first, or you guess the Pokémon first?" with his Pokémon book. Meanwhile, the distance between them was far enough away that it wouldn't disturb you, who was just trying to enjoy your meal. It was a perfect balance. I ordered the 2400 NT dollar Western set meal, which included a drink, an appetizer, a salad, a main course, and tea or coffee afterward. With the exception of the main course, which you chose, you could try almost everything on the menu. The significance of the a la carte menu is probably to highlight the value of the set meal. The appetizers included a bite of each of fish, meat, and vegetables. The green salad was lightly sauced and had plenty of texture. For the main course, I ordered the classic omurice and ketchup combination. It looked almost textbook-quality, with the egg perfectly wrapped around the rice, leaving no gaps. Even when you cut it, hot steam would escape, just like me, a winter sleeper. The rice was evenly colored and each grain was plump. Small pieces of diced chicken skin were mixed in, adding a pleasantly chewy texture. The chicken was a bit too dry, though. That was a bit of a letdown for me. Although it's a 100-name Western restaurant, the atmosphere outshines the flavor. It's one of those places where you don't need to go all the way to eat, but having a high-quality Western restaurant nearby is worth a bit of pride.

If you're tired of simply enjoying the richness of Wagyu grilled beef and want to step up your game, I have two restaurants to recommend. One is Nishiazabu Taku, a Kappo restaurant that blends kaiseki with grilled meat. The other is its more affordable sister restaurant, Ushimitsu Ichimon. Today, I'll introduce the latter. It's small and looks just like any other yakiniku restaurant. While there's a symbolic grilling platter, the griller grills the meat right next to you from start to finish, ensuring you don't overcook it. The first course is a refreshing and appetizing Italian salad. The second course features four types of salt-grilled beef: beef heart seasoned with lemon and basil, beef tongue seasoned with sweet scallions, and two types of red meat, all seasoned with refreshing yuzu and fresh wasabi. The third course is the triple-grilled beef, glistening with oil. The diaphragm, grilled on bamboo skewers, is tender and juicy. The well-textured Wagyu is dipped in a refreshing barbecue sauce. Finally, the offal, sizzling and slightly spicy, grilled over a low flame, was a feast to be had with rice. The set menu progressed from light and delicate to rich and rich, and the more I ate, the more I felt my appetite surged, and I craved meat... Finally, I returned to my old craving for the glistening, marbling Wagyu beef.

Watching the chef skillfully making sushi in various ways, I suddenly became curious about how many different methods there are, because each one is very special, very different, and the taste is amazing.