⚠️ Since April 2023 Chic is now an Italian restaurant again
Chic peut-etre
⭐⭐⭐
đŤđˇ French / đ Hatchobori
đ Visits: 1
Chic originally opened in 2012 as a French restaurant and was known for its outstanding cooking and exceptional value. I only managed to visit the original Chic once and I remember it being very good and having to book well in advance. The restaurant had, and still has, only 4 tables. It was awarded one Michelin star in the 2017 Guide, had a very high Tabelog rating of 4.25 and was awarded a Silver award in 2017. The chef at that time was Yusuke Namai who left in 2017 and went on to open the highly-anticipated and acclaimed Ode. There's a good review of Chic in 2016 on Miss Neverfull.
Only course menus are offered: lunch at JPY 5,000 (weekday only) or 7,900 and dinner at 12,000 or 15,000. On my visit I went for the weekday-only lunch.
With such pedigree I expected so much from Chic but unfortunately I walked away disappointed. My lunch consisted of 4 courses: two starters, a 'main' and dessert. The first starter was 'choucroute' served as a sausage with pomme puree on the side. Next was a suppon chawanmushi topped with mushroom pottage and matsutake. The 'main' was a beef and cep mushroom slider. Dessert was an almond blancmange topped with pineapple and a celery granita. Now every dish was delicious and I couldn't fault the cooking but portions were so small and two of the dishes were not really French. The pomme puree served with the choucroute was no more than a tablespoon, the chawanmushi (Japanese) was gone after no more than 6 spoons, the hamburger (American) was slider-size and served unaccompanied and the dessert was no more than a very large pre-dessert. No amuse, pre-dessert or petits fours are included. Bread was from Beaver Bread in Nihonbashi and was OK but served without butter and spoiled by having been left out to dry.
Compare Chic today with Chic in 2017 where the JPY 5,000 lunch was two appetizers, fish, meat and dessert and includes amuse and petits fours. Or compare with La Paix today where for 6,000 at lunch you get 3 proper French courses plus amuse, pre-dessert and petit fours. I might have had a better experience with the 7,900 lunch but the other problem with Chic is that there is only one chef in the restaurant so my 4 courses took 1h20m. I arrived after someone else having the more expensive lunch and he was still eating when I left. I'd expect dinner to take well over 2h.
The owner and only person front-of-house is the gentle type and doesn't speak any English. The chef confines himself to the open kitchen, couldn't bear a smile throughout my entire meal and couldn't manage an utterance when I left. This is one example where an open kitchen is not a benefit (and one that could do with better ventilation).
Looking at their homepage, it hasn't been properly updated since they closed as an Italian so ignore the pictures of home-made bread and hand-rolled pasta. It states they are looking for kitchen staff so if they hire another chef it should help with the gaps in service but value rarely improves in the lifetime of a restaurant.
Chic has a good wine selection, it's not a heavy meal and it's a very small restaurant so it might make a good place for a long romantic dinner, but there's better value elsewhere.
đ https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1302/A130203/13249579/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.3
đą Booking: đŠ Easy. Book online. The 5,000 lunch is only reservable via their website.
đ Location:
3-6-3 Hatchobori. Dedicated street-facing entrance.
Map data ©2021 Google
đ
Visit November 2020
Chou croute, pomme pureeSuppon chawanmushi, matsutake, mushroom potage
Cep slider
Almond blancmange, pineapple, celery granita
Coffee
đ´ Damage: 6,650 (5,000 + one drink at 500 + 10% + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h20m
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