Celaravird (セララバアド)
⭐⭐⭐
🎁 Innovative / 📍 Yoyogi
📓 Visits: 1
Koichi Hashimoto's CV ticks many boxes for modern Spanish cooking: El Bulli, Martin Berasategi, Sant Pau, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Tapas Molecular Bar. The food at Celaravird is modern cuisine but using Japanese ingredients.
There are only two counter seats with the rest being table seating. Wherever you sit there will be COVID-secure perspex. Despite it mainly being table seating, there's no choice of menu and all courses are served to all diners at the same time.
Prices have gone up a fair bit in the 6 years the restaurant has been open. Lunch is now JPY 9,500 for 8-10 courses and dinner JPY 12,000 for 10-12 courses. The restaurant asks (that's Japanese for 'requires') that you choose a drink pairing with your meal. There's a choice of a 5-drink alcoholic or non-alcoholic pairing priced between JPY 5,000 and JPY 6,000. In addition to that there's an JPY 800 water charge. I asked for tap water twice. The waitress asked me if I wanted still or sparkling mineral water three times. So add all that up and include tax and service at 8% and you'll be paying about 18K for lunch and 22K for dinner. If you book via Omakase, lunch and dinner are priced at JPY 20,600 and JPY 24,200 plus service. I asked about this and they said the Omakase price includes the cost of the pairing (and water). It doesn't quite add up but I wouldn't expect your actual bill to differ depending on how you book. None of the staff speak English but you can get by without any Japanese.
On my visit I went for dinner and chose the alcoholic pairing. Most of the dishes I had are pictured in a review on Tabelog from the same month. I'm not sure how they're counting courses but if you include the bread and canapes I count 15 in my meal.
The menu completely changes 4 times a year and there are slight variations from year to year and depending on availability of ingredients. So if you book yourself your meal may be substantially different. Bearing that in mind, my evaluation of what I ate follows.
The first canape was a breadstick, serrano ham and an olive. Next was a one-bite olive oil and pine cake with a spherification of water. The chef explained the spherification had no taste, and indeed it didn't, but I missed the point of why. The next two dishes were an improvement: 'boudin noir' with apple and then celery and shirao taco - both very good. Each table gets its own loaf of freshly baked bread. The bread had good texture but not much flavour and was well-serviced by good olive oil. Next was cheese espuma, rose water, cranberry juice, beets and edible flowers (meh). King salmon chevice and asparagus was delicious, as you'd hope those ingredients would be. Sansai frit, futonoki and avocado was unremarkable. Lemon verbena jelly and amai ebi had too much jelly and not enough prawn. Takenoko, hotaru ika and tomato was very good. A huge portion of sakura ebi tempura with a smaller pearl barley risotto followed - that might have been the dish of the night. Next was a small piece of sawara which would have been better had it been cooked less. The main dish was chicken with spring veg in a mushroom sauce. The leg had good flavour but I felt the breast and broad bean were overcooked and the flavour of the sauce was flat. There was only one proper dessert: lemon jelly, lemon cream, meringue, matcha powder. This was a disappointment. The finale was petit fours and coffee including very good sakura macaroon.
The wines were not particularly good but you might not care as long as it's alcohol. With all that alcohol being consumed and little in the way of soft furnishings it can get a little noisy as the evening goes on (peak 107dBA measured on my phone). Piped music is on a way-too-short loop. I think I'd go loopy if I worked there.
In the review in the Japan Times from 2016 there's a single comment on whether or not the food is any good: the main course is 'excellent' and you're left to guess whether or not the 14 other courses are any good. You tend to expect at restaurants that produce so many innovative dishes that not every dish is going to be a success. So it may be that one season or period is better than others at Celaravird and it might be fairer to judge the restaurant overall based on a second visit in another season. That's something I always try to do when my first experience is good but if it's poor (and expensive and difficult to book) I'm unlikely to be going back.
Bookings are very difficult to get. Celaravird only has 6 sittings a week with a maximum of 14 covers a time. The online reservation book is perpetually full. With Omakase, new reservations start at midnight every night but invariably there are no seats available. As far as I could establish, regulars make their next booking following their meal. Bookings for one person are not accepted online so if you see a vacancy for two you'll need to phone the restaurant to book it for one. That's exactly what I did after, by chance, seeing a table available the next day.
Chef came by at the beginning and end of service but there was no interaction with staff during the meal. Serving 5-6 tables the same food at the same time and with two kinds of drink pairings means staff are constantly busy.
Celaravird is the sort of place that would be good for a special occasion for people who don't dine out a lot and are on budget of about 20K. It's modern, should be memorable, a long meal, plenty of alcohol, you know exactly what you're going to pay (if you read the small print), the food is a talking point and it's not a walk-in restaurant. Unfortunately, no matter how far you plan in advance, your chances of getting a seat on a date of your choosing seem almost zero. You can't fault a restaurant for being popular but it's hard to recommend it when you wouldn't go back yourself and the people you'd recommend it to have very little chance going when they want.
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1318/A131811/13176914/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.5
📱 Booking: 🟧 Very difficult. https://yoyaku.toreta.in/celaravird/#/ or Omakase or by phone for one person. No English spoken.
📍 Location: 2-8-11 Uehara. 9 minutes on foot from nearby stations.
📅 Visit March 2021
Breadstick, parma ham; olive
Olive oil, pine cake; Spherification of water
Boudin noir, apple
Celery, shirao taco
Bread
Cheese espuma, rose water, cranberry juice, beets, edible flowers
King salmon chevice, asparagus delicious
Sansai frit, futonoki, avocado
Lemon verbena jelly, amai ebi
Takenoko, hotaru ika, tomato
Sakura ebi tempura, pearl barley risotto
Sawara
Chicken, spring veg, mushroom sauce
Lemon jelly, lemon cream, meringue, matcha powder
Petit fours, coffee
Pairing:
Sakura sparkling wine 2020
White wine 2019
Nihonshu (or rose)
Nihonshu
Chardonnay 2017
💴 Damage: 22,334 (12k + 6k + 800 water charge + 8% + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 3h10m
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