Plaque Cuisine de GAMIN BLOCKS

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🇫🇷 French Bistro Teppanyaki / 📍 Nakameguro

📓 Visits: 1 (2021)

I had the 8-course "Lunch Golden Course" priced at JPY 5,500 inclusive.  There's no English menu and no English was spoken on my visit.

First was sweetcorn bavarois with sea urchin.  Temperature control was fine but it had the taste of a dish you'd get in a 4-star hotel.  Next was a pair of cold meat starters: a rillette and a terrine served on papaya macerated in chili - not bad.  Bread is charged separately at 220 yen and I would have declined it if I'd been asked but it was just brought to me and was stale.  Next was suzuki or sea bass, caper and anchovy dressing.  Could have been cooked 30s less but good flavour.  Next was a souffle omelette with Gorgonzola, truffle and honey.  This was so light you almost inhaled it but it had the cheap taste of truffle oil rather than fresh truffles.  Next was a foie gras slider, avocado, negi, shiso, wasabi, teriaki sauce.  This was a little difficult to eat but a real indulgence.  The main course was Chaliapin steak, French fries and ratatouille.  This is flank of steak marinated in onions and served with an onion sauce.  The restaurant uses Jersey beef.  The steak had excellent flavour, was very tender and perfectly cooked.  I only had to leave one small piece of connective tissue.  The fries tasted like they were frozen.  A palette-cleanser of pineapple and mint granita followed.  This had the taste of something that had been in the freezer too long.  Dessert was a strawberry tart which was very heavy and a pistachio ice-cream which had a cheap sugary taste.  Coffee or tea was included.

The restaurant has an interesting layout with a large sharing table seating 8 and a counter seating 6 and two tables for 6 behind a wood panel.  There isn't much physical demarcation between the restaurant and kitchen.

There were three chefs and three waiters and no gaps in service which was efficient and polite.  I'd pre-ordered the course and the first dish came out within a couple of minutes.  Things were slowed down for me a little so I could be served at the same time as another diner having the same course but this probably added no more than 10 minutes and the courses were coming so fast I was fine with this.  8 courses in about an hour: you could almost do this in your lunch hour though you'd probably have food coma for the rest of the afternoon and then wake up with a heart attack from all that fat and sugar.

On paper this looked like incredible value and perhaps it was exactly that: in-credible.  I wouldn't expect to pay any less and this was certainly not a boring meal but the food fell short of my expectations, which were not particularly high to start with.  The steak was by far the best dish.  If I was to go back I would have that or one of the other meat a-la-carte options and the confit potatoes rather than the French fries, which you'd hope would not be frozen.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1317/A131701/13145052/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.6 (steak and low price saved it)

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy.  Book a day in advance by Tabelog, same day or in advance via phone or just walk in.

📍 Location:

2F Cube M, 3-16-13 Kamimeguro.  5 mins North-West from the West Exit of Nakameguro station.  2F multi-tenant building.

Map data ©2021 Google

📅 Visit June 2021

Sweetcorn bavarois, uni
Rillette, negi; terrine, chili papaya.
Suzuki, caper and anchovy dressing
Souffle omelette, Gorgonzola, truffle, honey
Foie gras, avocado, negi, shiso, wasabi, teriaki slider
Chaliapin steak, ratatouille, french fries
Pineapple and mint granita
Strawberry tart
Coffee

💴 Damage: 5,720
⏱️ Time taken: ~1h