Canade

⭐⭐⭐

🇮🇹 Italian / 📍 Hongo

📓 Visits: 1

I'd tried to book Canade multiple times in 2021 but they closed for a period during the State of Emergency and I could never get a seat at a convenient time.  Towards the end of 2021 Canade was awarded a Bib Gourmand (more on that in a moment) so I made an advance booking (more on that in a moment too).

The restaurant seats 9 people at a split counter and 6 at a table.  My booking was for 5pm (I asked for 5:30).  I arrived at 5:15 and given the relative difficulty in getting a seat I expected the restaurant to be busy but I was the only diner until I left at around 6:45.  Despite that I was shunted to far end of the counter which has a restricted view of the kitchen.  Moderately loud, Western pop music of the annoying variety was on in the background.

A course menu is available for two diners or more and seems to have steadily increased in price (currently JPY 12,000) since the restaurant opened in December 2020.  So I asked them just to pick whatever dishes they recommended for me from the a-la-carte menu telling them I wanted to eat a lot.  Dishes are designed to be shared between two diners so I was given half portions of the antipasto at half the price.  You can preview the current menu on their website.

To start: olives and capers - fine.  First dish proper: cold meat selection and chicken liver parfait.  A couple of items were cured in-house.  No complaints about this dish.  House-made bread was above average.  Next sauteed shirako, olive 'ribollita' and truffle.  Of course this was delicious but I wanted more of the bread I'd already finished.  Next the 'speciality' risotto (again topped with truffle) which is made without cheese.  This was like eating a sugarless rice pudding: I wanted cheese and at JPY 4,000 for ostensibly a 'full' portion, expensive and poor value.  The main dish was two decent-sized lamb cutlets.  The sauce and leaves were flavoured with sakura, a flavour which will dominate anything.  The fat on the lamb had not been properly rendered and the lamb itself had no taste.  The lamb came with a coquette of 'ratatouille'.  I appreciated this extra element but it was just 'fine'.  There was a choice of four desserts all priced at 700 yen.  I chose cassata.  This was delicious but a measly portion.

Apart from the lamb all the food was pretty good but portions were small and there was little carbohydrate.  If you have to eat a bowl of cereal when you get home then the restaurant has failed.  The price of entry in Italian restaurants in Tokyo often includes a 550 yen 'coperto' charge for bread and olives.  If you want to charge that then fine but please offer to replenish the bread without me having to ask.  Yeah I can ask myself but I left food up to you so I don't know what you're planning to serve next.  I'm not going to ask and wait for my food to go cold while you heat up some more bread, nor do I want to ask for bread when you're just about to serve pasta.

Bib Gourmand restaurants are supposed to have a JPY 6,000 (5K outside Tokyo) 'menu'.  My bill came to just over 15K.  I did not expect to be spending as little as 6K but 15K was about 5K more than I wanted to spend.  6K would get you three half-sized dishes here but that would be even further from a complete meal.

Cutlery was not replaced between dishes.  OK, so this isn't the finest of fine dining but it's just lazy.  Perhaps some customers care about this and others don't so can you be flexible and take a hint from what the customer does?  If the customer leaves her/his cutlery on the plate instead of the table, she/he wants it replaced.  If you don't serve your pate with a separate knife for spreading then please replace the knife after this course.

Chef's wife chatted a little, was polite and smiled.  Chef's wife served all the dishes so it was impossible to chat with the chef from where I was sat but he apologised for the restaurant being quiet and thanked me as I left.

No course so coffee not included.  To drink I had a glass of spumante priced at JPY 1,600 which was just fine.

This could easily have been a completely different review.  If they'd have just done the course for me I would have ended up with what seems like a pretty similar meal but with an extra starter, the inclusion of coffee and a bill 3K lighter.  If you don't eat very much, go with a companion, order the course and don't get the lamb (can't believe the Michelin inspector tried this) then you might have a great time.  Otherwise, much better value elsewhere.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1310/A131004/13253467/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.8 (value: 2.9)

📱 Booking: Book at least two weeks in advance for a date of your choosing.  If you're completely flexible on date/time you should be able to get a seat earlier.  No English menu, no English spoken.

📍 Location: 

2-31-3 Hongo.  3 mins South-West from Hongo Sanchome Station Marunouchi Line Exit 1 (4 mins Toei Oedo Line Exit 3).  Dedicated street-facing entrance.
Map data ©2021 Google

📅 Visit January 2022

Afettato misto: salami, prosciutto, chicken liver parfait ½ 1200
Siraco: sauteed shirako, olive 'ribollita', truffle ½ 1800
Risotto macalle 4000
Angelo: roast lamb, sakura, ratatouille 4500
Cassata 700
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Coperto 500
Spumante 1600
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Tax 10%

💴 Damage: 15,730
⏱️ Time taken: 1h30m