Noura

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🇫🇷 French Bistro / 📍 Asakusa

📓 Visits: 3 (2021-2023)

Hommage is a classical French restaurant and has held two Michelin Stars for years.  Literally around the corner is Noura, a French bistro owned by the same chef, Noboru Arai.  At some point I'll write-up my two visits to Hommage but the summary is my second would be my last and I much prefer Noura.

Over the years the exact format of the menu has changed and prices have gone up steadily.  For lunch you have a choice of three courses from JPY 2,640 (3,500 on weekends and holidays).  At dinner the regular course menu starts from JPY 6,800 while the menu du jour is now priced at JPY 4,800 following a 300 yen increase in March 2023.  Both dinner menus comprise "amuse", starter, main, dessert and after-meal drink.  The more expensive menu includes soup and has more choices (a couple with supplements).  You can also order a-la-carte at dinner and lunch.  Menus (with the exception of the menu du jour) are on their website and staff explain all the dishes on the menu.  Unfortunately the menus are in Japanese only and staff don't speak English.  So you do need some Japanese to get the best from the restaurant but if that's too difficult you could just point at a course menu and tell them "omakase".  A picture of the menu du jour from my most recent visit is below.

For lunch, "today's starter" was a mix of a few items and a bit mixed in flavour.  I would not order this again.

Main was cassoulet with pork belly and sausage.  The sausage was the stinky type and packed with meat.  There are many variations on cassoulet but this was a very satisfying example.

For dessert a selection of ice-creams: raspberry, strawberry and yomogi.  These were more refreshing than indulgent and I wished I'd chosen the chocolate mousse instead.  I could see the potential after this visit and my main regret was that I didn't order more, so I made sure my next visit was for dinner.

For both dinners I chose the menu du jour.

With whichever dinner course menu you choose, before the starter you get a savoury French souffle pancake.  Hot-out-of-oven, light, flavoured with truffle, salt and maple syrup and indulgent.  If ever I see a souffle on a menu (which is basically never in Tokyo) I'll always order it.  There's probably somewhere in France that does this but I don't know of any other bistro in the World that serves a souffle as a pre-starter.  I thought it was perfect on my first visit but on my second, though I still enjoyed it, I felt it had a slightly artificial taste.  Perhaps the chef had been a bit sloppy with the truffle oil.  Perhaps it was exactly the same.  Either way, as a lone diner you get a whole one.

For a supplement of JPY 1,500 on dinner visit #1 my starter was cold corn soup, chicken liver ice-cream and popcorn.  A fairly hefty supplement but a seasonal special and the same dish they serve in the main restaurant so not to be missed.  The chicken liver could have had more umami and the soup wasn't as good as you'd get in a top kaiseki restaurant but way better than what might come out as part of a 2K French lunch set.  A vat of soup was given to me from which to pour from.  Well I drunk the lot.  There were at least two portions there because another party of two each ordered the same dish and they had to share a jug.

On dinner visit #2 I chose fresh oyster, oyster bavarois, coconut and oyster mousse, oyster ice-cream, Champagne and mineral water jelly as my starter.  Again the same dish as they serve in the main restaurant and for an additional charge of JPY 1,200.  This was sublime.  10/10.

On dinner visit #1 for main I chose steak frites.  The sirloin was cooked perfectly.  It was a quality piece of meat but could have had more beefy flavour.  The fries were the best I could remember eating in Tokyo: thin, greaseless, clearly cooked in fresh and very hot oil and with no taste of having spent too long in the freezer.  I wanted those fries again so chose the same on dinner visit #2.  The beef (Angus) had more flavour on this occasion and the fries were as good as before.  There was a 550 yen supplement for the steak this time but I didn't mind.

Dessert on dinner visit #1 was meringue with bitter caramel cream, sponge, tangy marmalade and rich vanilla ice-cream.  Cake and ice-cream is always the best way to finish any meal.

Dessert on dinner visit #2 was cake and ice-cream again.  This time kabocha cake with caramel, rum raisin, dacquoise sponge and kabocha seed and brown butter ice-cream.  I would have preferred more rum raisins in the cake to add more sweetness but technically it was flawless.

Every meal begins with some olives stuffed with anchovies.

Bread is flavourful, chewy, heated to order and served with excellent French butter.  It tasted like yesterday's to me on my second visit.  It's not replenished unless you ask.

If the savoury dishes are not enough you can add a serving (choice of three sizes) of Lu Rou Fan (Taiwanese braised pork belly on rice).  I added the smallest size on my second visit.  It was fine but I'd rather eat purely French food in a French bistro and haven't ordered it since.

Coffee or tea is served with a good financier.  Coffee is Nespresso and lacking a bit of body so I recommend black tea which is served in a pot (hoorah!)

Drinks are very reasonably priced.  A small glass of grape juice is Roter Traubenmost and costs 550 yen.

With no counter there are, perhaps, ten tables in the restaurant each seating up to two diners.  There isn't much space between tables but at least they've now done away with the Covid-secure perspex.  My weekend lunch visit was busy but on my weekday dinner visits there were still tables free.  If you're lucky you might get a table with a view of the kitchen and pass.  Open kitchens are everywhere in Tokyo but there's a definite nostalgia from watching an a-la-carte kitchen and pass from a table.  There was proper ventilation so without so much as a whiff coming out of the kitchen, no need to worry about going home smelling like you'd just performed service yourself.  Cutlery is self-service with enough on each table for you to have a clean set with every course.

I think the quality of your meal can depend on what you order but the food is elevated above that of standard bistro fare and the menu includes two-Star dishes.  It's the kind of experience I'm yearning for at Maison Marunouchi.  Out in under 90 mins, no simultaneous start, eat as little or as much as you'd like, table seating, same-day bookings, perfect service, and I've never spent over 8K.  I'm hesitant to rate this the perfect 5.0 because, objectively, it's never been flawless but Noura is my favourite French bistro in Tokyo, in my top five French restaurants in Tokyo and the cheapest of those.  If I lived close to here I'd be in once a week.  Skip lunch and go for dinner and go alone.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1311/A131102/13225246/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.85 (value: 5.0)

📱 Booking: 🟩  Easy.  Same-day bookings by phone or just walk-in.  They close at least every weekday Monday and Tuesday so check their calendar before arranging a visit.

📍 Location:

4-10-6 Asakusa.  10 mins walk from Asakusa stations.  A number of buses run from outside the Asakusa Tobu Hotel - check Google Maps for routes and timings.  Dedicated street-facing entrance.
Map data ©2022 Google

📅 Visit April 2023

Menu du jour 4800
Kaki +1200
Steak +550
Juice 550

💴 Damage: 7,755 incl. service @ 10%
⏱️ Time taken: 1h15m

📅 Visit June 2022

Menu du jour 4,500
Lu Ro Fan 330
Drink 550

💴 Damage: 5,918 inc. service at 10% (supplement not charged)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h20m

📅 Visit June 2021

Lunch 3000
Dessert + after-meal drink +330
Drink 550

💴 Damage: 4,268 inc. service at 10%
⏱️ Time taken: 1h