⚠️ Barbe re-opened as Papier in May 2024.  The only apparent difference is the name.

Barbe

⭐⭐⭐

🇫🇷 French / 📍 Ningycho

📓 Visits: 2

Barbe was awarded a Bib Gourmand in the 2023 Tokyo Michelin Guide.  Lunch and dinner course menus are priced at JPY 3,300 and JPY 7,150 respectively.  There's also an a-la-carte dinner menu.  I went for the lunch course on a weekday but was told the course needs to be reserved at least a day in advance.

Nothing on the Japanese-only cheap lunch menu was particularly inspiring but I didn't want to go elsewhere so opted for the chicken on rice.  Two other diners were already eating with 5 waiting.  Food arrived in about 10 minutes.

There was a good portion of moist chicken.  The food was highly seasoned with paprika, tomato sauce and Parmesan.  This really was a one-plate lunch with no side salad (fresh tomato and lettuce in the dish), bread or soup.  But the cooking was pretty decent for 1,000 yen and I wanted the course so I made a booking for later the same month.

On this visit two other diners arrived some time after me and another as I was leaving.  This was very much a meal of two halves, the first half being the better.  The cep sauce with the scallop was good, though I wanted more cep and overall the dish was perhaps a bit sweet.  The red wine sauce with the sirloin steak was also a bit sweet but at least they made the effort.  What followed was less good.  The curry was a typical, cheap Japanese curry with virtually no meat and tasting mostly of spices.  It tasted like something out of a packet though it's available as one of the options on the cheap lunch menu as 'Barbe Curry - Special Spice Curry' so good thing I didn't order that on visit #1.  Dessert was gateau chocolat with vanilla ice-cream.  The ice-cream was bought-in and cheap and I had to leave most of it.  The cake was fine.  Coffee was included in the course and lacked body.  Bread was a standard baguette, refilled, and served without butter or olive oil.  This too was almost certainly bought-in.

There is only one chef in the kitchen.  Staff made no attempt at conversation but service was efficient and polite.  I suppose they couldn't really make the plate lunch or course cheaper and the chef can clearly cook but there were too many bought-in elements as part of the course and I don't want to eat rice in a French restaurant.  I can't imagine if this restaurant was next door to Etape or Noura it would be awarded a Bib Gourmand.  Perhaps, on reflection, the Michelin inspector agreed as the restaurant was stripped of its award in 2024.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1302/A130204/13235738/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.65

📱 Booking: 🟩 As noted the lunch course needs to be booked at least a day in advance.  Dinner course can be booked the same day.  Otherwise you can just walk-in for the cheap lunch or a-la-carte dinner.  Menus in Japanese only.

📍 Location: 

2-23-7 Nihombashi Ningyocho.  1 min from the A3 Exit of Ningycho station or 3 mins from Suitengumae station Exit 7.  Dedicated street-facing entrance.
Map data ©2023 Google

📶 Free WiFi? ❌ No

📅 Visit January 2023

Lunch course:

Foie gras macaron
Fricasse of hotate, yurine, cep
Sirloin, shimeji, negi, green beans, red wine sauce
Curry
Gateau chocolat, vanilla ice-cream
Coffee

💴 Damage: 3,850 (3300 + 1 drink @ 550)
⏱️ Time taken: 45m

📅 Visit January 2023

Chicken on rice

💴 Damage: 1,100
⏱️ Time taken: 25m