Tanmoa

⭐⭐⭐

🇫🇷 French / 📍 Akasaka

📓 Visits: 1 (2021)

Lunch was priced at JPY 5,800 for 6 courses and dinner JPY 7,800 on my visit.  The menu changes four times a year and prices have increased by around 1,000 yen since my visit.  I went for lunch.  There's no English menu and no English spoken.

First was a parfait of foie gras three ways: pate, mousse and snow with caramel, brandy and coffee jelly.  This sounds worse than it tasted.  6/10.  Next was lambs tongues two ways: hot in cabbage and cold in jelly.  The hot component had much more flavour but the cold component was let down by a salad tainted with cheap and/or stale olive oil.  5/10.  Bouillabaisse was a step up from the previous two dishes.  It had great depth of flavour and was reasonably hot.  The mussels were delicious and a piece of houbou (a kind of gurnard) wrapped in potato string was good.  The dish was highly seasoned.  8/10.  Before the meat course was a mohito granita.  This was quite boozy and very refreshing and a good way to skirt around the then alcohol ban.  For a supplement of JPY 2,000 my main was ballotine of rabbit, lobster and shrimp mousse served with Trompette, chanterelles and morels.  This was served on a hot plate, was rich and highly seasoned but I felt the ingredients could have been fresher.  7/10.  Two kinds of bread were served.  First, a good, house-made brioche and then a more standard bread roll, which I think was bought in.  Dessert was peach, pear, milk ice cream, Suze jelly and basil oil.  This was an original combination but not for me.  6/10.  Very good coffee was served with two good petits fours of chocolate orange chou cream and cardamom ganache.  I was given a gift of another piece of the brioche to take home as they were celebrating their 2nd year anniversary.

The restaurant is fairly small with just 3 tables and a short counter, all of which were occupied on my visit.  My heart sank when I saw there was only one chef in the kitchen but the food was surprisingly complex to be produced by one person and all diners were served at their own pace and there were no gaps in service.  Compared with restaurants with a similar setup that's something of an achievement.  But the only really good dish was the bouillabaisse.  I mentioned the freshness of the ingredients in the main dish.  The ballotine would definitely have been prepared in advance but I wonder how far?  In a small restaurant where a dish is only available with a hefty supplement they won't be selling many of these so I couldn't help but think it had been sitting in a fridge for too long.

The restaurant is in a windowless basement.  As you can see in the picture the entrance was cluttered so not somewhere you want to take someone on a date.  It's cheap but difficult to recommend Tanmoa. 

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13225590/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.75 (value: 4.1)

📱 Booking: 🟧 A month in advance by phone or Tabelog.  No English menu.  No English spoken.

📍 Location: 

B1F Imperial Akasaka Ichibankan, 8-13-19 Akasaka.  5 mins from Nogizaka station Exit 1 or Akasaka station Exit 7.  B1F multi-tenant building.
Map data ©2021 Google

📅 Visit September 2021

Foie gras parfait (pate, mousse, snow), caramel, brandy, coffee jelly
Lambs tongues two ways
Bouillabaisse
Mohito granita
Ballotine of rabbit, lobster, shrimp mousse; Trompette, chanterelles, morels +2000
Peach pear, Suze jelly, basil oil, milk ice-cream
Coffee, petits fours

💴 Damage: 7,800 (5800 +2000 supplement)

⏱️ Time taken: 1h30m