Maeshiba Ryoriten

Maeshiba Ryoriten (前芝料理店)

🇫🇷 French / 📍 Futakotamagawa

📓 Visits: 1

First a potted history of Maeshiba Ryoriten:

Opened in February 2015 in Osaka
Debuted in the 2016 Michelin Guide with a Bib Gourmand
Upgraded to 1 Michelin Star in the 2019 Guide
Closed September 2021
Moved to Tokyo in December 2021
"Selected" in the 2024 Tokyo Guide

This review was written in June 2023 and the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2024 hadn't been published then.  Michelin pre-announced the restaurant would be included in the 2024 Guide so many expected a Star (because with dinner above JPY 6,000 it wouldn't qualify for a Bib Gourmand) but it ended up being included as one of the new "Selected" restaurants.

Dinner of about 9 courses is priced at JPY 15,000.  Lunch is priced at JPY 7,500 and JPY 12,000 for around 6 and 8 courses, respectively.  Prices subject to 10%.  I went for the short lunch course.

First of all onion pottage.  This wasn't so special.  It made me wonder again how good an onion pottage can really be.  7.5-8/10.  Next 18-month aged Bayonne ham and onion quiche.  Never going to be as good as pata negra, even if it's cut on a $6,000 slicer.  The quiche was fine.  8/10?  The menu moved up a gear with crepe containing ayu and a tomato jelly.  This was delicious.  I couldn't fault it.  10/10.  Some bread was served next.  Timing a bit odd given I'd just had a crepe but the bread was faultless.  10/10.  Next hotate frit with fish soup and barley.  The scallop was intentionally undercooked and delicious.  The soup had deep flavour.  Like the previous course, this was a great fusion of French and Japanese.  8.5-9/10.  The main course was slow charcoal-grilled Miyazaki kuri (chuck eye) with Madeira sauce and pommes dauphinoise.  Again hard to score.  Nothing really to fault but nothing you haven't really had before and the pommes dauphinoise was pretty basic.  8/10?  Dessert was vanilla ice-cream, fruits, raspberry sauce and double cream.  The ice-cream was delicious but I didn't need the double cream and left most of it.  7.5/10.  Coffee (or tea, not pictured) was served without petits fours.

Chef Taira Maeshiba runs the restaurant with his wife.  They were both very friendly but they don't speak English and the menu was all in Japanese.  The restaurant has a curious layout with a large sharing table seating up to ten and a single smaller table seating two.  Acoustics are terrible: concrete walls, wood paneling, bare floors, bare tables, an unmasked convivial chef and a masked wife.

I was glad I ordered the short course as every dish was quite rich and I left very full.  I would probably go back for the short course again but the ham and beef are going to be fixtures so I don't see myself going regularly.  The consomme jelly is the other signature dish but is not included in the short lunch course, though you can add it for a supplement of JPY 1,600.  I would love to see the chef push the menu a bit more as, and it's not often I say this, the best dishes were the most original ones (the crepe and the scallop).  The other dishes were very much bistro dishes.  You could easily spend this or more on French food elsewhere and leave dissatisfied.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1317/A131708/13266896/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.1

📱 Booking: 🟩 Bookings are required.  Same day dinner reservations may be possible.  A day in advance for lunch is sufficient right now.

📍 Location: 

4-7-5 Tamagawa.  B1F street-facing entrance.  5 mins from the West Exit of Futakotamogawa station.  Cut through Takashimaya SC.
Map data ©2023 Google

📅 Visit June 2023

Tama-negi pottage
18-month aged Bayonne ham, tama-negi quiche
Ayu crepe
Hotate frit, fish soup, barley
Miyazaki kuri, pommes dauphinoise
Vanilla ice-cream, fruits, raspberry sauce, double cream
Coffee (or tea)

💴 Damage: 10,230 (7500 + 2 drinks @ 1800 + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h10m