Cirpas

⭐⭐⭐

🇫🇷 French / 📍 Shirokanedai

📓 Visits: 1

Chef Takashi Yoshida previously worked at Dominique Bouchet but shot to "fame" during the Coronavirus pandemic when he set up a cooking channel on Youtube and, without revealing his identity for over 9 months, acquired 100s of 1000s of subscribers.  In November 2022 he opened his own restaurant.  Omakase is JPY 27,500 (+3,300 to change the main to wagyu).

The meal got off to a great start with a 'tapas' of kohada, fennel cream, Oscietra caviar, sherry vinegar gelee on a sable biscuit.  It reminded of the kohada tapas at Aca (review here) but was better.  8.5-9/10.  Unfortunately this was (almost) as good as it got.  The potato vichyssoise, uni and consomme jelly needed to be smaller in size or have some texture added (or both).  It wasn't till the 5th dish that some bread arrived.  It had good flavour but texture like memory foam.  The bread was not refilled.  The best of the fish courses was the kuruma ebi.  Two (count 'em) excellent quality prawns, perfectly cooked.  8.5/10.  The isaki that followed was less good.  The sauce, made from fish stock and pork, killed the flavour of the fish, which was already quite salty.  The artichokes that came with it lacked a little vibrancy.  Both fish courses needed to be served on hotter plates.  The main dish was lamb from Limousin served with makomodake, a Provençale-style sauce and cha-mame sauce.  The Provençale sauce was too perfumed for me.  The lamb had no crispy fat.  The final savoury course was hayashi rice.  This was very rich: the beef was oxtail and you could taste the red wine and butter in the sauce.  It was a small portion but was it really necessary to serve another rich meat dish just after lamb?

The first sweet of sakuranbo, sakuranbo sorbet, sakuranbo jam and sakuranbo jelly lacked sweetness, as you might expect from sakuranbo.  It definitely felt more like it was for the Japanese palate.  That said, it was quite refreshing and good as a first dessert.  8/10.  The main dessert was a little better: cheese ice-cream, melon espuma, melon balls and melon soup.  Again refreshing, but needed texture.  8.5/10.  Pour over coffee was served without milk and came with some Earl Grey financiers, which were more sugar than almond.

On the positive side portions are large and every course featured quality and/or reasonably expensive ingredients and nothing was really poor.  But there was nothing exceptional in the cooking.  It was a good thing the staff didn't ask me what my favourite dish of the meal was because the honest answer would have been the melon.  Not the main melon dessert but (which I didn't mention until now) the simple slice of melon that preceded it.  Perhaps with the exception of the 'tapas', I really couldn't rate any of the dishes that actually involved cooking (i.e. not the melon) more than 8.5/10.  Most of the dishes lacked texture - everything was 'soft' - and most dishes lacked real depth of flavour like you find at Naoto.K or L'eterre or Sezanne.  8.5/10 is good but it's not great and, as I always say, when you're paying 30K it needs to be great.

Despite all those Youtube videos and the counter dining, the chef seemed a little shy.  He talked to all guests at the end of the meal but other staff introduced all the dishes.  Staff could speak good English.  A menu was printed for me in English and dishes explained for me separately.

My usual complaints had the opposite problem here: most dishes were relatively salty.  The seasoning was maybe about right for each dish but it was one (quite) salty dish served speedily after another with no respite.  I usually moan when meals take too long but here I felt it was a bit quick: the main dish was served after an hour and the final item served after just an hour and a half.

The fit-out is expensive, it's in an expensive location and with as many staff as diners it's an expensive operation to run.  That has to be paid for somehow and that was in the drinks.  JPY 3,300 for a glass of Champagne.  The cheapest listed non-alcoholic drink was JPY 1,540 and water was charged at JPY 1,430.  I couldn't help thinking the dishes were composed to make you want to drink and staff were (politely) encouraging diners to do so.

I waited a good few months before booking to allow the restaurant plenty of time to settle down, because reservations were not difficult and because reviews were not outstanding.  I went with moderate expectations.  Overall, it was good but didn't 'surpass' (boom boom!) my expectations and wasn't good enough for me to add it to my regular rotation.  Cirpas is included in the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2024, though Michelin don't deem it worthy of a Star, which can only come as a blow for the chef since its inclusion had been trailed for months and the "Selected" category debuted in 2024.  I had expected a Star but when the best dish is a slice of melon that just tells you the chef has not outperformed the quality of his ingredients.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1316/A131602/13278638/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.9

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy.  Same week via any one of your favourite English-friendly online booking services.

📍 Location: 

4-2-7 Shirokanedai.  2 mins from Shirokanedai station Exit 2.  Same building as ShinoiS.
Map data ©2023 Google

📅 Visit July 2023

💴 Damage: 35,211 (27500 + drinks @ 4510 + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h40m