La Chataigne

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🇫🇷 French / 📍 Kagurazaka

📓 Visits: 2

A restaurant that purports to serve two genres of food (French and Spanish in this case) is normally a red flag so I went with low expectations.  But at just JPY 6,000 inclusive for lunch I didn't have much to lose.  I've been twice now and I'll definitely be going again.

Lunch comprises canapes, 2 starters, fish, granita, meat, bread, rice, dessert and after-meal drink.  Highlights from visit #1 were the sawara, ratatouille and chimichurri.  I rated this 10/10.  (I do like sawara but I hope I'm objective here.)  And secondly the second serving of rice - ayu gohan chazuke.  If La Chataigne was billing itself as a classically French restaurant and charging 10K+ I would be moaning about them serving a rice dish, even more so with it being chazuke, which I don't normally go for.  But with this menu format it works and it was delicious (9/10).  On visit #2 my favourite dishes were the rice again (9/10) and the chorizo burger (9/10) which reminded me of the chorizo at Chiune, it was that good.  Less good was the amadai on visit #2 (bit salty with dashi a bit salty too), and the taco (chewy).  The weakest course has been the dessert: melon soup on visit #1 and nashi soup on visit #2, but nonetheless a respectable 8/10 both times.  The canapes are quite variable as well.  Bread was refilled once on visit one but not on visit two, but I had enough food.

Quality of ingredients is not high enough to get super high scores but you're not paying super high prices.  It's a simultaneous start for lunch and all ten to twelve diners at the spacious counter get exactly the same food.  You might get a slightly more of a feeling of being on a production line than at other restaurants but Chef Kurihara is a little entertaining and makes time to chat with everyone.  Cutlery is not changed between courses.

The meal includes your choice of after meal drink.  On both visits I had a very good coffee but the quality of drinks otherwise could do with a big improvement.  The weekday lunch is Mediterranean French while the sous chef runs a Spanish dinner course.  Chef Masato Kurihara and sous chef Tomoaki Kuwabara are both ex Joel Robuchon so properly trained.  Chef says he changes the menu "every time".  Take that with a pinch of salt but the menu was substantially different across my two visits.

While paella is still off the lunch menu at Ginza Onodera Makiyaki (review here) this is my new go-to for an inexpensive course lunch.  You don't get the extra flavour of the smoke but the recipes are less innovative (in a good way) and the cooking is tighter.  This might be the best value lunch course in Tokyo.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1309/A130905/13234863/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.1 (value: 5.0)

📱 Booking: 🟧 For weekend lunch, a month to six weeks in advance.  For weekday lunch same week bookings are possible.  You can book by Tabelog or phone.

📍 Location: 

B1F, 6-22 Kagurazaka.  2 mins from Kagurazaka station B1 exit.  B1F dedicated street-facing entrance, no lift.
Map data ©2023 Google

📅 Visit September 2023

🕛 Lunch

Canapes: Blue cheese, rilette, ebi
Chargrilled octopus, chargrilled zuccini, olive tapenade
Cold capellini, awabi, capers, tomato
Pan fried amadai, asahi dashi
Granita
'Chorizo', mustard sauce
Hotate, renkon, piman rice
Chazuke
Nashi soup, cream cheese, wine jelly
Coffee (or tea)

💴 Damage: 9,000 (6000 + drinks @ 3000)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h45m

📅 Visit June 2023

🕛 Lunch

Canapes: Blue cheese, chicken liver, white fish
Chevice of tai, diced veg
Loire white asparagus cold pottage, shika consomme jelly
Sawara, ratatouille, chimichurri
Watermelon granita
Yamagata catarosu, nasu frit, red wine sauce
Ayu gohan
Chazuke
Melon soup, cream cheese mousse, melon sorbet
Coffee (or tea)

💴 Damage: 7,000 (6000 + 1 drink @ 1000)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h35m