Nebuka

Nebuka (根深)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🇯🇵 Japanese / 📍 Roppongi

📓 Visits: 1

I was super excited to see the second restaurant from the team behind Kanjo, which I loved, open in February 2024.

The food focuses on vegetables, though it's not a vegetarian restaurant.  An omakase course is just 15,000 JPY plus 10% service, which is highly appealing in this inflationary era.  You can also dine a la carte.  Refreshingly, there's no simultaneous start and you can eat at your own pace.  I chose the course.

1. France white asparagus, asparagus dashi.  The best white asparagus I ate that season.
2. Carrots, herb butter.  Too strongly perfumed with raw herbs and I've had better carrots many times.
3. Sakuramasu mi-cuit, shin tamanegi, yomogi oil.  Probably the best dish of the night.  Thick, perfect mi-cuit.
4. Rigatoni, ragu of shika and inoshishi.  I don't like pasta unless it's exceptional (this wasn't).  The ragu was delicious.
5. Bread. 8.5-9//10.
   
6. Mei cabbage, kale, hotaru ika, sauce Americane.  Very salty but I liked it.
7. Ebi imo karagge, mimolette.  Everyone loves fried tubers.
8. Inoshishi sumiyajki, cumin, coriander, quinze jam.  Needed to be cooked low and slow but decent flavour and I loved the cumin.
9. Jasmine rice 'risotto', Jerusalem artichoke.  Not a true risotto but delicious.
10. Amazake ice-cream.  Technically perfect.

The course was advertised as including around ten dishes.  If you don't count the bread (I don't) I was served nine.  It's now advertised as eight dishes.  If you were only served seven you might be disappointed.  If the course isn't enough you can add from the a-la-carte menu (in Japanese only).  Dishes range from 1,500 yen to 3,000 yen for appetizers and up to 5,000 yen for mains.

It's hard to score the food.  It's somewhere between a kappo restaurant and an izakaya.  So if you're expecting kappo-level cooking you might be disappointed.  If you're expecting izakaya-level cooking you're likely to be very happy.

There was no drinks menu so I requested two glasses of Champagne and water.  As I mentioned the course is 15K + 10%.  My bill came to 24,300.  No itemized receipt was provided so it seems like those two small glasses were around 3k each and water is charged (they asked me if I wanted still or sparkling).  If I'd known the price in advance I might have ordered differently but non-alcoholic options were limited and I didn't want to drink tea.  In conclusion, the food is cheap but the drinks are expensive.  You probably get that picture from the fact that the wine pairing is the same cost as the food.  Not an unreasonable business model (there are places that won't take your reservation if you don't drink wine) but not one that appeals to me, especially when it's not transparent.  If the drinks were cheaper I'd probably go back but it doesn't feel like the kind of place where you can just sit comfortably through the whole meal sipping water.  It turns out the owner also owns a members-only wine bar and the chef did the food there before.  Well, that explains it.

I think they'll do quite well.  Like at Kanjo, a couple of the staff look like they should be in a boy band rather than be working in a restaurant and there are a few elements to the service that you need to be native or have been here a long time to fully appreciate (if that's not you then don't worry as it won't affect the taste of the food).  There are a lot of bad restaurants in Roppongi.  This one isn't and they're open till late.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13293306/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.05

📱 Booking: 🟩 An easy reservation via Omakase.  Phone if you're dining alone or for more availability.  You'll be asked to complete your reservation via Omakase.  A limited number of seats are also made available via Tabelog.

📍 Location: 

2F Miyazaki Bldg, 6-8-28 Roppongi.  2F multi-tenant building.  Head towards the hair salon and take the lift/stairs up.  4 mins from Roppongi Station Exit 3.
Map data ©2024 Google

📅 Visit Spring 2024

💴 Damage: 24,300 (15k + 2 drinks + water + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h40m