Akiba Karee-kan

I had to post this — it’s a segment that a Japanese TV show did last spring on Akiba Karee-kan, one of the restaurants I wrote about in this post! It gives you a look at the place, not to mention their food (including a little bit on how nan is made). It also gives some sample prices. Enjoy the silliness that is television in Japan after the jump.

Samosa: One Kitchen, Two Restaurants

Late one night last a couple weeks ago, we stopped in a tiny little Indian restaurant called Samosa in the shadow of the JR train tracks by Kanda Station. I’m not sure you could even call it a restaurant — it consisted of a kitchen, a counter, and about six stools. We made our picks from the menu on the wall, told the cooks, and took a seat. Pretty good curry (I went with the stand-by yasai karee) and delicious nan. But we had realized as we were waiting for our food that on the other side of the kitchen was a window, and on the other side of the window was a full restaurant. So when we decided to go back for dinner last night, we circled around the block and found the other entrance.

It was much nicer than the other side — but unfortunately, as we learned upon opening our menu, it had prices to match. While we had paid around ¥700 or ¥800 for a curry-and-nan set at the counter, the curries alone cost over ¥1,000 here and the nan was extra. And the food was coming out of the same kitchen. I was further disappointed when I ordered the aloo baigan and ended up not liking it much at all; it just had an overpowering taste of coconut and something else that overshadowed the actual ingredients. Mitch said his chicken butter vindaloo was fine, though we both agreed that our dishes were a bit heavy on the oil. As I said, though, the food was coming from the same kitchen as the previous time we ate there, so it was either because of the particular things we ordered or maybe the cook who was working. Either way, I wasn’t happy that we ended up paying nearly ¥4,000 for virtually the same dinner we’d eaten for about a third of that. It all depends on whether your priority is price or atmosphere and service. For us, the next time we decide to eat at Samosa, it will definitely be on the budget side.

The locations we visited were Samosa Kanda Station and Quick Kitchen Kanda Station — which, as I’ve said, were two spaces on either side of the same kitchen (click here for my map). The “Quick Kitchen” space is literally under the train bridge, while the door to the full restaurant is on one of the streets that run along the train line. Other locations are listed on their website: http://www.samosa.co.jp

Eating Indian in Tokyo

TheLadyAmalthea

As is the case all over, Indian restaurants are one of the best bets for vegetarians in Tokyo. They’re at least as plentiful as in the U.S., if not more, and the places I’ve been to so far have all been good. Most of the staff have seemed to speak more English than Japanese, and many have bilingual or semi-bilingual menus. If it’s Japanese-only and you don’t read the language, looking for “vegetable curry” is always an easy bet: bejitaburu karee (ベジタブルカレー) or yasai karee (野菜カレー in kanji and やさいカレー in hiragana). Curries are served with either rice or nan, the delicious Indian flatbread that in the States is only a side dish, but here — and in India I would guess — is used to eat your meal. Click here for what a typical meal looks like.

While staying in Azabu-Juuban, south of Roppongi, we ate twice at a little place called Hathi, just steps away from the Azabu-Juuban station. (I’m not sure which exit it is, but it comes out right by a Tully’s coffeeshop and a McDonald’s — Hathi is between the two in a basement-level space.) Pretty good food, including an entire section devoted to vegetarian curries, and dinner set menus starting from ¥1500. The first time we went, I had mango juice to drink, and it was AMAZING; it tasted like they had just squeezed it themselves, which they very well might have. My boyfriend had the iced oolong, which was equally delicious.

We’ve now moved into the apartment in Kanda, Chiyoda-ku (just blocks from Akihabara), and there’s a cramped little place called Ronak just off Sotobori Dori (map) that has great, cheap lunch sets at just ¥750 a person. Only one vegetarian option at lunch, but it’s quite good, and I think they have other vegetarian curries during dinner.

Along the main drag in Akihabara, next to Mos Burger, there is also the two-story Akiba Karee-kan (アキバカレー館) location of a chain called Siddique (シヂーク). We were lured in by the delicious curry smell, and since it turned out to be an Indian rather than Japanese curry joint, I could actually eat there. They’re quite reasonably-priced — dishes starting at ¥550, even during dinner, most being about ¥750 — and their lunch specials go until 5pm. (By total coincidence, I came across a photo of someone’s meal at Akiba Karee at the end of this blog post that was mostly dedicated to Hokkaido cuisine.)

If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner at the Tokyo Sanuki Club

Well, I’ve crash-landed in Tokyo, and eating vegetarian is definitely just as much of a challenge as I expected — although if there’s one important thing I’ve learned, it’s that it’s certainly doable if you’re not set on eating Japanese food. I’ve already been out for Indian twice and Italian once, all within a 15-minute walk from where we’re staying at the Tokyo Sanuki Club in Azabu-Juuban. Unfortunately, I”m traveling with a non-vegetarian who loves seafood and all Japanese food in general, so I end up holding him back from the kinds of foods he’d like to experience. Luckily, we’ll be here through the spring, so there should be plenty of time to taste everything.

We’ve eaten a breakfast, two lunches, and a dinner at the hotel restaurant during the 4 days we’ve been here, with varying results for me. Read on for all the details.