Reglisse - Around the back

Apparently, Gentle Reader, Reglisse means licorice. Your Humble Correspondent is equally as confused as you. The thought is that just like licorice is enjoyed by both children and adults (in France), everyone will be delighted by the range of tastes presented. How fitting! This is a beautiful petite 24 seat French restaurant which describes itself as a Premium Bistro. While these seems somewhat overwrought, it works.

Chef Takeshi Hatano describes his food as traditional french ennobled by his particular flair - the cuisine is unique, stunningly creative, and a boon to endacious sojourners like Your Humble Correspondent. He presents you with menus that resonate and gently echo in the contemporary space, where guests wait for the poetic and tantalizing descriptions provided by the floor team led by Kentaro Toda and Sommelier Kaori Hatano.

Yet this is not a foppishly formal or stiff restaurant. It is a place where you want to spend time with someone important to you. A destination for deliberate dining. A haven in which to be pampered. It just seems to flow, with quiet bonhomie and sleek professionalism. One imagines it might be perfect for a Spring or Autumn assignation, or a stylish and romantic dinner for two.

Happily, the course menus seem to focus on five dishes at both luncheon and dinner. These show both imagination and genius, with exquisite harmony. Even the most ardent trencherman (like, say, Your Humble Correspondent) is asked questions without answers. There are pique moments and comfort moments.

As a bit of an imbiber, YHC was flabbergasted by the wine list. Discombobulated. Confounded. Undone. One rarely finds a list so well balanced in terms of both wallet and weight. Not neon-fancy-festooned with grand labels, but carefully considered and curated. New, Old, rare, and fascinating all combine somehow into a singular whole.

A word about the service - impeccable. One imagines things are made smoother by being able to speak and read Japanese, but faint heart ne'er won fair lady. Sally forth!

Located on the Keyakizaka side of Roppongi Hills on the 3rd floor, it can be difficult to find. Toddle onto the elevator next to the Mini showroom and go to the 3rd Floor. Still lost? Find La Brianza and look for the terrace at the back to your right, past Saryo Miyazaka and just before Sushi Sukibayashi Jiro. You deserve a medal ...

Reglisse is a place to visit with close friends and lovers, in small numbers. And that wisp in the wine cellar? Pass by quickly without comment - I'm working.

Pip Pip!

Reglisse: 3F, 6-12-2 Roppongi, Minato Ward  t: 03-6804-3306

Pera: Y5,000 ~ (your call on the wine)

Rating: Food: 8/10; Terrace-ness: 7/10; Service: 8/10; Ambiance: 8/10; Price-Performance: 8/10

Total: 39/50 (3 Forks)

Rinkaso - A haven amid the havoc

If, like Your Humble Correspondent, you wake on Saturday mornings paralyzed with indecision about where you should go for lunch, be anxious no more. Nothing else is as soul-destroying and cause for consternation as to be void of a sensible choice of restaurant. One fears that the question at the Pearly Gates will be about restaurant recommendations.

The Once and Future Blonde and YHC often hanker for a Chinese lunch on weekends. So we were delighted to learn contemporary Shanghai has come to Tokyo (via Yokohama Chinatown) with drums beating and banners flying in the shape of Rinkaso courtesy of the Jogen Group.

Jogenro is one of the oldest Shanghai restaurants in Japan. It has been managed by three generations of Fong and Jin women from the day it opened in 1955 and embodies the spirit of the 1920's 'Old Shanghai' reflecting the French Concession aesthetic - extravagant, flamboyant, exciting. It is also, more importantly, frightfully delicious. So who, Gentle Reader, would be better to take a dull and tired Chinese restaurant (New Hokkai-En) halfway between Roppongi and the Tokyo American Club and turn it into a venue worthy of your attention?

The dilemma with most outlets in the Roppongi - TAC axis is that they mostly produce pap. Pale imitations of good ideas. Wouldn't know a flavor beyond "stale oil" even if it charged across the pavement and bit them on the bum. Exceptions exist, for sure. But these are rare or gut-grippingly expensive. Unfortunately, many customers loitering in Roppongi look for price-performance (i.e. cheap) or stomach fillers (i.e. soaking up the drinks).

Not so Rinkaso. This is a castle built on flavor. An edifice to spices. One that very likely bows to Japanese tastes but seems to host many ethnic Chinese as well. They use the whimsical title "Urban Chinese", as if this helped differentiate from other Chinese cuisines. But it feels authentic, original, and creative ... at least to this gweilo (鬼佬).

Dancing solo one warm Saturday morning, Rinkaso somehow emerged from the mist while one suffered through a confused mental conversation about TAC, Va Tout, or Hobgoblin. It was, Gentle Reader, an epiphany, a "mission from God", an Avalon moment.

The food was sharp, clean, focused ... a counterpoint and pleasure compared to most neighborhood chukas. The course menu of 6 items was a journey rather than a trek. While it may not reach the level of a Michelin star, the stark contrast to other options in the area is in itself worthy of a visit. Go en famille, or solo.

Pip Pip!

Rinkaso: 5-18-2 Roppongi, Minato Ward  t: 03-6277-8353

Rating: Food: 8/10; Urbanity: 7/10; Service: 7/10; Ambiance: 8/10; Price-Performance: 7/10

Total: 37/50 (3 Forks)

Epic Epi

How is it, Gentle Reader, that a classic little cozy French bistro - self-described as petit restaurant - can hide its pretty face in Ebisu for more than ten years without Your Humble Correspondent darkening its doors? Is this some form of évitement? Has one's reputation sunk so far as to be excluded from culinary exploration with other kuishimbo? Oh, the shame! While YHC's emotional recovery may take some time, a recent visit with  Dear James was both enjoyable and instructive. 

The petit comes from a certain absence of desire for scale - there are only six small tables that seat twenty covers, and one feels somewhat too intimate with other diners. For those of us from larger countries, congeniality is a virtue honored better by respect and a humble wave of the hand rather than physical proximity. Epi is therefore somewhat challenging to those of us with figures that resemble more an orange than a carrot.

Epi features time-honored bistro dishes from different regions of France - can you say "comfort food" Gentle Reader? - with generous servings and classic gusto. Chef seems to have quite a thing for mussels both moules and Japonaise. with seven different variations on the menu. What-ho! Cracking stuff with sufficient baguette to mop and sop that brings warmth to both the heart and the belly.

Think bouillabaisse, ratatouille, escargot, pate de campagne, confit ... redolent more of a tabac than a restaurant but with stick-to-the-ribs charm and poise. The menu is only in French and Japanese. This postage stamp of a restaurant is almost subversively, possibly aggressively, the illustration one sees when you look up "bistro" in any reputable dictionary. The cooking is good to excellent, although there is a feeling more of a traiteur than an atelier in the finish and presentation. The Family and YHC enjoyed a very similar meal many years ago in Saumur, before grandchildren. 

The wine list at Epi is almost exclusively French, organized by appellation and with good breadth of price points. There is certainly value to be had: and there is a sense of adventure and novelty difficult to find more at celebrated destinations. At the same time, the numerous empty bottles of famous labels set a tone and an expectation that cannot be met by Your Humble Correspondent's wizened wallet, although one can always look lovingly in the direction of these formidable soldiers while sipping something less eminent.

One feels a certain sense of detachment, though, in the service at Epi. There is a fawning weight of expectancy of detailed knowledge focused toward the clientele - which may be appropriate towards regular joren but not for newbies like YHC. One prefers to be teased, drawn in, titillated rather than quizzed. Perhaps one of those slightly bombastic, sniffy and mustachioed French types with the black folded-over apron might suit.

Do toddle along and try Epi dear Reader. Look for friends and lovers that might accompany you. Set yourself a mission to become a regular. It's worth it. And if you open an expensive bottle, save a glass for me. I'm disguised as a gargoyle on the outside deck.

Pip Pip!

Epi: 2-10-6 Nishi-Ebisu, Shibuya Ward t: 03-3780-8687

Rating: Food: 7/10; Epi-cness: 7/10; Service: 6/10; Ambiance: 8/10; Price-Performance: 7/10

Total: 35/50 (3 Forks)