South Indian restaurants are rare. Dharmasagara isn’t the only one near Ginza (there’s also Dhaba India in Kyobashi, see review), and isn’t the cheapest or the best either. Still …
Address: Chuo-ku, Ginza 4-14-6 Ginza Eight Building 2 FL
Map: see Dharmasagara’s site
Tel. (03) 3545-5588
The Daily Yomiuri reviews Las Totoritas, a Peruvian restaurant in Gotanda.
Shoraku Building 4th Fl., 2-2-2 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo. Open 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Closed most Sundays and national holidays. (03) 3448-0449
Letter from a friend. Note that, when these people were in charge, La Dinette was a first class budget-French restaurant.
I said I’d send you the name of the place that the couple who ran La Dinnette now run. It’s called L’Abeille and it is in Ichigaya. I don’t know the husband’s name (he was the cook) but the wife was called Noriko. I did a very quick google search but I didn’t come up with a phone number.
I certainly felt that, while the new management have kept the low price formula, [La Dinette] lacked something (not just customers) when we ate there last week.
Chiyoda-ku, Kudanminami 3-8-2 Lion’s Mansion 1 Fl.
Tel. 3230-2580
Recently I discovered accidentally that a year ago Richard, the owner of Brin de Muguet in Ogikubo (see review on DOiT) has opened a French food take-out shop near Ogikubo station’s south exit called Le Jardin Gaulois. The place is open all day and closes on Monday. It serves crepes, sandwiches, cakes, and more. I haven’t eaten there, yet, but I am told its food is quite good.
Tel. 090-6167-5245
Address: Suginami-ku, Ogikubo 5-23-13
Finding it is easy. Get out of Ogikubo station and walk straight. The shop is on a corner of the left side of the street about 500 m away.
There’s a Turkish restaurant on Sakae Dori called Deniz. I knew Marmara (which is OK, but no more: tel. 03-3227-5940). It seems it was opened a while back by staff formerly at Anatolia (Tel. 03-3486-7499, see review on DOiT) in Shibuya. A friend whose tastes I trust was there and liked it.
Here is a site (in Japanese) with a map, but the place is easy to find: it’s on the left side of Sakae Dori coming from the station.
Address: 3-4-19 Takadanobaba、Shinjuku-ku
Tel. 03-5386-6030
Open from 11 to 15 and 17 to 23:30.
At first sight Ganesha Ghar looks like something special: there are five Indian cooks in the kitchen, all busy at work. But the curries are not all that great and, with Ama (see the review on my main site) around the corner or Curry House Sai (ditto) nearby, I doubt they will see me back soon. It’s right on the Kita Ginza Shotengai, on the right side of the street.
Tel. 5382-9441
Ganesha Ghar has no site of its own, but the Nishiogi Goulmet (sic) Map has a page (in Japanese) dedicated to it, with address, map and everything else you may need.
The same chain that owns Takadanobaba’s excellent Thai restaurant Kao Tai (see the review in DOiT’s main site) has a well-stocked Thai grocery store, also in Takadanobaba. I buy there my Jasmine rice in 5 kg bags.
Where it is:
Walk from Takadanobaba station towards Waseda and after 300 m turn right into the small alley in front of the Wendy’s. The shop is on the right side of the street, about 50 m after the Billy Barew Beer Bar.
I fond a good and cozy Taiwanese restaurant near Ogikubo station’s West exit.
It’s called Chogoku Taifu, and I recommend it unconditionally. It isn’t the top, but it won’t disappoint you.
Chugoku Taifu
Tokyo-to, Suginami-ku, Kamiogi 1-15-8 Sakae Building 1F
Tel. 03-3220-0940
If you live reasonably near a Kaldi Coffee Farm shop (see list below), you can buy there very cheap Parmigiano Reggiano (see photo).
I have been buying this brand of parmesan at Kaldi in Ogikubo and Kichi Joji for a long time, and they almost always have it in stock. If they don’t, try asking the staff when it will arrive or visit the shop again after a week or so. The price, 700 Yen for 200 g, is a real steal, less than the Kraft shit you buy in those green cans at your local supermarket. A can of Kraft “parmesan” contains 80 g of cheese at a minimum of 300 yen. Mind you, there’s only one Parmigiano Reggiano, and Zanetti is simply the name of the company which buys it, cuts it and packages it under license, so, even at this price, you can be sure you are buying the real McCoy.
This is not the kind of hard, seasoned parmesan we grate on pasta (I have never seen it here in Japan: perhaps they have it at Isetan or places like that …), but rather the soft, young cheese we eat without grating it. It doesn’t matter, because it’s in any case way better than anything else you can get at this price. I am afraid seasoning it by yourself in a place as humid as Tokyo is not an option. I have tried, and failed.
Try eating it as it is: it’s (needless to say) excellent, but it’s particularly good with with salami and/or dry white wine.
Zanetti Parmigiano Reggiano is available also at Seijo Ishii, for example at their Shinjuku Station South Exit branch, but it costs more.
Here is the list of some Kaldi Coffe Farm branches (more in this list (only in Japanese))
Shimo Kitazawa 03 3422-9512
Kichi Joji 0422 201200
Shimo Takaido 03 3323-8897
Sengawa 03 5384-5217
Umegaoka 03 3420-8480
Soshigaya 03 3483-3495
Ogikubo 03 3220-5345
Kinshicho 03 5669-2345
Musashi Koyama 03 379-36201
Mizonokuchi 044 8500085
). I am very curious, and I will go there soon.