休闲酒店

Black, white and orange are the tricolore of ‘Watanabe-ism.’ Black represents faith that cannot be tainted; white, the freedom to become any colour; and orange, the flame manipulated by the chef. On offer here is a fusion of French and Edo food cultures. Sobagaki is emulsified using French techniques; local Japanese elements include kaminari-okoshi, a roasted and flavoured mochi cracker; and monaka, a sweet of azuki bean paste sandwiched between crisp wafers. Watanabe-ism has deep roots in Asakusa-Komagata.

The name ‘Sobakappo’ encapsulates the chef’s career. He draws on his experience in Japanese cuisine to patiently craft stews and salads of cooked vegetables. Combination platters feature an impressive variety of small dishes designed to complement sake, including simmered herring in sweet soy sauce and marinated grilled shrimp. Soba comes in two varieties: seiro soba served on a wickerwork tray or coarse-ground soba. Noodles are made differently according to terroir, accentuating differences in flavour. A soba apprenticeship: laughing, struggling and loving with soba.

An old-school soba shop founded by a Katsushika-born chef. With ‘good food requires good ingredients’ as his credo, he scours Japan end-to-end to find the highest-quality buckwheat, vegetables and seafood. Among his à la carte offerings, he takes pride in temptations such as conger eel, either fried as tempura or simmered. Juwari soba, handmade from raw buckwheat flour, is fine and silky smooth. Everything here, from the crockery to the food to the interior, oozes old-time soba-shop charm. Amidst the old Edo ambience of Ryogoku, a food culture of deep roots and subtle traditions lives on.

‘Tonkatsu is food for the masses’, explains the second-generation chef, as he aims to serve up fare that is familiar and comforting. Copper pots polished till gleaming and plain wooden counters display a craftsman’s spirit. Two pots are used: one containing hot oil and the other cooler oil. Pork loin is shorn of extra fat and thinly battered. Tonkatsu is the star attraction, so no meat is added to the pork miso soup. As the chef works, a photo of his father in chef’s whites watches over him.

‘A backstreet Italian eatery’ is how this trattoria bills itself. The chef professes his love of Tuscany through his cooking, which includes crostini of chicken-liver paste; beef tripe simmered in the Florentine style; Pici, akin to a thick spaghetti, in tomato ragú is a Sienese primo piatto. The meat elegantly grilled over charcoal flame is best enjoyed with a bottle of red wine.

A veteran eel shop loved by Asakusa locals since the early years of the 20th century. The restaurant is named after the previous proprietor, Hatsutaro; by happy coincidence, ‘ogawa’ means ‘little river’, the favoured habitat of eels. The current proprietor’s wife runs the restaurant with her family, preparing kabayaki with a sauce recipe handed down from the founder. It is a pleasure to wait, enjoying appetizers with sake, while the chef grills your eel. The many ‘senjafuda’, slips of paper posted on shrine pillars by worshippers, attest to the shop’s many loyal customers.

A competitive performance in yakitori run by two brothers, both hailing from other disciplines of Japanese cuisine. Dinner is served prix fixe, with the brothers taking turns serving. Chicken skewers are mainly served salted, keeping the focus on the flavour of the locally raised chicken. As the name ‘Shutei’, meaning something like pub, suggests, the neatly cut snacks and yakitori keep the sake going down smoothly. A number of choices are available for the final dish. Enjoy the ‘baton relay’ of the oyakodon, with the younger brother grilling the chicken and the elder brother wrapping it in eg