The best restaurant in Asia, and the 12th best restaurant in the world - according to the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants list - is Les Créations de NARISAWA.  We found ourselves with the opportunity to experience this restaurant, and grabbed it with both hands.


We were only able to get a lunch booking at the notice we had available.  There were 2 menus on offer, a pared down summer lunch menu, and a full blown tasting menu - that same that is served at dinner.

Not knowing whether we were ever going to get a chance at this again, we went for the full hog - 10 courses.  At some ¥21,000 a head, this was going to be the most expensive meal we'd ever had (chivalry is alive and well in Tokyo it seems, as my better half was presented with menus with the price removed).



Yes, those etched glass place settings are heavy.  Choice of water, an aperitif, and the meal kicked off with some dough.


Our bread accompaniment was to be cooked on the table, first proving in a bath warmed by candle.  The first course of French radish followed soon after.


This was, well, a radish.  A fresh one, sure, but still pretty much just a radish.  With some toasty ground up mustard seedy, dirt?



Next on the table was a very tasty little segment of onion encased in Narisawa's signature charcoal treatment, in the form of a batter.  The one thing these are not though, is pretty.


The dough, now risen, was transferred to a super heated stone bowl, and capped with a plank of wood to complete the baking process.



Sommelier's choice of white to accompany. Bergerie de L'Hortus Classique 2009, Vin de Pay du Val de Montferrand.  Fruity, clean, dry - excellent stuff.


Then we appeared to have prematurely skipped to the "Gift from the Sea" section.  Which apparently was by design, but, I think it was just a mistake.  This was by far my least favourite dish.  A large-ish piece of squid, doused in its "edible sand look" freeze dried pepper.

Hipster delight.  Maybe we visited at the wrong time of day, but the service was pretty dire, I think I had 5 people serve me.  But hey, I got a free beer out of it - mostly because the dude that took my order promptly donned his shades (every server's sunglasses were lined up one after the other on a shelf of bottles), lit his fag as he passed behind me, and left.  He never added it to my tab, so I asked what appeared to be a more managerial type if he could fulfill my order, which he did with no fuss.  Thanks!  By the way, it's Meantime Pale Ale on tap.  The better half ordered a Tom Collins, which was lacklustre, and expensive (£9) considering it wasn't made with Sipsmith.

Croque Monsieur

Salt Beef Slider

We ordered the house pickles, a croque monsieur, and a salt beef slider for the first round.  The pickles were great.  Fresh, and lightly vinegared - reminiscent of Japan almost.  The croque monsieur was great, although tiny - it made more sense why the guy asked "Is that all?" after this first round of orders.  The salt beef, from Brick Lane, was as good as expected.  But I mean, I guess I could just be less lazy and make the trip and save paying the premium price?

Shoestring Fries

Deep Fried Olives

Second round, and another salt beef slider, with shoe string fries, and some deep fried olives.  The fries were more like crisps, fried all the way through.  I've had them in the US with a little more girth to them - and personally, I prefer them that way.  The deep fried olives were fantastic though.  Definitely worth a look.

Will we go back?  Hmm...  maybe.  Seems to be a lot of hype going on about this place.  I'd be interested to try the mac n cheese, and maybe even the ground beef and marrow slider.  I've got the feeling (taking into account friends reviews) that it's probably hit and miss.

So I didn't go to the Royal Wedding.  I made these instead.  And watched it on TV.  Toats darling, yah.

Recipe:
50 ml Gin
20 ml gomme
20 ml fresh lemon juice
A bunch of fresh basil

Instructions:
Muddle basil vigorously, shake all ingredients and double-strain on fresh ice cubes into a glass.  Garnish with fresh basil.

The room gives a really nice vibe after you've followed the staircase down and around.  A long bar on the right, and tables and booths on the right.  Because of something to do with the licence, after finding a place to sit, you're served with a bowl of twiglets, and some water, and charged some fee.  There are lots of other bar snacks from which to partake, and I decided to try the Fish Fingers with Mushy Peas - utterly delicious!  Crispy coating, flaky flesh and bright green veg.  A great little snack.

The waitress told us that they try to serve each cocktail to each patron in a different glass - cute little touch no?  Nice bar, will return someday.

Lady Dutch

Forbidden Sour

Creamy Madras something or other?

Experience No. 2

Rennaisance

Basil Smash

Ground Pork Rice Bowl

My better half first encountered XLBs in Taiwan a couple of years ago.  She's been looking for something comparable in London ever since.  I recently visited Leong's Legends II with TehBus for lunch, and thought I'd go back to the original with the wife for dinner.  We visited on a Friday night, so were ready to wait before being seated.  You don't queue outside though, you get ushered through the restaurant to line up on the staircase which leads to the lavatories and kitchen.  You can also order a drink at this point it seems, which will be served to you on the stairs.

Leong's Braised Pork Belly

The line moved relatively fast, and we were seated right at the top of the stairs - hungry patrons ogling our table :-).  We started with Ground Pork Rice Bowl.  The meat is seasoned with star anise - I'm really not a fan of that particular spice.  This dish is not for me.

The dishes arrive as they are ready.  Next to show was Leong's Braised Pork Belly.  This was more like it.  A lot of fat going on here, but a decent amount of meat too.  Absolutely delicious.  You might want a side of rice too.

Pan Fried Garlic Shoot

Or, as we chose, the Pan Fried Garlic Shoot.  This was really delicious, and a welcome change in texture from the pork belly (note that this dish is not available at Leong's Leegends II).  It's so simple.  But it's so good.  Fresh, cripsy, and really cuts through nicely.

Onto the main reason we were here, the XLBs.  Or is that SLB?  Leong's Siu Loung Bao were I'm afraid  just too doughy tonight.  They needed to roll them a little thinner or something - I haven't actually watched the creation process of yet, so I have no idea if they are rolled - but the chef's are on display, so I'll have a look next time.  The ratio of soup to dough is just a little off unfortunately.  The delicate soup inside though is delicious, with hints of lemongrass and ginger, and the meat texture completing the package.  Just be careful - they can be hot!  They are good, and I will have them again.  I suggest you give them a go.

Leong's Siu Loung Bao

Shishamo

The fact that the telephone number on the sign sticking out into the street, and on the glass front window, is at least at least 11 years old (if not more - 0171 phone numbers were replaced with 0207 on the 22nd April 2000!) definitely means that Sakana-Tei is not interested in taking bookings from passing business.  For a Wednesday night, the place certainly had quite a few patrons.  So I guess they don't have to worry about.

Upon entering, you're either welcomed up a few steps, or sent to the basement.  We were assigned the latter - so I never even got a look into the main floor.  I'm assuming this is the more desireable section of the restaurant.  We descended some relatively steep steps and were assigned a table.  The basement is pretty brightly lit with a good 10 or so tables of varying sizes, including some booths.  There's not really a lot of ambience going on here. It's pretty functional.

Croquets

We sat and were served an amuse bouche - a little broth containing daikon, carrot, bamboo.  This was simple and quite tasty indeed.

The specials board contains about 40 items on average - and it's only in Japanese.  So if you want to try something not available on the regular menu, you better bring a friendly translator.

Chirashi don

We ordered some Shishamo to kick off the evening.  Quite the Japanese delicacy - and full of eggs.  Which is a little weird, I must admit.  I left most of this to my better half.

Another "side" of squid, crab and cream croquets.  These were rather overwhelmingly creamy, but the meat textures came through, and the crust was perfectly crispy.

Sushi nigiri special

For mains, Y went for chriashi don, and I the sushi nigiri special.  Unfortunately for me, this is where the meal turned south.  I was around halfway through my sushi selection, when I took a bit of the single piece of flounder.  I found this had a distinctly chemical taste.  So much so that I had to remove it from my mouth.  I'm at a lost to explain what was went on here, it didn't smell off, it looked alright - but that taste was just... scary.  Needless to say, this sort of spoiled my meal.  The rest of the sushi was just ok.  As you can see from the pic, the rolls were poorly put together, and were falling apart on the plate as they were placed in front of me.  The chirasi was seemingly generous, and again, the review was just, ok.  We're still sticking to Atari-ya for regular sushi outings for now it seems.