Makiyaki Ginza Onodera (Tokyo) - Single Table Experience, return visit
In a sea of great food in Tokyo, I've recommended Makiyaki Ginza Onodera more than any other restaurant in the past three years.
Why?
Starred restaurant? Check
Not a "famous spot you must check out?" Check
A counter where everything is prepared in front of you, combined with a wood-fired tasting menu? Check.
A tiny space with amazing personal service and a fun, interactive chef? Check
Absolute delicious French-style cuisine with a Tokyo tilt? Check.
You can read about my last experience here:
So I was very excited to return and see what Chef Chef Keiichi Terada had on the menu.
I highly recommend the "middle" choice of menu, as the highest-priced menu features more luxury ingredients, but fewer courses, and doesn't express the full range of Terada's cooking.
We start with some caviar on a seaweed waffle cooked in the fire. An awesome way to start along with some bubbles.
Next comes a quick bite of foie and pickled mustard seed (off menu).
Followed by eel, in sort of a (but not really) puttanesca-type preparation that kicks in with some heat.
The white asparagus is about as French as you can get. Seen here delicately kissed by fire, mixing with the saltiness of the ham and the sweetness of the scallop. Truly a lovely dish controlled by the perfect amount of char.
Tilefish was crisped up with bamboo and a light broad-been sauce to add that "green" refreshing note.
The tenderloin is, of course, of the highest quality, and fork tender.
This would be enough for the savoury section, right? End with the meat course?
Chef Terada is just teasing you now with more to come....
Guinea fowl comes off the fire and is plated up with these thick fermented peppers, whose sweetness is meshed with bitter radicchio. Just a creative, delicious plate.
We now end savoury with Chef's ramen. A small bowl with achingly tender and smoky char siu.
As it's strawberry season, one appears with marshmallow meringue. A puckering sweetness bomb.
We finish with the second best basque cheesecake I've ever had, the first being La Vina in San Sebastian of course. When I showed the gentlemen at La Vina a picture of Onodera's cheesecake, they were stunned it was made in Tokyo of all places. When La Vina says your cheesecake is legit, it's legit!
I will continue to recommend this restaurant and can't wait to return. It has fired, pun intended, on all cylinders at both my visits.
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