[Paris] Yen

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[Paris] Yen

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Yen

Add:  22 Rue Saint-Benoît, 75006 Paris
Tel: +33 1 45 44 11 18
Hours: 12~2pm, 7:30~10:30pm (closed on Sun)
Price: [soba] €12~23 [appetizer] €15~29 [main courses] €24~34
Tasted on: May 2013

Please note that I wrote this a month ago so the comments on weather is no longer applicable…

Apparently Spring is not Spring in Paris this year. The weather continues to be cold and rainy even as we approach June, and this miserable, a.k.a. temps de merde, calls for hot soup noodle therapy. Instead of my usual go-to place Sanukiya, I decided to try Yen, a Japanese restaurant in St. Germain-des-Pres well-known for its soba noodles.

Clean and simple interior.

“Nuta Ae” (€15), raw tuna marinated with seaweed and spring onions in miso sauce.

Chicken Salad (€15), chicken salad in citrus and sesame vinaigrette.

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[Paris] Sanukiya

Categories paris
[Paris] Sanukiya

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Sanukiya

Add: 9 Rue d’Argenteuil, 75001 Paris
Tel: 01 42 60 52 61
Hours: 11:30am~10pm (open daily)
Price: €15~20/person
Visited on: 2012/10

They say the best way to judge whether a Japanese restaurant is authentic or not is to check if the staff and the clientele are both Japanese (though I suppose this is true for any cuisine). In the case of Sanukiya, a small udon and rice bowl shop near metro Pyramides, the answer is yes and yes!

On my first visit, I tested the water with a 天ぷらうどん tempura udon (€15). Chewy noodles, light broth, with two pieces of tempura shrimps. Simple, but very comforting.

Here’s a friend’s カツ丼 katsudon (€14), rice topped with fried pork cutlet and eggs. Didn’t steal a bite this time, but it certainly looked very appetizing.

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[Shanghai] SUN with AQUA 東京和食

Categories restaurant
[Shanghai] SUN with AQUA 東京和食

SUN with AQUA 東京和食

Add: Bund 6, 2/F, 6 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Guangdong Lu 外滩六号2楼, 中山东一路6号, 近广东路
Tel: 6339 2779
Hours: [lunch] 11:30am-2:30pm [dinner] 6pm-11pm
Price: [lunch] 150+ RMB [dinner] 400+ RMB
Visited on: Jul 2012

In my years of living in Shanghai and frolicking on the bund, never once I did step into Bund 6, until last week. I was meeting up with a friend for lunch in the area and felt like having Japanese at the moment. Given the limited number of Japanese restaurants on the bund, SUN with AQUA seemed like the only option we had…so in we went.

I haven’t heard much about this restaurant at all, so was surprised to find it a bustling full house when I arrived at 12:30pm. In case you were wondering, the pictures below were snapped after the lunch rush so the dining rooms look empty.

A popular lunch set choice at SUN with AQUA is Tokyo Komachi Bento 東京小便當 (160 RMB), which comes in the form of 8 small dishes along with assorted tempura, udon, ice-cream for dessert, and tea or coffee.

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[Shanghai] Inagiku at Marriott Hotel City Centre

Categories restaurant
[Shanghai] Inagiku at Marriott Hotel City Centre

Inagiku 稻菊

Add: Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre, 2/F, 555 Xizang Zhong Lu, near Fengyang Lu / 西藏中路555号2楼, 近凤阳路
Tel: 2312 9888
Hours: [lunch] 11:30am-2:30pm [dinner] 5:30pm-10:30pm
Website: www.shanghaimarriott.com/dining
Price: [lunch] 130~580 RMB [dinner] 600 RMB+
Visited: Nov 2012

Please note that this is an arranged tasting.

The recently opened Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre houses a few high potential restaurants, one of them being Inagiku. The restaurant originally began as a small tempura joint in Hamamachi back in 1866, and as its popularity grew, Inagiku opened its first international branch at the Wardorf Astoria in New York, and it can now be found some very fine hotels like Four Seasons Hong Kong, Shangri-la Manila, and Park Hyatt Beijing. Overseeing the Shanghai branch is veteran Inagiku chef Shinji Morihara, who puts together an extensive offering of premium sushi, teppanyaki, and the famous Inagiku tempura.

The interior is fresh and contemporary with navy blue and blonde wood. The main dining room, featuring separate sushi and tenppanyaki bar, overlooks the Winter Garden. The space also includes five private dining suites, seating up to 10 guests.

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