Well believe it or not, there are people here in Japan that actually don’t like sushi. Fair enough. But the other day I talked a friend, who doesn’t like sushi, into trying it out one more time before giving up, in a place of my choice.
So I took her to Midori Sushi in Umegaoka, a sushi restaurant which gets a top grade in my black book for taste.
ねえねえ信じられる？ 鮨が嫌いな人が日本にも住んでいることを。そんな人でも大丈夫。先日私のお勧めの場所で鮨の嫌いな友達と鮨にチャレンジして食べてみた。梅ヶ丘の美登利寿司は私の一番好きな寿司屋だから彼女と一緒に行きました。
This trip ended up turning my friend’s sushi disliked mind 180 degrees towards the raw fish! (Hint: make sure you try out the aburi maguro ) Not only is the sushi in Midori Sushi extremely delicious but also very cheap. This combination of taste and low cost attracts people all over, so prepare to enter a queue. We had to wait in the queue, outside, for about 15 minutes in the pouring rain before getting into the queue inside the restaurant. This place is on my regular list and I have had to wait up to one hour!
この小旅行の終わりに友達の鮨嫌いは１８０度生魚党に変わっていた！（ヒント：例えば炙り鮪）美登利寿司の鮨は凄く美味しいだけでなく安い。この美味しさと安さで人々は遠くから来ます。だから長い列を待つ準備をして下さい。私たちは雨の中、店の外で１５分は待った。私はこのレストランの常連ですがだいたいいつも一時間は待ってます。
Umegaoka 1-20-7 [Map],[web] Open 11am-2, 4:30-10:30pm (LO) daily. Tel: 3429-0066, 3429-1166
Midori Sushi is also in Ginza, Shibuya and several other locations but can’t guarantee the price nor the taste.
If you walk out of this restaurant, and you haven’t loosened your belt, you haven’t truly had a Shamaim experience. Meaning “from the sky” in Hebrew, Tokyo’s premier Israeli restaurant serves up nonstop rich flavorful plates of everything from the familiar falafel, breaded steak, fried chicken and hummus to the rarer spicy carrots, garlicy tahini, tomato soup and basmati rice with lentils. Their all-you-can-eat set is incredible and diverse and even my friends who are *gasp* picky eaters, still find enough to satiate even their most tumultuous hunger.
If you want a ghetto style bar then this is the one! Hidden inside a maze of old style Japanese shops, I would guess that burglar alerted people would think twice before entering the maze at night. For the ones who dare to enter can find Namazu in the corner, closest to the Shimo station.
Walking into Aveda, the spa and shop in Aoyama in which one could not possibly help but feel pampered by the bio-organic raw materials, offers of massages, aromatherapy, and yoga mats. Not to be overlooked though, is the attached Pure Cafe, a little bit of edible pleasure which leaves one walking out essentially levitating. Every day, Pure puts together sets, and you can choose your essentials, from soups, sandwiches, salads, cookies, and other dishes like vegan lasagna and torte.
Imagine my surprise then when I stumble across delicious authentic CHEAP Thai food (actually run by Thai people) in the heart of Shinjuku station.
Hungry in Shibuya around noon? Curry-Yasan (カレーやさん) will totally take care of that. Be prepared to enter a queue though, which might make you wonder if Yon-sama is eating in there.
We went with the Mesob set course and although we were avid eaters, after African samosas, mango daiquiris, a bottle of honey wine, a cassis martini, wild goat and chicken kebabs, and somehow french fries?, we were barely unable to finish the main event: Injera (Ethiopian spongey bread) loaded with various lentil, lamb, and chicken dishes.
Tokyo Foodie.com 