• 3
• Desynchronized dining

Disappointing with the typical hang-ups in Japanese restaurants of a western style. It starts with the one menu per table thing. Does it cost that much more to hand out one menu per person? Would you like me to bring my own toilet paper as well? My appetizer arrived 10 minutes after we placed our order. My friend’s appetizer arrived another 20 minutes later, so a grand total of 30 minutes after order placed. That the individual dishes of a course – say appetizers – aren’t served at the same time so that all guests can enjoy them at the same time is a problem that often occurs in western-style restaurants here. This alone in my view deserves two stars taken off the rating. Same thing happened with the main dishes – served nearly 20 minutes apart. Food quality was mixed. I got off on the wrong foot with the “feta cheese style tofu and vegetables”. There was absolutely nothing “feta cheese”-like about this. This was simply firm tofu cut into small cubes and – possibly – faintly marinated. To me it tasted like plain tofu. I then had the ricotta style ravioli with caper cream sauce. This was nice. My friend had the lentil stew which was, nothing special but not bad either. My main was the souvlaki with pita. This was very good. Except that the so-called tzatziki sauce just wasn’t a tzatziki sauce at all. To be precise, it was neither tzatziki nor sauce. Instead it tasted like herbed sour tofu cream cheese. I know what I’m talking about. Tzatziki is easy to veganize since vegan yoghurt is available in these lands. I'll send them a jar of what it's supposed to taste like on the next few weeks. Anyway, the skewer comes with a couple of tofu cubes, a couple of tempeh cubes, a couple of sweet potato slices and a couple of other veggies. All items are marinated and taste great. My friend had the tempeh with tahini sauce which was also quite good. In fact, I would say this is the first place in Tokyo I have been to that seems to know how to handle tempeh. We didn’t have it but I suspect that desert might be the best part of the menu. Atmosphere in the place is more that of an “evening café” rather than a restaurant. Seating is comfortable enough but not very comfortable. And, as so often in Tokyo, spacing of tables is tight. This should really be a 2-star review but considering the lack of better competitors...