Ogasawara Haku Shaku Tei

Address: 10-10 KAWATA-CHO
SHINJUKU-KU, TOKYO

Phone : +813-3359-5830

 

AN ANNIVERSARY (AND VALENTINE’S) DINNER

Yes, I know it’s a little corny getting married on Valentine’s day but I guess it’s too late to make any changes so Valentine’s day will forever be our anniversary. That being the case, it is never easy getting a restaurant on short notice. Our first choice was the Michelin 3 star restaurant Quintessence but they were booked from months ago, so I looked around for another option.

The spanish are excellent cooks. El Bulli in Spain (now closed) used to be the best restaurant in the world. One of the best and most memorable dinners we’ve ever had was in Barcelona, so I decided that on this anniversary, we’d do it the Spanish way. I found Ogasawara browsing through the Michelin book and decided that this one michelin star restaurant would be the prefect venue for our anniversary dinner.

Ogasawara is located in a charming old Spanish style house in Shinjuku which belonged to a man called count Ogasawara. Upon arrival, you are greeted at the door by men in tuxedos and then ushered through this beautiful house still intact with original Moorish influenced design and furniture. The spacious dining room is in the back after passing through a bar and beautiful cigar room. On this particular day it was packed.

My first impression of the place was that the lighting in the dining room was a little too bright for a fine dining restaurant. I guess I’ll be able to take better pictures.

There was only one seven course menu and this was it :

The first course was a small soup of young leek, black olive and oil of saffron curry, with a brioche of “Pisto Manchego”. Unfortunately my picture of this dish turned out blurred but whatever it was, it was delicious.

The next course :

TARABA crab and SHOUGOIN radish with SUDACHI and lemongrass accent

I really liked the third course which was a simple cooked egg in a parsley consomme

Cooked egg with a temperature of 63 degrees with consommé essence of parsley, served with chickpeas

The fourth course was a risotto :

Risotto of galeeny and romanescu with mussel falovered sauce and airy foam of Mejorana

The fifth course was fish :

Placha of alfonsino served with a variation of spinach assorted with bambon of Piquillo pepper

And then, the wonderful beef :

Beef sirloin with winter truffle, sweet potato and Albarracin cheese served with Melaza of Malaga

Pre desert was a warm white chocolate soup :

Warm white chocolate soup layered with avocado cream and jelly of passion fruits

And the heavenly dessert :

Whipped cream rice with an aroma of dandelion, chocolate and yuzu with coal

And of course, a very nice touch for our anniversary, some extra dessert :

My conclusion : The Spanish definitely are good chefs. Food was good and actually fast for a fine dining restaurant. It may not have been a Joel Robouchon, Alain Ducasse or Thomas Keller experience but it was good.