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Chikuyotei 竹葉亭

Chikuyotei is a Japanese Eel (unagi) and Japanese cuisine restaurant situated in southern end of "Ginza", world's famous brands' shop and upscale department stores area.

In south-east end of Ginza, there was many fancy Japanese-style architectures until 1960s, but now modern tall buildings took over the place. So the restaurant building of Chikuyotei is somehow stranded from many stylish urban skyscrapers. 

The entrance and main building (shown in a photo) was renovated in 1981, but the original building calls "Chaya" ( http://www.unagi-chikuyoutei.co.jp/img/honten_chaya.jpg ) behind the main building was built in 1924 and miraculously kept from air attack from WWII(Quoted from the history of the restaurant). Chaya has several Japanese style rooms with tatami mat (thick straw mats that cover the floor). Would you like to have in the original building? Please make a reservation for special menu with much higher budget ;(

In the lunch time, many business persons in Ginza and Shimbashi district come, and have lunchboxes and unagi ricebowls very quickly to get back to their workplaces. Waitstaffs (mostly middle-aged women with kimono) are always rushing in a hurried manner on the floor until 1pm. But after that, the situation will be rapidly calms down. That's our chance to eat "Michelin-taste" cuisine with quiet manner :)

"Unagi o-Donburi," ricebowl with broiled eel split, is a very famous lunch menu in Japan. It's our main push of Chikuyotei!

For making the ricebowl, chefs carefully fillet eels and steam once. Eels are dipped in sauce, calls "tare" (pronounces separately, "ta-re"), made by shoyu (soy sauce), sake (Japanese rice wine), mirin (sweet cooking sake), and suger. After that, they are grilled on a skewer over charcoal, and served on hot kanin (steamed rice). Because of steaming, eels are very soft and plump.

The webmaster receives an impressed that the taste of unagi in this restaurant is very bland than any other chef's. Chefs tend to strengthten taste of souce to cover cheap unagi's taste up, because the materials' flavour is not good, sometimes smell fishy, sometimes oily.Even for foreigners who thought "You eat eel?!" must be satisfied with the flavour. Soup with laver of eel (calls "kimo-sui") also release mild taste.

"Maku-no-uchi Bento," standard lunchbox, also sounds good. Many Japanese cuisines keep their taste bland. To keep ingredients to a minimum, Japanese enjoys materials' own drawn taste, juice and flavour. On our visit, we meet cooked fillet of white fish, cooked verious autumn vegitables, kanroni (stewed tuna in soy sauce and sugar), kamaboko (steamed fish paste), ｋoya-dofu (freeze-dried bean curd), pickles, and o-musubi (riceball) with shimeji mushroom. A cup of o-suimono (soup) is attached. All cooked foods flavour dashi (clear broth with dried bonito flake and seaweed) mildly and very light. Everyone enjoys the taste of materials themselves. The size of the Maku-no-uchi Bento meal (esp. hangetsu) is probably not suitable for big eaters.

Information

Opening hours:

(Lunch) 11:30-14:30(L.O.), 16:30-20:30(L.O.)

Menu within 20 Euros: (as of the Date in "Visit Record", we can order these in both lunch and dinner time)

Unagi o-Donburi (ricebowl): (A) 2100yen; small size, (B) 2625yen; medium size

Makunouchi Bento (lunchbox): Hangetsu 2100yen; half size, Shokado 3150yen; full size

Photos

Exterior of main building, Interior with chairs, Unagi o-Donburi(A), Makunouchi Bento(Hangetsu size)

Visit Record

Date & Time:

Wednesday, November 21, 2007, 14:15-15:00

Dress code

n/a

Place to See Nearby Here

Hama-rikyu onshi koen (Japanese Traditional Garden)

Reference

Chiliyotei (Japanese)

History of the restaurant (Japanese)