吃飯了嗎？

Cuisine[s] Michel Troisgros

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Got a decent travel package for a sakura-watching excursion to Japan. Except for the initial flight which landed in Tokyo in the afternoon so it didn't leave much free time after we reached our Shinjuku hotel. Decided to just relax and have a nice meal in the area for the evening, and they don't come much nicer than this. The signature restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Shinjuku is imported from France, an offshoot of the Michelin three-star Maison Troisgros in Roanne. The plural [s] added to the name of the Japanese branch signifies the fusion between French and Japanese cuisines, and it carries two stars of its own. So I made a later reservation, which left us enough time to go up to the Tocho tower's free observation deck to take in the view of the Skyscraper District, before crossing the street to the Grand Hyatt.

The clientele was mostly Japanese, dressed up for a special meal, as the menu is expensive even by Tokyo standards. But hey, we were already saving money in Tokyo by squeezing ourselves into tiny business hotel rooms, so we can splurge for the fancy meal. So splurge we shall. Two different tasting menu options for the wife and I to try everything they had to offer. They dressed up the room in the style of an intimate European library, with dark wood paneling and paintings on the walls. Unfortunately it's hard to fully disguise the fact that we're in the basement of a rather sterile building in the midst of a business district at night, without much scenery or street-life outside. The service was appropriately considerate, but our Japanese waiter's English wasn't really good enough to communicate the nuances of the dishes, so we had to rely on the flowery but limited descriptions on the menu to guide us.

Tomato with candied sesame shell, sesame coated rice cracker, thin slice of apple on spinach puree with a cheesey shortbread base.

It's a tomato salad. That's so not doing the dish justice. But I couldn't remember the details of the off-menu appetizer, not that our server's broken English was much help in the description, aside from its main ingredient

Scallops with sweet pepper and Yuzu Kosho, cucumber and crispy Daikon

Perfectly cooked scallops with a tasty fruity topping.

Shellfishes, quintessence of tomatoes and cuttlefish ink, fennel

Wow, that's a combination I wouldn't ever have thought of. A challenging array of colors, textures and flavors.

Sea bream with grapefruit nage, caviar, celery and basil

Sea bream (鯛) is a cornerstone fish in Japanese cooking, but the preparation is all French nouvelle cuisine. Made sure to scoop up all the little caviar bits with my fish spoon.

Roasted monkfish tail, liquorice and lemongrass

This was dressed with the most amazing beef consomme reduction. The flavor was familiar, almost like a Chinese roast 滷汁 sauce. But with all the richness and flavor of a top-notch French sauce.

"Embraced" Kuruma prawn and rabbit, lemon confit, bacon and sage

The rabbit was surprisingly chewy, almost as much so as the prawn. Fantastic pink color on the rabbit. Cooked sous vide?

Tofu ravioli with black truffle

Off the menu, but a signature of the restaurant's fusion intentions. The almost rubbery tofu skin covers a pool of intense truffle goodness. The black-and-white contrast of the tofu skin and truffle sauce is striking.

"Kuroge Wagyu" beef fillet, melting shallot, rucola and tarragon

Even at the price we're paying for this meal, the piece of wagyu fillet was not much more than a taste. But what a taste it was. One could enjoy the meaty taste of unadorned fillet, pair it with the slightly sour creme fraiche, or dip it in the herbaceous shallot-rucola-tarragon sauce.

The beet cubes on scallion stems were a cute accompaniment.

Calf's sweetbread with arabica sauce, raisin and carmine

"What organ is this?"

"Don't worry about it, just eat it."

Tender sweetbreads dressed with a coffee-flavored middle-eastern-style sauce.

Crispy canneloni with herbs

Beet juice and olive oil dressing, cool cheesey filling.

Truffled Brie

I am not usually a big fan of strong cheeses, especially near the end of a big meal when I'm already full with other rich foods. But this was really tasty without being overpowering. Getting a bread-refill to go with the cheese helped, too.

Citrus soup with mint and yogurt, underneath a won-ton crisp.

Ice cream with strawberry sauce in crisp meringue shells.

Our server suggested that dessert time would be best for a picture together. Excellent idea.

Crispy caramel and praline, ginger and yogurt ice cream

The crisp ginger-yogurt flavor nicely complemented the sweet caramel and praline.

Aerial mille-feuille with marinated strawberries, lemongrass ice cream

First time trying lemongrass ice cream. Works better than expected. Mille-feuille is a favorite dessert of the wife's so she got a large piece of it. A classic done classically well.

Mignardies: Marshmallow, sugar-donut, chocolate mousee, macha fiancier, and yuzu gelee.

We typically take away the petit fours after a large meal like this. But here they've mastered the Japanese portion sizes to fill you up perfectly without leaving you unsatisfied or bloated (if you were an average Asian person). And so we were able to still enjoy the mini-candies with our coffee and tea.

With our late reservation and sedate pace of consumption, it was getting near midnight by the time we paid the check. Living up to Michelin stars' standards of service, the maitre'd was willing to indulge our slightly annoying penchant for photos even as we were leaving late into the evening. It was a fantastic meal, beyond anything one might find in Taiwan short of L'Atelier de Robuchon. But I had to admit it hurt a little bit to watch all those 10,000-Yen bills flutter away. For our next trip I shall take value more into consideration over stars and such.

Cuisines Michel Troisgro[s]
東京都新宿区西新宿2-7-2
ハイアット リージェンシー 東京1F
Hyatt Regency Hotel Tokyo 1F
+81 3-3348-1234

Posted by mikewang at April 8, 2010 09:30 PM