Welcome to Aoyuzu Tora. A seafood restaurant specializing in Grilled Cod and set lunches. It's a stylish little place in the Marunouchi building. Located right across the street from Tokyo Station and just down the road from the Imperial Palace. A nice place to stop after tea with the Imperial Family. More than likely, you will find yourself near this place at some point on your trip to Tokyo.
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| Can you find Shaun the Sheep? |
You can wander the shops along the way to the 6th floor where all the restaurants are. Along the way you can stop for a cool view of Tokyo Station. You can step out to the viewing deck if the weather is nice.
After you've stopped for your Tokyo Station selfies continue on up to the 6th floor. Once at the 6th floor you'll find Aoyuzu Tora just off to the corner. Next to a crap load of fake food and a massive lantern!
So this is some of that famous fake Japanese display food you might have heard about it online. This is a perfect example of it. That whole table is covered in resin sculpted food. Go ahead, poke it. There is an entire neighborhood in Tokyo of shops that sell order made fake food. Goofy souvenir heaven! Head down to Kappabashi in Asakusa if you're interested in. This display is the set lunch menu. Each tray is what comes in the set and has a price written on it...in Japanese. They are all under 25 USD. This is a mid range priced lunch but the fish you are about to have is shockingly good.
Get ready to make some friends because you'll be sitting at these massive ultra modern picnic tables.
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| So what'll you have? |
And bam, there is your menu. Probably not very helpful, but luckily they have all that handy dandy fake food out front you can go and point at! Don't be shy.
Get the maguro. Just say maguro when the waiter comes. It'll be somewhere on that impractical 2x4 plank menu. This maguro was amazing, it was like biting into a solid piece of butter that grew up in the pacific feasting on almost but not quite as yummy smaller fish. This plate of maguro costs about 12 bucks. So you're looking at about 2 to 3 USD per slice of sashimi. Sound extravagant? Well, it's not as extravagant as the flavor and this is what you came to Tokyo for.
Let's talk about the price of maguro for a moment. Tsukiji market is about a mile away from this place. Tuna at the market is sold in an auction. So if you ever get the urge to go see a bunch of grizzly old sushi chefs bark at each other over the price of a tuna, you can. What this means though is, the best looking tuna went to the highest paying bidder. Which is most likely Jiro, the sushi savant from that documentary. Who cares? Me, the eater. The higher the price the better the tuna. This isn't a bottle of red wine, price divorced from reality. Being this close to the tuna auctions the price you pay is going to reflect quality and nothing else. The little nuggets of ocean gold on this plate were alive and well, minding their own business just hours before yours truly was taking photos of them. It makes a difference. This tastes incredible and I don't know another country where you can eat this simple, flawless dish at the quality it is served here.
Cue lunch set. I got the grilled cod set. Comes with some pickles, rice and miso soup. Very basic set. Sorry for the dull photo. This is kind of hard to get excited about in pictures but that slab of cod right there is incredible. It is grilled, that is all. There are no sauces, no salt, no pepper. It is served with a bit of crushed radish should you be overwhelmed by the immense natural flavor of this cod. Hello omega fatty acids, goodbye crows feet.
You can also put a bit of say sauce on it.
Every time I eat this dish my first thought is "this is what grilled fish tastes like." I know that sounds strange but when the piece of fish is good enough to stand on it's own like that it forces you to consider if what you usually eat lacks natural umph to the point that it warrants a good spritzing of (insert sugar or spice based sauce).
The Japanese like to describe the oily aspects of grilled fish. If it's not oily, it's most likely not up to par. This is good for you oil as well. The kind they sell in horse sized yellow pills at Costco in the US.
Takao got the Tai Ocha Tsuke set. This thing is awesome, way more exciting than my set but I love the grilled cod here. This set needs a little more explaining. Ocha Tsuke means "instant wafu risotto" which sounds way better than "gruel". Ok, so in the teapot is a tea based broth that is similar to a soy sauce ramen broth. Which is special to this restaurant. Behind the pot is sea bream sashimi. How you do this is you put some rice in the bowl, add whatever pickles you like. Then, lay your sea bream sashimi on top of the rice. Finally you pour the piping hot broth on top of it all and dig in. It's wonderful! Like putting on underwear fresh out of the dryer, or a hot beer on a cold christmas morning. If this sounds appealing to you, I did a piece on a restaurant that ONLY does this sort of meal...and they serve it in little cauldrons! Here you go.
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| Just like grandma used to make! |
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| I think they are discussing fish. |
All in all, this wont be your most exciting, off the wall meal in Tokyo. This is a lunch place, I've never been here for dinner and I don't intend to. The grilled cod lunch set is too firmly set in my mind as the only thing to get here. Perhaps you'll be more bold. Also, beer goes GREAT with this set. I abstained for hangover related reasons (it was the night after my 36th birthday). That being said though, this is one of my all time favorite go to places for lunch if we are in the Tokyo Station area. If you're here on holiday, I am sure you will be in this area at some point, so give it a go.
Enjoy!
Bonus Info: if you live here in Tokyo there is a place called "American Pharmacy" in the basement of the Marunouchi Building that has a lot of Walgreen's or CVS type stuff from the States.
Some Marunouchi Buidling Info : Aoyuzu Tora
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