Visited Ginza Oishi for their lunch service, heard some good things about the meal and also how the chef was a bit playful. Reserved via Omakase when I saw there was a slot open. There were 12 diners, i was only one solo sat between regulars and infront of the chef. Two others were foreigners sat on the other side. Chef was very talkative in Japanese, he spoke a little english but we mainly communicated through Japanese. He was very knowledgeable about ingredients, sharing tidbits with guests about seasonality, certain areas which produce different things. Most of all, he loved playing jokes with the other guests or fooling around with his staff. He loves to be on camera too lol.
Oishi serves kaiseki style course meal with French technique. A range of extravagant ingredients like caviar, wagyu, fois gras, uni, truffle, duck, pigeon, soft shell turtle, fugu and shirako. Overall had 14 courses, one of which was a limited time special addon not part of the base menu. Base meal was about ¥30,000 while the extra was ¥17,000, only about half the counter ordered the special. The meal lasted about 3 hours
I really enjoyed the lively atmosphere, with the regulars sitting beside me it really did feel like just eating at a friends house for a dinner party. The food itself was delicious, Oishi wasn’t just relying on the ingredients themselves but enhanced him with his cooking style and preparation. The standouts to me were the battered shirako, burger, rice dish. Shoutout to the duck with yuzu paste was also really surprising and delicious combination.
Favourite was surprisingly the shirako, the tomato sauce really paired well with it.
Full menu:
1. Tartarr sandwich, cream cheese, caviar
2. Cauliflower hokkaido uni
3. Wagyu burger, caramelised onions, cheese, mustard
4. Soft shell Turtle soup, chawamushi, turnip and carrot
5. Hassun – a ham + potatoe + spinach,
A pigeon Patte + turnip and abalone + potato carrot
6. Battered and fried Shirako with a tomato sauce
7. (Addition) froi gras and truffle pie, truffle wine sauce
8. Duck, negi, yuzu,
9. Watermelon sherbet with lime
10. Braised lamb
11. Claypot Rice with fugu and shirako
12. Vege Curry
13. Lemon and grape ice cream + lemon sherbat recommended with black chai tea
14. Apple + caramel Pie
by misnopeo
4 Comments
One of the most filling meal I had in Japan !
I think you had a good deal on the foie gras and truffle phitivier. I paid around 25k yen last time but maybe black truffle prices were high back then.
Looks great, nice pictures as well! The truffle-foie gras is an exact copy of a famous signature dish at L’Ambroisie (***) in Paris. Did the chef mention where he got his inspiration?
Glad to see they still haven’t lost their marvels. My favorite item among the course was the Shirako/Fugu rice portion at the almost end.
Good to see that they burned the bread…