Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba’s restaurant in Ginza

Last Wednesday, I had lunch at Kaishoku Michiba, the restaurant owned by Iron Chef, Rokusaburo Michiba. Fitting for the expensive and luxurious Ginza, the restaurant was high class dining.

The restaurant is very popular so my friends and I had to book in advance to secure a seat. All the diners were upper-class Japanese people.

There were four set menus to choose from and obviously, I chose the cheapest one, Goho-Zen, and even that was not cheap as it was ¥3150 (about $40AU).

Here’s a show and tell of what I ate:

Hors d’oeuvre Platter
– grilled cheese aged in miso and sake lees
– homemade botargo sushi
– wine marinated cherry tomato
– sweet-soy sautéed fresh oyster
– simmered ebi-imo (taro from Kyoto)

Soup
– crab and fish cake served in delicate bonito consommé
garnished with donko mushroom, mituba herb and yuzu citrus

Main Course
– sashimi of the day
– steamed hot pot with cod, tofu and grilled leek served with citrus soy sauce
– tender simmered herring served with turnip flavoured with Arima sansho pepper and kinome herb
– deep fried fresh fish of the day and vegetables flavoured with Michiba’s special sauce

Noodle dish
– Sanuki wheat noodles (udon) served hot (or cold)
(Customers were able to choose between this and a rice dish in which steamed rush was served with miso soup)

Dessert
dessert of the day

It was a nice lunch and all the dishes were cooked well. However, I think I would have had a better experience if I had purchased a more expensive meal. The set I had was a bit simple and not the most filling meal despite the wordiness of the menu. Of course, in my opinion, that’s not the reason you come to Machiba’s.