A note on the words: a ryotei is a traditional restaurant of private rooms, and a ryokan is a Japanese inn where dinner is often brought to your room. Furofuki is a vegetable simmered plain and served under miso or a thickened sauce; yosenabe is the everyday mixed hotpot; shirataki are clear konjac noodles; ita-soba is buckwheat noodles served on a wooden board. Shirako is fish milt, here from fugu, the pufferfish; taranome is the young shoot of the angelica tree, a sign of spring; yuzu is a fragrant citrus. Kuroge wagyu is the black-haired Japanese beef breed. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Onzoshi Kiyoyasu-tei, Roppongi main shop, on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want to eat something good today as well. This is Hangover Meshi. This time I was invited out to Kiyoyasu-tei in Roppongi. When I came for lunch years ago the impression I carried away was “expensive place”, and I genuinely could not remember whether I had ever been in the evening for a business dinner or not. So I was rather looking forward to it.
Inside there is something like a courtyard garden, with carp swimming in it. Very smart.
Roppongi, and the feel of a high-end ryotei. There is entertainment in that as well.
Almost every seat is in a private room, which for a dinner like this means you can concentrate on the conversation without minding the room around you.
Anzu course, 12,000 yen
Kiyoyasu course, 20,000 yen
We were treated to the Anzu course this time. (Thank you.)
Two hours of free-flow drinks can be added for 3,500 yen more.
Beer first, I think.
Ah, that is good.
The small bowls of the starter. Bottom right, sesame tofu under yuzu miso. In the middle, black beans. Top right, simmered sardine. Top left, simmered beef tendon — and the tendon is very lightly seasoned indeed, very low in salt, which makes it clean and good in its own way. Beef tendon is usually seasoned strongly, is it not? I had never had a light version before, so it felt fresh.
I suspect we happened to come just as the menu was changing over.
The printed menu at the table bore no relation to what actually arrived.
Sea bream, tuna and pufferfish, I think. The sashimi is beautifully fresh and good.
The menu had said eel, so I did wonder.
What came was crab and chrysanthemum greens, fish balls with mushroom, tofu, shiitake and spring onion, with shirataki laid underneath — a yosenabe, in other words. Warming, and a relief. The crab is good, the greens are good. I like a hotpot portioned out to each person like this because you can control how far your own is cooked. In truth I harbor a desire to cook the spring onion to complete collapse.
Simmered turnip under a yuzu-scented thickened sauce.
A comparison of kuroge wagyu sirloin and round, I think.
This much meat is quite enough. Kuroge wagyu, juicy and good.
If I were told to pick the dish of the day I would pick this one — squarely in my taste.
I am helpless in the face of shellfish and crustaceans. Packed full of picked prawn and crab meat, and irresistible. There is not one millimeter of a chance of it not being good. It would be good without the vinegar miso at all, but the sharp, clean acidity does suit crustaceans. Quite right — crab vinegar exists in this world for a reason. It goes well with the sweetness of the crab meat. (I never use it at home, so it felt new.)
Not the flesh of the pufferfish but its milt, deep-fried.
It is still bitterly cold, but taranome turning up means a little of the spring is here.
Soba! And the soba here is properly good. Cold, superb going down, with plenty of scent to it.
There had been a good many dishes by then and I was full, yet this slipped straight down. Good, this.
The menu not matching what arrived confused me at first, but every dish was carefully made and good, and I was thoroughly satisfied. Being able to sit at leisure in a private room is the great thing — rather like eating in your room at a ryokan. You forget the time and can concentrate on the talk, which makes it a very good shop indeed for a dinner with company. I may start putting it forward when a dinner needs booking. (Budget permitting.)
Onzoshi Kiyoyasu-tei, Roppongi main shop (Japanese cuisine / Roppongi, Roppongi-itchome and Nogizaka Stations)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
One more for the road?
