A note on the words: makomodake is the swollen stem of wild rice grass, crisp and mild, eaten as a vegetable. Jiang is a Chinese seasoning paste. Char siu is Cantonese roast pork. Kuruma shrimp is Japanese tiger shrimp. Water mimosa is a crisp aquatic vegetable used across Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Sansho is Japanese pepper, and nam pla is Thai fish sauce. Wagyu is Japanese beef, and tontoro is the fatty pork jowl cut you meet at a yakiniku grill. Daikon is the large white radish; the red-heart kind is purple inside. Dongding oolong is a Taiwanese tea. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Nishiazabu Shangu on AutoReserve (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want to eat something good today too. This is Hangover Meshi. Now then: it was Christmas and I had no particular plans and was on my own. In the spirit of eating something good, I decided on Nishiazabu Shangu. I had been curious about it for ages. It is the restaurant of Chef Arishima, who was head chef at Sense inside the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in Nihonbashi — another place I had always wanted to visit. I thought it a very good place indeed to enjoy Christmas alone.
It is in Nishiazabu, but Hiroo is the nearer station to come from. When I got to the shop there was a smartly turned-out person standing outside. Wrong place? I walked past the front. Then, thinking no, surely that is it, I went closer, and it turned out he was there to greet me. That may be a first.
Chef’s recommended special lunch course, seven dishes, 8,800 yen
Chef’s recommended casual lunch course, six dishes, 5,500 yen
Casual lunch? At Christmas one has to make an effort. The 8,800 yen course, of course.
I only noticed after sitting down that this is Chinese cooking with an open kitchen. Being able to watch Chinese food being cooked at length while you eat is a rare experience. Perhaps because I was alone this time, I got the very best seat, first in line and directly in front of the burner. Something to look forward to. Before things began they said there would be a ceremony, and Chef Arishima came out to greet us.
A smiling, kind-looking chef, which put me at ease and raised my hopes for the food to come.
I asked for Dongding oolong tea.
First out was the jellyfish and makomodake. The sauce is a jiang made from several kinds of mushroom. One bite and it is extremely good.
The color and the aroma alone put it beyond the ordinary run of dressed dishes. Jellyfish head? I wondered, and apparently it is literally the head part of the jellyfish. Its distinctive springy texture is softer than ordinary jellyfish. The surprise is how well the rich mixed mushroom jiang goes with something from the sea; the balance of the jiang lifts the plain taste of the jellyfish beautifully. And the crisp, juicy texture of the makomodake alongside it is very good.
Next, the stir-fry. From here on the theater comes into its own. It is a pleasure to watch the whole process from such a good seat.
The ingredients are passed through oil in a big wok. He drains the oil and then sends the flame up with a whoosh to make a show of it. So they entertain you with the sight and the smell of the cooking as well. Watching those delicate hands at work you learn something too: ah, so that is how it is done.
And then this plate. A salt stir-fry beautiful to look at. First the red-heart daikon, juicy and dripping, still with a crispness to it, judged exactly right. Not the slightest oiliness. You expect simple seasoning, and then the savor of the broth rises softly through your nose. Remarkable.
The kuruma shrimp is plump, sweet and springy. The scallop is sweet and full of flavor, and combined with the depth of the broth it makes a very elegant dish. The crunch of the fried dried scallop scattered over it is an accent as well. Delicious.
Once everyone has more or less finished, a signal goes to the kitchen and the next dish begins.
From the left: pork jowl, house oven-roasted char siu, and cold chicken with scallion sauce. The bean-looking things in the middle are cinnamon soybeans, to clear the palate.
The cold chicken is very juicy. Wonderful juices, and very good. The scallion sauce pulls it neatly together. How do they make chicken this succulent? And the char siu in the middle is plump and juicy and very tender. From this best-in-the-house seat you can just see a big oven at the back of the restaurant, and they explained that roasting it there renders off the excess fat cleanly, which is what makes it this good. And last, the pork jowl. Is this really pork jowl? Meat that good. Completely unlike the tontoro you get at a yakiniku place, though a faint echo of it remains. Very good.
This was unbelievably good.
One sip and the soft sweetness of the cauliflower spreads first, and the smooth texture makes it lovely in the mouth. The flavor of the snow crab never asserts itself too much; the crab’s savor melts thickly into the cream and becomes one with it, producing an elegant depth. The depth of the aroma is extraordinary. The yellow thing on top as a garnish is yellow cauliflower. In the soup, a piece of shark fin sits quietly and makes its presence felt. The fin keeps a firm fibrous quality while settling into the rich broth, and every bite is a soup that puts you at ease. The greatest soup there is.
Next, the steamed dish.
Sea bream from Ehime, steamed, eaten with an oriental sauce (Kyushu soy sauce, nam pla and a Hong Kong seasoning sauce, I think), a dish with a Thai or Vietnamese air to it. The bream was steamed for three minutes twenty seconds, apparently. Cooked exactly right, so it truly falls apart. On top are cilantro and scallion with hot oil poured over. The scent of nam pla and cilantro gives it that oriental feel, and since the sauce made with the sweetish soy sauce is so good, spooning it up along with the fish is superb.
To finish, noodles. This clear broth is beyond good. It is the base of every seasoning here. Given that this is so good, everything else is bound to be good as well. Fine Hong Kong noodles, and water mimosa, which I had never heard of — a local vegetable apparently not sold in ordinary shops, crisp and fresh in flavor. Then wagyu loin so soft it seems to melt as you eat it. The seasoning is very gentle, and yet the meat makes it satisfying too. I want this broth in a flask.
And once you have finished that, dessert — with a change of scene. They show you into a separate room and serve it there.
Today, being Christmas, it was a special version. Charming to look at as well.
Well. Thoroughly satisfied.
Everything was so good that it moved me. And on top of that, the theater of watching it cooked in an open kitchen. The chef explains all sorts of things too, and it was such an enjoyable time that I forgot I had come alone. An open kitchen is fun to watch on its own, but the remarkable thing is how properly they build entertainment into it. The food is of course good, but as a total experience I thought it splendid. Perhaps I shall come in the evening next time. I want to enjoy it properly with a drink. Very highly recommended.
Nishiazabu Shangu (Chinese / Hiroo Station, Roppongi Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★★★ 5.0
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
