A note on the words: this blog is Hangover Meshi, and meshi means a meal. Kaiseki is a set meal served as a run of small courses, each with its own name — owan is the soup course, otsukuri the sashimi course, yakimono the grilled course. Karasumi is mullet roe cured and dried into a firm block, then grated over food or picked at on its own with a drink; kabayaki is fish split open, skewered and grilled with a sweet soy glaze. Tokishirazu is a salmon caught outside its usual season, in early summer, and prized for how fat it carries. Shime is the dish that closes a night of drinking. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Book a table at Kurayamizaka Miyashita, Azabu Main Branch, on AutoReserve (English)
I want to eat something good today too. This is Hangover Meshi. Today I was invited out to Kurayamizaka Miyashita, the main branch in Azabu-juban. It is a counter place, so you can watch the cooking in the open kitchen right in front of you. Or rather — from the moment I sat down there was a very good smell of Japanese cooking in the air, and I was already getting hungry.
Charcoal-grill kaiseki course (3 charcoal-grilled items / 6 courses in all) 6,600 yen
Charcoal-grill kaiseki course (5 charcoal-grilled items / 6 courses in all) 8,800 yen
This time, the 8,800 yen course.
There are versions that come with rice cooked in a clay pot as well, but I usually end up full anyway, so I am glad of one with no rice dish in it, where I can add things as the evening goes. In that sense it is good that a course like this exists.
Beer first!
Ohitashi of blanched greens in dashi, mozuku seaweed in vinegar, a simmered dish, meat in a sauce with caviar in it, and so on.
A little of this and a little of that is one of the good things about Japanese food.
Chicken ham, horseradish, and seasoned nori with a wasabi flavor. Rolled up and eaten together, the chicken and the wasabi work nicely.
Chrysanthemum petals and mushrooms. They were slippery, so nameko, perhaps. And a squeeze of sudachi citrus, I think.
A good broth with plenty of dashi in it, carrying the scent of the mushrooms and a faint sourness. The crisp bite of the petals is part of what makes it good.
Tuna, and matsukawa-garei — barfin flounder — I think they said. You do not often see matsukawa-garei at an ordinary restaurant.
They told us the grilled course comes as three kinds on the same dish, and the first is tokishirazu, a salmon caught out of its usual season in early summer.
Plenty of fat on it, and the cooking is judged just right. Soft and good.
The skin side is especially good. Eaten together with shiokara, salted fermented squid, and grated daikon. Since three kinds are coming, though, a little at a time.
Sawara, Spanish mackerel. This one is cooked to just the right point as well, and the fat spreads through your mouth as you bite in.
Tuna, seared quickly on the surface. It carries a toasted aroma and is good.
A drinking snack, this one!
And with that, they told us the course was finished. So, a few extras.
^^
The one-bite karasumi soba you see everywhere lately.
They will grate on as much karasumi as you like — carry on until you say stop, that sort of thing.
I asked for a lot of it since it photographs better that way, and this is how much they gave me.
Karasumi and soba do go together. They put plenty on, but you can also simply pick at the karasumi while you drink, so it is excellent as a snack too.
Ice cream.
So: a short course with a few things added comes out about right. If you are here mainly to drink, this is plenty. Anyone who wants a substantial shime, the dish that closes a drinking night, might find it light — in which case adding the clay-pot rice, or ordering the set that includes it from the start, should settle it. The room has a nice feel to it, and I thought it well suited to a quiet meal with conversation.
Kurayamizaka Miyashita, Azabu Main Branch (Japanese Cuisine / Azabu-juban Station, Roppongi Station, Hiroo Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
