A note on the words: shungiku is garland chrysanthemum, a leafy green with a distinct herbal aroma. Carottes rapees is the French bistro standard of shredded carrot in vinaigrette, and capellini is the very thin strand pasta. Meshi in this blog’s name simply means “meal.”
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le bilboquet on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. This time, to a French place in Akasaka I had been curious about forever: “le bilboquet“! Lunchtime is always fairly crowded, so my timing never worked out and I could never get in. This time I happened to be walking past, peeked in, and it looked open — chance! So in I went.
White walls with a blue door — a stylish look, and I had wanted to come once.
Chicken and mushrooms in cream sauce, with rice — 1,400 yen (about $9 as of this writing, August 2026)
Keema curry — 1,300 yen
Hot ham and cheese sandwich — 1,300 yen
Chicken breast salad with creamy anchovy dressing — 1,300 yen
Today’s special — 1,400 yen
So, today’s special: chicken thigh simmered in shungiku and parsley soup, with napa cabbage and capellini. Doesn’t that sound good!
First out was bread and salad.
Carottes rapees on top of all that, and this much of it. The vinaigrette clings nicely — delicious!
Ta-daa!
Chicken slowly simmered in a soup of shungiku and parsley, served with napa cabbage and capellini, that very thin pasta. Exactly what the name says. Nice and clear. Sipping the soup, the flavor is gentle. No bitterness from the shungiku — just the aroma drifting softly up through the nose. The long-simmered chicken is falling apart. Try to pick it up with a fork and it already crumbles. So tender! The capellini has gone very soft too, so you could manage this even without teeth, ha.
With the bread and the capellini on top of that, it is more filling than it looks. Delicious.
And this is the assorted plate. Pretty substantial too!
The quiche looks good.
And afterwards I had a coffee ^^
I finally made it to le bilboquet, and it turned out more filling than I expected, reasonably priced and good. A fine place to get a taste of everyday France, I would say. It looks like it would work as a regular haunt, and now I completely understand why lunch gets busy. If you want French home cooking, recommended!
le bilboquet (Bistro / Akasaka Station, Tameike-sanno Station, Akasaka-mitsuke Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
