A note on the words: ajillo is the Spanish dish of things simmered in garlic and olive oil, served in a small earthenware pan. Shirasu, rendered here as whitebait, are the tiny translucent young sardines eaten whole. A lemon sour is shochu, a distilled spirit, with soda and lemon. Sakurofil is a Japanese over-the-counter chlorophyll tablet sold for garlic breath. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Ninnikuya on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want something good to eat today too. This is Hangover Meshi. It has been cold lately and I can feel my energy draining away. At times like this, a garlic charge. So this time I decided to visit Ninnikuya in Ebisu, a restaurant specializing in garlic dishes. Now and then it is surely fine to go home smelling a little of garlic. And unless it is raw it does not smell that much, and there is always the last resort, Sakurofil. Let us not worry about it.
About ten minutes’ walk from the station, I think. The garlic illustration is charming.
This time we added the two-hour all-you-can-drink for 3,000 yen and decided that where food was concerned we would simply order whatever we felt like. I suspected there would be plenty we wanted. Eat what you like.
A lemon sour. Looking at the drinks menu there is a lot of wine. There is nothing like a garlic drink.
The menu says that to keep things moving, appetizers are limited to two. But there were only about three groups in that evening, and when I asked they told us to have as many as we liked today. Excellent.
The first garlic dish is the ajillo. The smell of garlic billows up the moment it is set on the table. That stirs the appetite. The ingredients are whitebait, broccoli and tomato, I think? Onto a thin slice of baguette and in.
Yes. Delicious.
Oil that has taken on the smell of garlic thoroughly, with chopped garlic on top for good measure. Good. Today I shall drown in garlic.
The famous garlic toast cannot be skipped. It turns up in the shop’s photographs all the time. I thought one each might be too much, and they told us it can be shared. They push the garlic from the top down into the bread and cut it into three.
The same garlic toast in the anchovy and cheese version is split lengthways and loaded with cheese. The calories must be about triple, but it looks wonderful. I was given a bite: garlic, anchovy and cheese is far too reliable a combination. It is good.
Chicken liver terrine. Garlic is kneaded firmly through it and sits on top as well. Paired with the sweet, faintly acidic fig jam it turns elegant despite being garlic, which is interesting. Or perhaps I am simply so wrapped in the smell of garlic by now that I no longer notice.
Thinking that if it had been busy we could have had only two appetizers, I felt very lucky it was quiet. Next, eggplant stir-fried with garlic. The eggplant drinks up the garlic oil, and this is delicious. It looks doable at home, so I shall try copying it.
The orders will not stop. Garlic-smoked sea bream. This was very good indeed — smoked sea bream wearing a faint garlic character is irresistible. It goes perfectly well with dill too, or rather, I learned that it is delicious that way. Next time I smoke salmon I may give it a garlic character.
Someone dislikes coriander, so we asked for it on the side. Garlic shrimp was never going to be anything but delicious. Good enough that I ordered a beer without thinking. The impression is that they use garlic more firmly than an ordinary restaurant, and the punch of it is wonderful. Then the coolness the coriander adds on top. Splendid.
The appetizers are all good, and being told to pick only two from here would be hard. This is the mashed potato. Reading the English name it says oven-baked. Mashed potato given a proper baking goes well with garlic. Then again, mashed potato is butter, milk and potato — of course it goes.
The punch of garlic with the freshness of a genovese sauce. Good.
Last, the main: garlic chicken. Chicken grilled fragrant, with garlic and garlic chips — the match goes without saying. Garlic to the very end, and eating only this never wears you out. Because although these are garlic dishes, they are not only punch: each one stands up properly as a dish in its own right. Thoroughly satisfied.
Among garlic specialists this one is fairly calm, or orthodox — whatever that means. Everything uses garlic, but rather than pushing garlic to the front, the feeling is of dishes made delicious with garlic used properly. The wine-heavy drinks list and the calm, stylish room may be part of the same thinking. Here you could even do a garlic full course for a small anniversary. If it is elegant garlic cooking you are after, by all means. Recommended.
Ninnikuya (Steak / Ebisu Station, Hiroo Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
