A note on the words: a grande maison is a grand, long-established French restaurant of the formal kind, and déjeuner simply means lunch. Mi-cuit means half-cooked, so mi-cuit tuna is barely warmed through and still raw at the center; effiloché means shredded or teased apart; poêlé means pan-roasted; and an escalope is a thin, flattened cut. Béarnaise is the classic French sauce of egg yolk, butter and tarragon, and crème Dubarry is the name given in French cooking to preparations built on cauliflower. Dukkah is a Middle Eastern blend of nuts, seeds and spices. Ciboulette is the French word for chives. Mignardises are the tiny sweets served at the end of a meal with coffee. Calpis is a Japanese brand name; Calpis butter is the cultured butter sold under it.
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Apicius 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 might just be the first big moment of the new year! “Apicius.” A long-established grande maison in Hibiya. Whether it was because the Grande Maison Paris movie was coming or not I cannot say, but over the new year holidays they were rerunning Grande Maison Tokyo and airing specials. I had not watched a minute of it at the time, but with the free hours of the new year I ended up watching the whole thing — and it left me wanting some serious French food! So, with time on my hands, I decided to go to Apicius, a place I had wanted to visit for ages.
Somewhere between Hibiya and Yurakucho, I suppose?
It feels close from either one. You head down to the basement, and the moment I came down the stairs they had already noticed me — the door opened just about as I reached it, and I was impressed: “Wow!” After a quick exchange along the lines of please use the restroom first if you like, I was shown to my seat.
We were at a table toward the back, and the atmosphere is really quite stately, ha.
Eating in surroundings like this makes me a bit nervous, but I was looking forward to it!
[LUNCH] MARCHÉ — 8,800 yen
[LUNCH] Déjeuner d’APICIUS — 14,850 yen
[LUNCH ONLY] Menu Truffe, a course for enjoying truffle dishes at lunchtime. 27,060 yen
It seems there is a limited lunch where you can eat truffles, at somewhere around 30,000 yen!
Still, since the whole point is “lunch at Apicius,” I went with the “Déjeuner d’APICIUS”!
They asked what I would like to drink first, but
when I said I would like a menu it turned into a sort of “did we have one of those?” and off they went to look for it. ^^
If they had come back with something like “what sort of thing are you after?” I could have asked what non-alcoholic options they had, so — almost there!
I had plans after lunch, so I picked grapefruit juice from the non-alcoholic list.
They asked whether they should bring water too, so I asked for sparkling!
And this one is a rosé!
A little nibble (perhaps they brought it out because we ordered the rosé?)
Olives stuffed with anchovy. There is a fair amount of salt in them, so even one is satisfying. They must go well with a drink.
Calpis butter — I had been curious about it. To think I would run into it in a place like this.
I tried a little of the butter on its own, and the flavor is surprisingly light. I had imagined something richer, but it is light, even easy to eat on its own. It was unsalted butter.
The bread is good, is it not.
- Effiloché of snow crab and sweet shrimp, crème Dubarry
- Mi-cuit tuna with marinated turnip, spiced, tarragon vinaigrette
You pick one of two.
Since there were two of us, we decided to order one of each.
Mi-cuit tuna with marinated turnip, spiced, tarragon vinaigrette
Look at this portion. Impressive!
Bluefin tuna cooked moist and barely through. A sauce of mixed spice (they said it was dukkah, which seems to be a Middle Eastern spice blend) with tarragon added.
The rich tuna is delicious. It is described as spiced, and sure enough the complex aroma of cumin and cilantro meets the acidity of the vinaigrette, and it really whets the appetite. This is good — I was moved.
Effiloché of snow crab and sweet shrimp, crème Dubarry
And this one looks wonderful in its own right! Crème Dubarry is a cauliflower soup, I think?
Snow crab and sweet shrimp, shredded fine, and caviar on top. The petals and the greens are beautiful.
On top of the sea bass, scallop from Hokkaido cut into little dice! And a small perch of sea urchin as well.
So there are garnishes like this too. ^^ Underneath there is green onion and spinach, and a cream butter sauce.
The cooking of the fish is so perfect it is marvelous.
Truly every dish is superb. That rich butter sauce goes wonderfully with fish, does it not.
With the diced raw scallop and the sea urchin together, the balance of the whole thing is magnificent! Delicious!
And really, what a beautiful plate to look at, too.
Fillet steak!
The sauce on the meat was clarified butter and egg yolk and champagne, I think they said.
It is cooked with the sauce laid thickly over it, and if the meat is tender and delicious, the sauce is superb as well.
The thing behind it is neatly composed too, and that turns out to be sauce as well. I ate it together with the meat.
There was a corn-like note to it, but was there actually corn in there? ^^
Lately, with French places, there have been a lot where the fish dishes are honestly far better than the meat dishes!
A place where the meat is properly delicious too is rare. As you would expect from top-tier French.
Well now — just as we were saying there had been quite a lot of food and we were full, out came a little crème brûlée.
A cute size, but properly fragrant, the real thing, the kind where you crack the crisp surface to eat it.
Solidly sweet and delicious!
And then, just as I had let my guard down, another dessert.
Wheeled over on a big cart, no less, loaded with pies and all sorts. Take as much as you like, is the style, apparently.
I was already full, so: a strawberry and pistachio cake and something like a cream puff!
This one is a chestnut tart.
Sweets with the coffee. ^^
Well, I did expect these to appear.
Ah, that was good. The cooking was superb. It really was a fine experience to eat food this serious — the kind you absolutely cannot get anywhere but a place like this. And it is quite easy to reach, in Hibiya. There must be all sorts of good French places around here, so I would love to make the rounds. I think you can enjoy it for the sense of occasion as much as anything. With my life as it is now, lunch is the easier one to manage, but I would love to settle in over dinner with a drink! A delicious place! Recommended.
Apicius (French / Hibiya Station, Yurakucho Station, Ginza Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★★☆ 4.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
