A note on the words: a hamburg steak is a seasoned patty of ground meat served on a plate with sauce and knife and fork, not in a bun — one of the staples of yoshoku, the Western-derived cooking Japan made its own. A family restaurant is the Japanese term for a casual sit-down chain diner with a long illustrated menu. Karaage is chicken cut into pieces, marinated, coated in starch and deep-fried. Sauce Périgueux is the classic French red-wine sauce flavored with truffle, and an œuf poché is simply a poached egg. Shimeji are small clustered Japanese mushrooms, and burdock is the long, earthy root vegetable known in Japanese as gobo.
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Gusto Kamiitabashi on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. I had an errand that took me to Kami-itabashi Station on the Tojo Line. I thought I might have some lunch, but I was short on time, so I decided to get it done quickly at the family restaurant that caught my eye — Gusto. The Kami-itabashi Gusto is quite large. ^^
There was a sign like this where you climb the stairs to go in.
Oh?
So a restaurant called L’allium in Shirokanedai has collaborated with Gusto and started serving a French course, is that it, ha.
That is interesting. And it is 1,990 yen, ha. Cheap.
Now this I am rather curious about!
I thought about going for the course, but looking at the menu, there is a main-only option. At 1,290 yen, no less.
I did not have much time, and I figured I did not need the bread or the dessert, so I picked that one.
While waiting for the hamburg steak, it occurred to me that Gusto’s karaage is the Karayoshi kind.
So I added an order of honey mustard thigh karaage. ^^
For a moment I thought: rather than ordering this, should I not have ordered the soup that goes with the course?
But that is not the point, is it. ^^ I wanted karaage!
The flavor is mustard swung well over to the sweet side. It must indeed be honey mustard, but I do not think I felt much richness from the honey. Or rather, maybe karaage suits a restrained honey aroma and richness better.
As a flavor it is straightforwardly delicious. Each piece of meat is big, too, and at 500 yen I am perfectly satisfied!
Right, here it comes. The hamburg steak, the main of the French course.
I have been eating French food in all sorts of places lately! I was looking forward to seeing what family-restaurant French would turn out to be.
Oh, that looks properly appetizing.
The patty looks like the same one Gusto uses for its so-called 100% beef hamburg steak.
The sauce is sauce Périgueux. A red-wine-based sauce carrying a truffle aroma.
One taste and it is a delicious sauce, a faint scent of truffle with the depth of red wine coming through clearly.
The seasoning feels fairly assertive! And this much clarity makes it easy to read! Good!
On top of the hamburg steak there are burdock chips, and the garnish is an egg marinated in red wine sitting on mashed potato.
An egg marinated in red wine, I thought — what is that, ha. A poached egg, an œuf poché, essentially.
An egg cooked soft and runny, marinated in some red wine preparation, presumably.
The color is a slightly deep purple, which startles you a bit, but touch it with your chopsticks and it collapses softly, the soft-cooked egg coming out from inside.
Mixed with the sauce and eaten with the hamburg steak, it is delicious. Very good.
And for the rest of the garnish, sautéed spinach and sautéed shimeji mushrooms.
Each seasoned and cooked separately, then arranged on the plate. Rather properly done, ha.
And this is 1,290 yen. That is thoroughly worth it, is it not. It was delicious!
Family-restaurant French it may be, but do not underestimate it! The price aside, everything on the plate other than the hamburg steak gave the impression of taking real effort, and as a way to enjoy the feel of French sauces casually, I think it is a very good menu item. Of course it is not the same as serious French, but this is a family restaurant, so that is not the point. It feels fresher than an ordinary hamburg steak and it is delicious, and the price is not much different from the hamburg steak on its own. Thoroughly satisfying!
It is worth stepping into a family restaurant once in a while. ^^ A good encounter.
Gusto Kamiitabashi (Family restaurant / Kami-itabashi Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.0
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
