Tokyo Eating - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Ok, so Tokyo was not easy - it didn't help that we'd just arrived and we're just embarking on our fact finding mission of what I could eat, if we went back I think it would be different.
I think it's like any massive city, there's SO much choice not only is it hard to choose where to eat, it makes it 10x worse when you've got allergies - prepare to get hangry.
We were staying in Ikebukuro district NW Tokyo. We loved Ikebukuro and would recommend anyone looking for somewhere to stay to head there :)
THE GOOD
As our first foray into Japanese culture Ikebukuro provided so much for us to sink our teeth into, from 7 story arcades, to a full on aquarium on floor 9 of Sunshine City. In the Sunshine City complex there are numerous restaurants, similar to a Westfield shopping centre in London.
We tried in a few places for food and weren't successful, we then tried this noodle restaurant with a red curtain in front of the door. It was cute and cosy, and smelled amazing! We enquired and they said they could help, hoorah!
As with most places I was limited in my choice, but I didn't mind. I ordered the noodle soup (with rice noodles) and obs no soy sauce, but other than that I think it was a naturally GF meal - similar to Takayama. It was delicious and I am now addicted to noodle soup and regularly make it at home.
I wasn't doing my foodie blog at the time, but I did happen to film Kane opening a pack of Pokemon cards - kawaii! when our food arrived, you can catch a glimpse of what it looks like near the end...
MOCHI!!
I've mentioned mochi in other posts, but this was my first experience of this delicious, sweet and chewy ball of goodness.
I'd read about these in my research leading up to our holiday, and was intrigued. I used this blog post like a Bible - www.legalnomads.com/gluten-free/japan it's got so many helpful hints and tips with what to look for when hunting for GF food - this is where I found out about Daifuku/Mochi
Other sweet treats, included ice-cream from the pancake/waffle/ice-cream vendor in the food market at the bottom of the Sky Tree. If you're going by the train station, there is a Moomin Cafe - I know! - but we only found it when we were leaving... next time, next time. (probs wouldn't have been anything safe to eat, but it's still cute and has a shop)
This was our fancy 10 year anniversary meal that we had booked months in advance. I'd got in touch with the restaurant and explained I was intolerant to gluten, they said no problem we'll do you a special set menu... A-mazing! In the weeks before the meal they checked a few details with me, which soy sauce/miso brand was safe etc. So I already felt well looked after.
So we got all dressed up and headed out, it was such a beautiful venue with a gorgeous view (as you can see) it was very quiet and we were very well looked after.
Kane chose the tasting menu and we both had about 7 courses each! Each dish was explained to us by our waitress which was lovely and so we knew what we were eating. My favourite was of course the sashimi and the whole meal was utterly delicious - I didn't need my soy sauce as they had order it in especially for me (wonderful!)
I would highly recommend this place if you're looking for a special night out, it isn't cheap but it's totally worth it!
Drinking
Looking for something to wet your whistle? Golden Gai in Shinjuku is the place to go! Imagine leaving the high rises and delving into a plethora of tiny weaving roads with tiny bar after tiny bar to choose from... they get full pretty quick and most charge a cover fee (to sit at the bar) but it was raining when we stopped to peer into one, the bar owner opened the door and said we should come in out of the rain, we questioned the cover charge and he said not to worry about it -sweet! - so we jumped in.
We were only going to stay for one, but ended up having three! The other people in the bar were lovely and chatty, and the bar guy was great to talk to. I'm a big saki fan and Kane loves Japanese whiskey so we were sorted and had a very giggly journey home!
THE BAD
Didn't have too many bad experiences as such, only situations where I should have trusted my gut and not eaten there. But you know, gotta eat something!
The bad things were just the constant walking trying to find somewhere suitable, I'd avoid Shinjuku for food unless you're prepared to go up to all the high-rise restaurants to ask. We did manage to find somewhere, so it can be done. There are usually people stood outside the high-rises so you can just ask them for help and they can let you know quickly if it's a goer or not. But it did take some getting used and a lot of frustration to find somewhere suitable.
Shinjuku is a pretty cool place with LOADS going on, so I would highly recommend going there, just be prepared!
Another thing that annoyed me was the amount of research I'd done before hand to map out where restaurants were that I could eat, and were recommended by other gluten free types, all came to nothing. It was useless knowledge, and wasted more time than anything so that's why I'm trying to avoid saying the names of things (not that I can remember anyway) but to give hints and tips of what to look for instead, so you can navigate your own way through Japan.
THE UGLY
This was the most hideous looking thing I'd eaten, the pickled plum was a bit weird and whole dish was odd - but it was filling and was GF so I was happy. Even had some nice white wine! We had this meal in Shinjuku - I told you can could be done!
Opening the lid and finding all these little white bait staring up at me was weird... yes that is my own soy sauce.
