The Gen Yamamoto cocktail bar is located down an unassuming side street in Azabu-Juban, behind a simple wooden door. Inside, eight seats surround a wooden counter, at which you sit and select a four or six course cocktail menu (4,500 and 6,500 yen respectively).

And then, you drink the season.

Yamamoto expresses the Japanese seasons in his cocktails – a blend of alcohol with seasonal fruits and vegetables creating a flavor for place and time.

The cocktails are rarely a complicated affair, but every ingredient highlights a particular taste or flavor, resulting in refreshing and often surprising drinks. Highlights included kiwi fruit and shochu with a splash of green tea, pomelo and sparkling rice wine with a dash of wasabi, and tomatoes with a rye-based gin.

Yamamoto himself says everything is in the ingredients, and though this is true, his ability to select and combine them does not seem easily replicable – there is a very subtle, very masterful craftwork on display here.

Gen Yamamoto offers fresh perspective, and a fun, alcoholic way to experience the seasons – with flavors, colors, and textures that create for our tastebuds what we usually experience visually.

Gen Yamamoto Minato-Ku Azabu-Juban 1-6-4 Telephone: 03-6434-0652 Tuesday to Sunday: 15:00 to 23:00 Closed on Monday

It's strange to look at Houmitei’s exterior and think that it’s most famous for youshoku, or western cuisine. The shop—and most everything around it—reeks of old Japan, right down to the old-style barbershop and pre-war kissaten cafe.

When I entered, a smiling man in a white suit jacket and black bow tie took me past a group of chefs in pristine white uniforms, and showed me upstairs. There’s a wonderful sense of blended culture at Houmitei, which served my meatball spaghetti while I sat cross-legged on tatami flooring. 

I liked that; I liked the chance to soak in the noise and ambience of a slice of old-world Japan.

The meatball spaghetti (1,300 yen) isn’t what Houmitei is most famous for—that honor is reserved for the bento lunch box and beef stew—and yet it was the dish that called to me most. I feel something of a nostalgia for meatballs, so I couldn’t resist. 

I have to admit to being surprised. I wasn’t expecting much, but the meatball spaghetti is a very well-executed piece of comfort food. The spaghetti is cooked just right, and you don’t drown in the tomato sauce. Deeper stomachs might call for a fourth meatball, but three feels like the magic number.

The meatballs are the real highlight: meaty and heavy, but also tender and soft. They made me nostalgic for my grandma’s cooking; they taste just as I’d like to remember them. 

The bento box (1,550 yen or 2,350 for the high-class version) is a good option for a little more variety—along with two meatballs you get fried shrimp and a crab cream croquette with a small potato salad. This also contains Houmitei’s famous demiglace sauce—which is simmered for a whole month (!!) to give it the desired depth of flavor.

After digging around online, I discovered that Houmitei opened in 1933, with a menu influenced by the western cuisine famous at the hotels of Yokohama, and was a known favorite of the Meijiza theater actors, kabuki stars, and geisha of the Yanagibashi and Fukagawa areas.

The current head chef of Houmitei started at age 15, and has worked for nearly 50 years preserving the traditional taste and flavor of the restaurant.

A trip to Houmitei is a trip that blends times and generations. You’ll sit amongst a variety of people, share the same tables, and indulge in a taste that hasn’t changed for almost a decade.

It’s like a special kind of nostalgia for a place, a time, and a flavor that is not your own. 

Houmitei Tokyo, Chuo-Ku, Nihonbashi Ningyocho 2-9-4 Telephone: 03-3666-5687 Lunch 11:00 to 14:00 Dinner 17:00 to 21:00 Closed on Sundays

If you have ever wondered where all the girls in Tokyo are on a Wednesday night, then you probably haven't been to the newly opened Clinton Street Baking Company in Omotesando. (And if you have ever dreamed of being the only guy in a restaurant full of women eating pancakes, well then Merry Christmas from the HT Report, I guess.)

Originally from New York, Clinton Street Baking Company has recently opened a branch in Tokyo, bringing with them the famous pancakes that earned them their reputation. The menu is largely breakfast-centric, although they also have their popular fried chicken and waffles (1,900 yen), which I found a bit dry (perhaps a more generous serving of that delicious maple butter on the side would have helped?).

But let's be honest: you come here for the pancakes (1,500 yen), which come in three varieties: blueberries, bananas and walnuts, or chocolate. I opted for the blueberry pancakes, and they certainly didn't disappoint. Each bite is soft and pillowy, and the blueberries aren't just a topping, but a filling, too. Genius. Make sure to drench it in the maple butter and you're golden.

Tokyo-ites have a real fondness for new places (especially pancake places!), and also for lining up, so do keep this in mind when planning a visit. Clinton Street doesn't take reservations at the moment, so if you're looking to avoid the lines (which I've seen stretch around the block), I recommend going on a weeknight.

Eat up, have fun, and smile!

Music: Youmou to Ohana (羊毛とおはな) - Sir Duke

All photos coutesy of Emily Koh @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/meltingnoise

Clinton Street Baking Company 107-0062 Minato-Ku, Minami Aoyama, 5-17-1 Telephone: 03-6450-5944 Open 8:00 to 23:00 (7 days a week)

If it's a variety of all-you-can-eat (!!) barbecue you crave, Barbacoa is easily one of your best bets in Tokyo. Located in the heart of Omotesando, and right next to a Gold's Gym (I sense a food-eat-guilt-workout partnership...), Barbacoa is a churrasco that offers great variety, and an expansive salad bar for 4,500 yen (excluding drinks.)

Barbacoa's dining room is a stylish, low-lit affair, with enough space between tables to keep outside conversation volume to a minimum. Chips on each table let staff know whether you want to eat (green for go!). The food comes out at a smooth pace – fast enough to keep you satisfied, but still leisurely enough that you can keep a conversation going.

The Barbacoa experience is about eating, talking, and eating, then talking, so get a few friends together (or your little brother – thanks Michael!), indulge in a little excess, and make sure not to over-fill on salad before the meat comes!

Music: RF - Real Love

Barbacoa 150-0001 Shibuya-Ku, Jingumae, 4-3-2 TOKYU REIT Omotesando Square, B1F Telephone: 03-3796-0571 Lunch: Weekdays - 11:30 to 15:00    Weekends - 11:30 to 16:00 Dinner: Monday to Saturday - 17:30 to 23:00   Sunday - 17:30 to 22:00

With winter rearing its frosty head and covering Tokyo in colder and colder weather, now seems a good time to cover a food perfect for the season - Seolleongtang. Seolleongtang (ox-bone soup) is a high protein soup made up of boiled cow bones, feet, beef brisket, shank, and innards – and feels perfect for anyone coming down with a cold (i.e. me). Though a fairly common dish in Korea, a tasty equivalent isn't so easy to find here in Tokyo. Enter Akasaka's Ichiryu, which offers their tasty soup at a reasonable price with a generous helping of banchan (side dishes). No free refills though; this is Tokyo, not Seoul... sigh...

The first floor is also open 24 hours, which I guess is handy if it's 3 a.m., you're cold, probably drunk, and you happen to find yourself in the Akasaka area.

Music: re:plus - Solitude

Ichiryu Minato-Ku, Akasaka, 2-13-17 Telephone: 03-3582-7008 Open 24-7 (First floor only)

Wander down the right side streets from Okubo Station and you might stumble onto Vietnam-Chan, the perhaps un-inspirationally named but delicious Vietnamese restaurant. Though you might be in for a wait for lunch on weekends, Vietnam-Chan offers a good variety of dishes and a nice collection of South-East Asian beers, and I recommend that any meal follow with a Vietnamese coffee (iced over the summer)

Tip: Shin-Okubo (Tokyo's K-Town) is only a short walk from Okubo. Worth a future post of it's own, and definitely worth checking out!

Music: Nujabes - Fellows

Vietnam-Chan Tokyo-To, Shinjuku-Ku, Hyakuninchou, 1-19-17 Telephone: 050-5868-0612 (Reservations) and 03-3365-0107 (Enquiries) Lunch: 11:30 - 14:30 Dinner: 17:00 - 22:30 (L.O.)

Tonki, Meguro. Just a short walk from Meguro station, Tonki is a great meal and a great experience for any lovers of tonkatsu (Japanese pork cutlets) living in or visiting Tokyo.

Music: The Farah Quintet - Nightingale

Tonki Tokyo-To, Meguro-Ku, Shimomeguro 1-1-2 Telephone: 03-3491-9928 16:00 - 23:00