Last day in Tokyo

Mum and Dad are flying back home tonight, so I thought we'd spend the last day exploring Tokyo for food and some last minute shopping.

For brunch, we went to 茶鍋カフェ kagurazaka saryo. It's the first time I've brought my parents here.

I was super glad that my parents enjoyed the meal. It's such a nice comfort food for winter.

Best of all, you can get a dessert lunch set.

The cakes here are always good. It was my first time trying the sweet potato cake and I LOVE it~!!!

After some shopping, we stopped by Ichiran ramen for tea break. 

While many who live here argue that there are many ramen that are better than this and that's true. But it's undeniable that their tonkotsu broth is delicious and is really easy for foreigners to accept as they're not too oily as some of the local ones. Also, it's great that you can customise it!

I think many also feel that the pork slices served are too thin, but one can always order extra meat.

Personally, I enjoy it once in a while.

heehee.....at the salaryman waiting area!

Haneda airport has a nice open area on their top floor that  gives you a nice view of the planes.

Dad and mum flew with ANA here and back this time. They said that the seats were very comfortable.

Dinner at an izakaya in Shimbashi

The famous SL waiting area~

Went for dinner with A san at this izakaya that serves morihoudai banya cauda at 980 yen. This allows us to fill the entire bucket up with as much veg as we like and pick a side of sauce on the side other than the banya cauda from the counter. The side sauce is refillable too. Every time we finish ours, we took a different one to try. There were various dressing like olive, caesar, honey mustard and banya cauda.

This is fatty bacon on mashed potato is the otooshi (お通し), a charged appetiser from the restaurant that we cannot refuse. This is pretty common in restaurants in Japan. It's something like the free peanuts served at chinese restaurant in Malaysia which they charge you a fee for.

Not complaining as this was yummy~

The salad counter.

As we arrived after 8pm, the salad counter was pretty empty by then but we still managed to fill our little bucket up!

Look at how much veg we took~

This here is an italian seafood dish I guess. I can't even remember the name now but I was really surprised to see an entire fish with head and tail as this is not that common in Japan. 

Overall, I enjoyed the taste of the broth, especially when paired with the garlic bread.

While we only had these 4 times, we were filled to the brim.

This here is an アップルリング (apple ring) from Cocofrans (ココフラン), which costs 180 yen. While I'm no fan of apple, this was delicious!

Website: https://www.cocofrans.com/sweets/regular/applering.php

Random events

When cousin was here back in January, I went to visit him at his hotel in Shibuya and went for dinner with his family at 焼肉台所家 渋谷桜丘店.

Website: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130301/13173421/dtlmenu/

Premium beef cuts

While the shop was really small, the beef was definitely of top quality and tasted amazing.

This 5,980 yen set here consists of 6 different cuts. While I can't really tell difference between each of them, they were delicious~ hahaha...probably the most premium yakiniki I've been to so far.

February 3rd is Setsubun and on that day, people eat Ehoumaki while facing the lucky direction for that year. As I've always wanted to try this, I pre-ordered my ehoumaki from Family Mart and at it facing the lucky direction, without speaking to anyone while eating it.

The size was pretty small but the taste was good as the seafood was really fresh!

First time at this cafe called Shinbashi coffee shop Shinbashi Station waiting cafe( 新橋珈琲店 新橋 駅前 待ち合わせ カフェ). It was interesting to just sit by the window and watch people pass by while enjoying my meal.

Since I was near Shiodome, I just had to drop by Caretta Shiodome to see this illumination again.

So pretty~ One day.....I will ring that bell!

One day while shopping around, I spotted these cute Sailormoon cookies and marshmallows. Soo pretty~

I've walked past this Miyazaki Steam-Punk Clock at NTV Shiodome several times before but never had the chance to see it perform till now. It was interesting but I guess you should only make time for this if you're in the area near it's performance time.

串だおれ 新橋店 (Kushidaore Shimbashi)

Attended a nomikai event at Shimbashi one weekend back in May and was feeling super hungry after that so S and I went for dinner at Kushikaore Shimbashi.

Website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/e940509/

To start off, we each ordered High ball (302 yen) and Ginger Ale (270 yen).

Oden tororo daikon (216 yen)

This was super good! My favourite daikon with tororo!!! I could just eat this the entire night!

Salmon (151 yen), Shitake (129 yen), Renkon (lotus root) (129 yen), Sausage (129 yen), Pumpkin (129 yen)

Love both the renkon and the pumpkin~ Japanese pumpkin or kabocha are really sweet and tastes yummy on their own.

Buta bara (54 yen), Chicken breast (86 yen)

Gotta have some meat~

Shishamo (129 yen), Buta maki cheese (129 yen)

heehee, my cute little fish!

Uzura (quail eggs) (108 yen)

Lastly, we ended the night with a picture of the steam locomotive at SL square, which is supposedly a meet up space for ojisans.

Dinner at Shimbashi

Met up with Kappa san for a second time for dinner at Shimbashi on a weeknight. This place was co-owned by the lady who organised the BBQ party that I have attended previously.

This place here spans 4 floors and is a someting like a standing bar. So you stand to enjoy your beer and food~

This is the best potato salad I've had~ there's tuna in it, pickles and taste slightly spicy. And everything just went super well with the Ritz crackers~

A pesto and parmesan chicken~

A tomato sauced pasta

Overall the food here is tasty and the price is super reasonable~ Would love to be back to try their other appetisers since their potato salad was amazing!