Japan: Day 11b - Atelier de Joel Robuchon

For our last night, JD and I went out for dinner to Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Roppongi (I can't remember how to do acutes, so you'll just have to imagine them being there). The food was wonderful, although perhaps a touch on the salty side (not surprising, given most Japanese food is pretty salty to our palate); the service was very good (but not impeccable - our water glasses remained empty too long, to the point of having to ask for a refill, ditto for the bread). It wasn't excessively expensive (~$140 pp for food; a bit less for grog - doesn't take much at ~$18/glass).

We were seated at a table (service is reputedly not as good at tables); most were seated at the bar. Much of the kitchen is on full display

We considered the degustation menu, but could do almost the same thing, with a degree of choice (and for less) by going for a 'set menu' - Menu A included an amuse bouche, an appetiser, a soup, two mains, cheeses, a dessert, and tea/coffee - it was the only one with cheese, so that's what we were going for. You'll have to make do with pictures, and reading the menu below (full size here) for more details.

Set menu choices

Amuse bouche

Some ?salmon thing (Camille says it's pork rillette) on crisp toasty things. Tasty!

Breads

Bread basket - the long ones are sourdough, the pale cupcake shaped ones are like croissants, and the round ones at the back are a strong white bread.

When I asked for some extra bread, to sop up the juices from the second main, we were brought this strong crusty baguette slice, and a soft white bread roll

All breads are made on site, and were very good. The restaurant also has a boulangerie (bakery) and patisserie (cake shop) on site, where you can takeaway a little bit of posh.

Appetiser

JD's tomato mousse, with confit shrimp and avocado

My scallops in seaweed butter - wonderfully meaty scallops, even JD liked them

Soups

JD's lettuce cream soup, with hot onion custard - very good, even if it sounds a bit odd

My duck liver ravioli in chicken broth, with spiced cream and fresh herbs

Mains

JD's lamb, with eggplant compote and preserved lemon - exquisitely tender lamb, just brilliant

Pan fried duck liver with parmesan risotto

Spaghetti with poached egg and sea urchin. JD reported it was very good once all stirred together, and that sea urchin has a very light, almost foamy, texture

My rabbit ballotine and braised thigh. The thigh meat was good, but the upright cylinders (that'd be the ballotine, she says after checking with wikipedia) were brilliant, full-flavoured but balanced.

Cheeses

A platter of (French) cheeses were presented from which we could pick as many or as few as we wanted. What a dangerous thing to say to a pair of cheese nerds.

From top to bottom, left to right, starting with the orange wedge in the top right corner, we had (and no, I couldn't understand the names, let alone remember them):

• a smoked hard cheese (neither of us picked that)
• a washed curd hard cheese (colby and gouda are examples of a washed curd cheese) (JD picked this)
• a soft fresh cheese, like ricotta (neither)
• a soft white cheese, like camembert or brie (JD)
• a wonderfully gooey ripe washed rind cheese (stinky socks) (ab) (not as potent as many, and in fact, surprisingly unchallenging)
• a sheep's milk cheese, shaped like a pancake (ab)
• a hard goat's milk rosemary-flavoured cheese (ab) (The rosemary was a little too much for the flavour profile of the pale, almost bland cheese)
• a potently flavoured blue cheese, with fantastic complexity - the strongest of the bunch (JD)
• another blue, not as agressive, but still good (JD)
• finally, a slightly rubbery cheese coated in some brown fine crumb of something (ab)

JD's cheeses, the mildest on the right (the hard yellow cheese), strongest on the left

My cheeses - mildest on the left, strongest on the right. You can also see the fantastic toasted rounds of fruit and nut bread served with the cheeses

Desserts

L'Aribica - coffee jelly, mango sorbet, and coffee mousse - magnificent

La tendance chocolat - death by chocolate (too rich for me). A chocolate ring, with a white chocolate coloured dot (plus gold dust), over a ball of cocoa sorbet, dusted with chocolate biscuit, sitting in a mound of chocolate ganache

Coffee/tea and petit fours

My petit fours (JD had already eaten his): a soft but not-at-all sticky caramel, a shortbread biscuit (exceptionally good) and a chocolate coated orange gel stick. Tea was either Earl Grey or Darjeeling (standard black tea choices in Japan), and JD had a very good espresso.

All up, we were very impressed. JD tried a few new wines - one from Languedoc, which even I liked (and I don't drink red as a rule), and a punchy one from Italy recommended by our waiter to go with his cheeses. I drank Veuve Cliquot (their cheapest sparkling by the glass at Y1900/glass; also their cheapest by the bottle at Y13,000).

Food geeks that we are, we spent a few minutes identifying as many of the spices etc in the wall art - red lentils and Le Puy lentils and chickpeas, and lavender and coriander and red peppercorns and star anise and more

We walked home from Roppongi, which was a good start to burning off a handful of the delicious calories we'd consumed that night.