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by Stephen
Trautlein
Tokyo Apartment Café
Falling prey to our usual holiday shopping
procrastination, we spent an exhausting late-December day
jostling with Harajuku crowds before happening upon Apartment
Café. To our weary eyes and tired legs, the restaurant's
street-side setting, funky interior, and promising menu all
beckoned us, and soon we had collapsed, bags and all, into
a couple of its well-cushioned chairs.
The happy buzz that suffused the place was a welcome antidote
to our fatigue. Situated just steps from the Omotesando/Meiji
Dori intersection, Apartment Café's hip locale
ensures mostly young and enthusiastic crowds, while the layout,
featuring a large open area and a couple of intimate nooks,
encourages conviviality. The staff keeps the cool factor high,
with most of the waiters looking like they wandered in off
the fashionable streets—and a few of the rougher ones
looking like they slept on them. Life magazine covers and
liquor bottles line the walls, low but frenetic club music
plays overhead, and the harried cooks do their thing in full
view in an open kitchen.
Our spirits revived further after uncorking a bottle of fruity
Finca Flichman Chardonnay (¥2,600) from Argentina, a selection
well matched to the kitchen's first offering, grilled
sea bass (¥900). Served on a heavy white oval plate, the dish
boasted a Mom-pleasing array of vegetables: haricots verts,
negi, zucchini, and intensely flavored green and red peppers,
all piled against the fish, which itself sat on a layer of
caramelized onions. Perfectly cooked, flaky, and light, the
white-meat bass was a hit.
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Now quite perky, we next sampled honey roasted wild duck
(¥980), served as thin strips of well-done kamo crusted with
crushed white peppercorns. The rich gravy was both meaty and
sweet, accompanied by apricot slices, while the dollop of
mashed potatoes was heavy, milky and yummy. Apartment Café's
shrimp-macaroni gratin (¥750) puts to shame most other versions
served around town, with each element—al dente pasta,
juicy shrimp, chunky mushrooms, salty white sauce—clearly
prepared from scratch. One misstep, however, was the tuna
and avocado spring roll (¥700). The Vietnamese-style roll
is a ubiquitous dish in Tokyo these days, and Apartment Café
seems to have added theirs, fresh-tasting yet bland and uninspired,
as an afterthought. We had better luck with grilled chicken
(¥900). The tender leg and wing were sprinkled with rosemary
and topped with a rich brown sauce, and served with a halved
tomato baked with a topping of parmesan cheese.
Nearing our limit, we nevertheless decided to top things
off with hot chocolate cake (¥500), which our waiter claimed
would take about 10 minutes to prepare. By this time, our
faith in the kitchen was implicit, so we settled down and
sipped a latte (¥550). Our trust was rewarded, as the small
cake was brownie-like in texture, piping hot and covered with
a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
After settling the bill, which came in on the happy side
of ¥10,000, we headed back up the stairs completely energized,
with a few more presents yet to buy but having just given
ourselves a perfect gift.
Photos
by Yuki Ichikawa
1-11-11 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-3401-4101. Open daily 11am-1am. Nearest stn: Harajuku.
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