Over on my gallery, I posted a picture of a “London Pub” in Tokyo. I didn’t venture inside that one, but on 28th April I went for dinner with Hirai Hirohide (Jack)-san and his wife Chizue-san. They’d had me over for dinner a while back and since my Guest House accommodation isn’t really set up for entertaining, I invited them out for dinner. We met up at the “Rose and Crown” a UK-style pub/restaurant right next to Akihabara station. Akihabara is “Electric Town” and used to be nothing but electric appliance stores, and later electronics stores of all sizes and types coming in. They’re redeveloping the area, though, and it’s gaining some entertainment areas, including a Starbucks, an Excelsior (a Japanese Starbucks clone) and a Vie de France coffee shop in the square that the Rose and Crown overlooks. It overlooks it because it’s a first floor (nikai or second floor for Japanese and USians) establishment. It’s quite common in Tokyo for restaurants to be in vertical blocks, with lifts (and stairs, though sometimes only emergency stairs) to the 6, 7 or more floors, on each of which is one or more restaurant. In this particular building, in a square at the back of Akihabara station (you can tell it’s the back because the station building is covered in ducting and pipework never meant to be seen) there are various types of restaurant including the “Rose and Crown” (that’s a link to their website). Jack thought it would be fun for me to try the Tokyo interpretation of British food.

The look was OK, with dark wood panelling and brass fittings. Not too far off what you’ll see in the UK. However, the waitress service for everything including drinks was definitely not authentic. In real UK pubs which serve food you have to order at the bar, and sometimes even collect it yourself. The portions are definitely Japanese-style. That is, they’re designed for each person to have multiple different orders, maybe sharing the dishes. We started off with fish and chips, mustard and cheese chicken, and a shepherd’s pie. The fish in the F&C was in a reasonably authentic batter, though possibly not the same kind of fish as you’d get in the UK (traditionally cod or haddock, but these days mostly haddock and occasionally other “white fish”). The chips were definitely way off though. Small potatoes, cut into quarter and fried with the skin on. Tasty, but not traditional F&C. The “mustard and cheese chicken” came with french fries, but you get that quite often in British pubs these days, too. The cheese and mustard sauce was nice and I suppose might have been a traditional recipe from the UK. Not something I’ve had at home, but nothing radically non-British. The “shepherd’s pie” showed the price of beef in Tokyo, though. While I didn’t try it I examined it quite closely. A layer of mashed potato in the bottom of a pie dish, a very thin layer of minced (ground for USians) beef on top of it (no carrots in sight, I’m not sure about onions). More mashed potato around the edge and in a cross over the surface, covering maybe 1/2 the surface area in total. No evidence that it had been oven or grill cooked after preparation to produce any sort of crust on the mashed potato. Probably microwaved, actually. As I said, one dish each was not really enough. So, we ordered four more.:

a tomato and orange salad – nothing non-British in there, but not really traditional British fayre;

smoked chicken – served cold – very smoked, well beyond what you would usually find in the UK;

smoked vegetables – served cold again – once more very highly smoked, although British vegetables like cauliflower;

a pizza with some type of sausage on it – very British, but only since the war and the influx of Italians.

While Jack and Chizue had the pizza I had a Belgian waffle with honey, nuts and cream. Not British food, but food you can certainly find in Britain these days.

All in all, an interesting experience. As always, ethnic food adjusted to local ingredient availability and local tastes, with some errors of interpretation as well.