Cooking Across 4 Generations

One restaurant we have been wanting to try since our first visit to Tokyo is L’Osier. Unfortunatley the past two visits we missed out as it was undergoing a massive refurbishment, and last year it reopened 2 weeks after we returned home. But this year we made it!

Owned by Shiseido group, L’Osier is an elegant French restaurant located in the back streets of Ginza, within the Shiseido Building. A doorman greets you as you enter and a receptionist seats you in the waiting room before you are escorted downstairs to the restaurant by one of the maître d’s. There is dress code, so Mr CA4G had to wear a jacket. No shorts, no thongs etc. Most of the diners were elegant ladies who lunch, out for a catch up with the girls.

The circular dining room is decorated in creams and shades of yellow, medium coloured woods and lots of silver and gold tones. A central round banquette, under the enormous chandelier, seats several tables for groups of two to four people, one segment of the room has tables for two and the other has tables for 4 or 6. A private room for larger groups is also available.

The service is truly impressive. I think there were about a dozen waiters plus 4 maitre d’s and a couple of food runners, and there may only have been about 30 – 40 patrons. Plates were bought out on trays by the runners and then served from the trays by the waiters. Crisp white linens, beautiful porcelain tableware, lots of silver plate and gorgeous crystal. Shiseido has spared no expense.

Unfortunately we were unable to take any other photos as they have a strict no photography rule.

We ordered a very fancy French mineral water called Chateldon, which has a very illustrious history. The story goes that this water was carted from the village of Châteldon in the Puy-de-Dôme region of the Auvergne to the court of Louis XIV, where he not only drank it but used it for bathing. They have a very small production and it is generally available only in high end restaurants and in some pharmacies in France. Price was around AUD$18, and was worth it. Ultra fine bubbles and a nice minerality to it. A shame we can’t get it in Australia.

We decided to have the Prixe Fixe lunch menu which was around AUD$100 per person. This consisted of 3 courses plus amuse bouche, predessert and petit fours and a confectionery trolley with coffee or tea. Great value and the food was amazing. Entree was a poached,chilled lobster half with a tangy gazpacho, main consisted of melt in  your mouth pork belly, potatoes done 3 ways,beetroot and greens. Pre dessert was a delicious chilled fruit soup. a small platter of petit fours was also presented before the dessert. Dessert was rhubarb and strawberries, very elegantly presented and absolutely delicious.

Thinking we were at the end of our meal as we ordered our coffee, imagine our surprise when a trolley full of candies, caramels, marshmallows etc was pushed up to our table for us to choose from. All made in house. The marshmallow had a square profile and was wound into a large jar from whence it was cut as needed. Willy Wonka would have been jealous of the amazingly interesting flavours. At first we were going to pass, but curiousity got the better of us.

After our wonderful lunch, we practically waddled back to our hotel where we had a nap and a swim to work off the sugar hit.

If you get to Tokyo, you really should try to make a booking at L’Osier for lunch.

Thanks for dropping by!!