Category Archives: Restaurants

Japan Eats, Part II: Michelin-Starred Koke

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Playful squid-ink crackers filled with chorizo at Michelin-starred Koke in Kyoto.
Playful squid-ink crackers filled with chorizo at Michelin-starred Koke in Kyoto.

Kyoto, JAPAN — One can eat exceedingly well for little in Japan, and goodness knows that my husband and I did. However, we decided to splurge for one dinner during our recent two-week trip to Japan, and that was to Michelin-starred Koke in Kyoto.

Japan is a dichotomy, where both the ancient and the futuristic are revered. So, when it came to picking a kaiseki restaurant, I chose one that breaks from tradition, one that blends Japanese and Spanish sensibilities in surprising ways.

It serves a 13-course tasting menu with a few of the courses composed of several small bites. You can opt for a regular wine pairing (a total of 700ml) or a small-sized pairing (350ml). The latter is what my husband and I chose.

For all food and drink for the two of us, we paid a grand total of $515 U.S., which is not too bad when you consider that in the Bay Area, many fine-dining tasting menus are easily more than $300 per person for the food alone without gratuity.

The unobtrusive sign to the restaurant.
The unobtrusive sign to the restaurant.
The courtyard that you enter before going inside the restaurant.
The courtyard that you enter before going inside the restaurant.

The restaurant hides behind a wall. On the other side, you’ll find a serene Japanese-style courtyard with a floor-to-ceiling window at one end that has a view into the restaurant’s dining room and kitchen. Koke is the Japanese word for “moss” and you’ll spot patches of it in the courtyard. It’s also a symbol of renewal, resilience, and interconnectedness.

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Japan Eats, Part I: Savoy Pizza

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Seared sushi-grade tuna atop one fantastic pizza at Savoy in Tokyo.
Seared sushi-grade tuna atop one fantastic pizza at Savoy in Tokyo.

Tokyo, JAPAN — I just spent two weeks in Japan, my first time there, in what can only be described as an eating adventure of a lifetime.

Scan my Instagram or Facebook pages, and you’ll get a taste through photos and words of all the fine tempura, sushi, tonkatsu, ramen, pastries, and other specialties I thoroughly enjoyed at a pittance, given the very favorable exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the Japanese yen. Today and Friday, I’ll spotlight two very different restaurants worthy of particular mention.

Though I did online research, and solicited recommendations from friends and chefs who travel to Japan regularly, I don’t think it’s possible to go wrong eating pretty much anywhere in Japan, even if all you do is wing it when you’re there.

Head here when you want to try pizza in Japan.
Head here when you want to try pizza in Japan.

Even eating tiramisu or flan or crustless egg salad sandwiches from a convenience store there is a revelation. Each of those items is less than $2 U.S. at a 7-Eleven or other Japanese convenience store — and the quality just phenomenal.

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ABsteak Makes A Splashy Opening in San Francisco’s Union Square

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Thinly sliced Australian Wagyu brisket awaiting the grill at ABsteak.
Thinly sliced Australian Wagyu brisket awaiting the grill at ABsteak.

Upscale Korean steakhouse ABsteak opened in San Francisco’s Union Square last week with flash and panache, along with plenty of fire, but no smoke, well, thanks to its custom grill-tops that vacuum it all away.

It’s the 28th restaurant worldwide for Seoul-born Chef Akira Back, and only his second one in California (the first being in Los Angeles). In the next two years, he plans to open another 10 around the globe.

Quite the accomplishment for Black who was once a professional snowboarder.

I had a chance to check out the glitzy 6,500-square foot subterranean restaurant, when I was invited in as a guest earlier this week.

The logo'd wall that greets you when you descend the stairs to the restaurant.
The logo’d wall that greets you when you descend the stairs to the restaurant.
A private dining room.
A private dining room.
The centerpiece glass wine display.
The centerpiece glass wine display.

Take the stairs or elevator down one level to find the entrance to the restaurant that’s filled with intriguing details. Look up to find a dramatic ceiling with curving and angular steel supports that change as you walk from the bar-lounge, past the showstopping 200-bottle circular glass wine display and into the dining room. Viewed together, they are supposed to evoke the bones, blood vessels and vertebrae inside a cow.

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Savor Hard-to-Find Fresh Soba and More At Leichi

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House-made soba served chilled with warm duck broth at Leichi.
House-made soba served chilled with warm duck broth at Leichi.

After reading a San Francisco Chronicle food story recently, in which reporter Elena Kadvany lamented that there were only three Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area that offered fresh-made soba, my interest was piqued, especially when chilled fresh noodles would hit the spot like nothing else during our recent, week-long heatwave.

Sobakatsu in San Francisco is the latest place to offer the buckwheat noodles, joining Soba Ichi in Oakland and Leichi in Santa Clara.

With only a few tables plus compact counter seating, it pays to reserve ahead of time at Leichi.
With only a few tables plus compact counter seating, it pays to reserve ahead of time at Leichi.

The latter is where I headed, located in a nondescript strip mall. Leichi is a small, mom-and-pop Japanese restaurant that puts such unexpected care into everything it does, including simple yet well thought out presentations coupled with the motivation to make so many items in-house.

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The Fine-Dining Anomaly

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This is how they do shrimp and grits at Anomaly.
This is how they do shrimp and grits at Anomaly.

When Mike Lanham was a young cook, he’d dress up in his one set of nice clothes and use his meager savings to dine at a two- or three-starred Michelin restaurant. Admittedly, as early as 2 hours beforehand, he’d find himself getting nervous, anxious that he’d fit in properly or commit a dining faux pas.

So, when it was time to open his own restaurant, he knew he didn’t want his diners to feel the same jitters.

“Fine-dining should be fun,” he explains, “and well thought out.’ But certainly not intimidating.

His aptly named Anomaly aims to deviate from the expected stiff formality one sometimes associates with highfalutin dining.

The tasting menu-only restaurant started out as a pop-up before opening its own brick-and-mortar in San Francisco’s lower Pacific Heights neighborhood. Last week, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant, which received recognition from the 2024 California Michelin Guide.

Executive Chef Mike Lanham in the open kitchen.
Executive Chef Mike Lanham (right) in the open kitchen.

The restaurant has two dining rooms, the front one right behind a lounge-space where diners can enjoy glasses of sparkling wine before they are escorted to their tables; and a second main dining room that affords a bird’s eye view of the open kitchen.

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