Au Gamin de Tokio: a little gem in residential Tokyo



Chef at work in the middle
of the dining room

 22 August 2011: A brief visit to Tokyo.  We couldn't get into Quintessence, the newly crowned 3-Michelin star restaurant, which apparently now requires more than 2 months' advanced booking.  So we decided to try Au Gamin de Tokio:  a culinary gem in Minato-ku, deep in the residential heart of Tokyo, off the beaten track, not covered in the Michelin guide.  A small and intimate dining room, counter seating centred on the professional stainless steel cooking stations in the middle of the room, with the chef and his assistants busily turning out a range of dishes in their own interpretations of French traditional dishes plus the innovative twist with Japanese ingredients and cooking methods.  The chef trained at Bocuse (Lyon), Hotel Negresco (Nice), Au Crocodil (Strasbourg) in France and also in Italy.  He said all his staff also received training in France.  Quite good news for us as our Japanese was certainly not up to scratch! 

Corn custard with sea urchin

A respectable range of dishes in the repertoire, that you didn’t feel limited for choice.  Cold starters, hot starters, main courses and side dishes.  From beef steak (different types of Japanese beef), to duck confit, to pan-fried pork chop, to pasta with pesto sauce and squid and to omelette topped with black truffle, and the list went on.   We were really impressed by the starters, mine was a corn custard topped with sea urchin (a signature dish of the chef’s and a really tasty one too – the sea urchin balancing the sweetness and texture of the corn custard!) and Richard had the crab and tomato salad (served in a glass!)….Then we decided that we quite fancied our neighbours' pasta dish and decided to order the same.  It was home-made pasta with squid, pine nuts and pesto.  The pasta was cooked al dente, well-flavoured.



Pasta with squid, pine nuts and pesto

 For main course, we took the duck confit and pan-roasted pork chop, with roasted onion and chips.  Bistro style cooking for the main courses, perhaps less refined and less exciting than the starters.  The cheese platter was rather impressive for a tiny enterprise.  Service was impeccable, even when we had interrupted the order of service by interjecting a pasta course in the middle, a course of action which would no doubt have caused a bit of chaos (understated) in a French kitchen, but our Japanese chef executed our request with much calm, not even a grumble.  Very convivial ambiance and very professional, but also intimate service, with the chef personally explaining the menu to us (in French) as we didn’t understand the written Japanese menu on the blackboard.  The only criticism would be the limited wine list.  The plan is that they will be taking over the ground floor as a wine bar, at which time they may need to seriously consider upgrading the wine list!   Highly recommended!

Au Gamin de Tokio: 03-3444-4991 (Open daily: 18:00 - 23:00; Closed Sundays)