SHOT Magazine

Aux six arbres, thats Roppongi to you and I.

2010.07.26

カテゴリー: Food, Restaurant

Having lived in Tokyo for close on twenty years and having eaten at many of the city’s best restaurants, Terry and I consider ourselves somewhat knowledgable about them.

As they say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It sometimes means that you can overlook whats right under your nose. Friday night was a good example. Having met up with Terry for a week’s end nosh up in Roppongi we headed for a few of our favorite places. Lamentably for us, but great for them, they have become so popular that there was no room for us!

Terry is a little less ambulatory than usual due to a slight ankle injury and I am not at my best when hungry, so we were cursing our luck and hobbling the back streets of Roppongi when out popped a pretty looking place called “Aux Six Arbres”. (7-13-10 Roppongi). Being just around the corner from our tiny favorite “Bon Monsieur” you’d think we would have stumbled upon it before now. But no, so we decided to give it a try.

What we found was a delightful dining room with a very convivial host and a chef who met most of our rather tough critera for restaurants. Most importantly for me is the mantra not to over do it. I often complain because I feel that some chefs try too hard to be clever and end up putting one too many ingredients on the plate. Terry has many more demands, and even though his top priority wasn’t in evidence on this night (let there be pig), he was delighted by the sublime fresh tomato in jelly and the other five dishes in his summer vegetable set. Indeed, the mushroom soup that I also had was intense and flavorsome and not at all too much on a hot Tokyo summers evening. I had the fish ( snapper at its very best) and followed it with a dessert of gooey chocolate cake and petit fours of jelly and macarons. Altogether a wonderful dinner and a great little restaurant. Which, by the way, has been there for thirty two years, just how did we miss it?

One thing you can’t miss in Tokyo however is this love affair with macarons. They have always been popular and the beautiful Peltier shop in Omotesando certainly showcases them as if they were some form of precious jewelery, but

just recently it seems that they have popped up everywhere. Including, to our great delight, on our good friend Richard’s birthday cake last week.

Served with tasty hors d’oevres from the talented Marcus Yip’s 148 restaurant in Hiroo (1-4-10, Hiroo, Shibuya-ku) and some very delicious champagne, the cake was topped with colourful macarons and tasted fantastic. This is a trend I intend to embrace, along with more gooey chocolate cake.