Lunch at “Prego” in Azabu Juban, where Sake is served

Hi!

Thank you for visiting this blog.
Today is the 1st of April(when I wrote this blog in Japanese). The first day of 2017 business year.

What I think on this first day is “What kind of tall orders will I suffer at work this year……?” Is this because I’m too negative thinking, or because the company I work for is harsh to the employees….

But let’s think about it. Most company employees should be the same. They don’t get excited about their bright new year like school students, except for some workers who are on a straight highway to promotion and success.

If your first day of the year starts with happy excitement, it can’t be better.

Today’s topic is not the first day of a business year, but my last day of a business year which was yesterday, March 31st, 2017.
I usually don’t go out for business purposes, but I did yesterday to the tax office to make some registration.
I had things to do at both the national and the local office, so I went to Azabu Tax Office near Roppongi Hills and the Metropolitan Tax Office near Tokyo Tower by walk.

The temperature is nice for a walk in this season. Not so cold yet.
It’s good to see the place between a station and another which you usually don’t go. It makes you feel as if you are on a trip.
Sometimes you can also find interesting things like this;

Nostalgic letters, “営団” (Ei Dan, the old nickname of the subway company).

When I moved to Tokyo, the subway was called “Eidan Chikatetsu”, and in the next year, the name was changed to “Tokyo Metro”.
The letters of “営団” reminded me of my 13 years in Tokyo, and I felt a little happy to see that the name on road signs have not been changed.

I personally believe that the old name “Teito Rapid Transit Authority” (“Ei Dan” is a shortened word of this proper name) is better than the new one.
“Teito” sounds so cool, doesn’t it? Teito! Imperial City^^;

The time was about half passed twelve when I finished the tax things.
I decided to have lunch in Azabu Juban which is not so far from the tax office.
I was searching for a stylish lunch in this stylish town of Azabu Juban.

And I found a nice-looking restaurant which is very like Azabu Juban (according to my image of Azabu Juban).

Let’s see the menu.

Wow, everything looks so good.
In addition,

they have some Japanese sake such as “Urakasumi”, “Reisen” and “Mio”!
It was a little passed 1 p.m., so the inside was not so crowded. These factors made me decide to have lunch there.

This restaurant has various aspects; the seats near the entrance is like a café with the sunlight, and if you go into the room there is a counter with less lights which shows it like a bar. The upstairs is restaurant-looking of relaxed atmosphere. The customers can choose where they like depends on their purposes or moods.

The total impression was that the design is that of the previous age.
I chose the café area near the entrance.
I chanced to take some photos of the inside because there were no other customers then.

A likable staff brought me a menu which I showed in the previous photos soon after I took a seat.
My choice in mind was a beefsteak at first, but I chose a mix dish set considering my wallet, and because I preferred to try some different kinds of foods.
After a while, the plate arrived.

Appetizer, salad, pasta, and main dish on one plate.

For my poor photo skill, I can’t show you how it looked good enough. In fact, it wasn’t dark like this, the volume was bigger, and it gave me satisfaction even when I only looked at it.

That day’s mix plate lunch was meant to be this.

(Appetizer: Tsubomina fritter, Salad: Mesclun salad, Pasta: Peperoncino with spring cabbage and bacon, Main: Grilled chicken with Chaliapin sauce)

However, maybe because the appetizer was sold out, it was changed to an omelet (I thought that it was an omelet according to my knowledge of food I had).

Seeing my photo of the plate above, I thought that I should have taken more photos from different angles to take a better one, but I couldn’t help it anyway because it’s always difficult for me to stop my appetite to check if the photos are ok.

Let’s start with the salad.

The vegetables tasted fresh and nice.

Appetizer for the next.

The tomato sauce matched the omelet.

Finally, the main dish.

Delicious!
The chicken was well-done. The outside was nice roasted flavor, and the inside was soft and moist.
The Chaliapin sauce was rich, and very good with the chicken.

I found some pieces of baguette hiding behind the salad and omelet.

They were cooked a little hard. I enjoyed it with the chicken and the sauce.

And finally, I moved to the pasta. The pasta was meant to be finished before the main, but my step was different for Tabejun Diet (a diet method to control the order of foods you eat to prevent the body from becoming fat).

The pasta was soft and springy with nice garlic and salt seasoning.
As soon as I finished taking photos for this blog, I concentrated on enjoying the meal and the atmosphere.

To tell the truth, I’m a hard worker as a business man. I had already finished up the year’s task, so I wasn’t in a rush to go back to the office to beat out the remaining jobs. I just took my time there eating lunch as if to say thank you to my body and heart for their effort for working for a year.

I eat comparatively a lot, so usually my meals cost more. This lunch, however, was very good in the volume and the price.
I waited for a cup of herb tea.
And surprisingly,

A dessert came as well!
This is very a full-course meal!
I enjoyed the dessert while being deeply moved by the restaurant’s service.

I don’t know much about sweets so I’m not sure what it was, but it was like a mousse of cheese cake taste.
It was not too sweet, and delicious for a person like me who usually don’t eat sweets.
I tried the herb tea.

I thought that it was lavender flavor.
My image of lavenders was “purple”, so I was interested in the tea’s yellow color and wondered if there are any purple tea in the world, and enjoyed the cup.

Good appearance and interior, good foods, and good staffs. I was so lucky to find such a beautiful restaurant on the day to treat myself for surviving the year.
I’d like to try again at night to have some sake next time.