Unagi - Grilled Eel

Maruya Honten Tokyo Midtown

By far the best unagi I have ever had.  The eel is well prepared and tastes great - properly deboned, soft and crispy with plenty of sauce.  The unajyu (grilled eel and rice) comes in 3 sizes:  3 portions for 3950 JPY, 4 portions for 4950 JPY, 6 portions for 7850 JPY.   The hitsumabushi (grilled eel with rice, dashi and garnishes) is 4650 for 2/3 of an eel, 5850 JPY for 1 eel and 8250 for 1.5 eel.  Since the hitsumabushi is sold by the eel, it sometimes feels like a better deal than the unajyu which is sold by the portion (which can vary a bit).  The hitsumabushi comes with a small bowl that allows you to scoop out a bit of eel and rice and try it with different garnishes.  It is recommended that you eat it the first bowl plain, the second with wasabi, and the third with green onion, seaweed and dashi (soup stock).  After that, try any combination that takes your fancy.  Please note that refills of the garnishes and dashi are free.  

The private rooms have tablets that you can use to order (even the hitsumabushi refills).  To pay, take the small wooden plaque with the table number to the front counter.  This restaurant is part of Midtown, so it is possible to collect Mitsui points (the membership is free to join) if you are planning to become a repeat customer.  

It is recommended to reserve for the weekend and holidays.

Akasaka Fukinuki

For the budget conscious, Akasaka Fukinuki offers a very good lunch deal from 11am-3pm:  unajyu is 2200 JPY for a small, 3200 for a medium while the hitsumabushi set is 2500 JPY.  They also offer larger sizes (large, extra large, 2 layers) for lunch but the interesting thing is that the sizes refer to the size of the eel which can be very subjective.  Having ordered different sizes but unable to tell the difference between my small set and my friend's large set from the size of the unagi, I would suggest just ordering 2 smalls rather than any of the larger sets. 

There is usually no need to reserve in advance and there are several locations in Minato-ku.  I do prefer the original restaurant (the eel is slightly better prepared) to the newer branch in Biz Tower but both are good.  You can collect Mitsui points (membership is free) at the Biz Tower branch.

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Other decent unagi restaurants:

Nodaiwa Azabu Iikura Honten 

The medium unajyu is 5000 JPY, hitsumabushi is 3970 JPY.  Requires a reservation.  Don't order larger size sets - no noticeable difference in size of eel.  No photos allowed in restaurant.   

Ichinoya 

Unajyu small set (5400 JPY for 1 eel), medium set (7400 JPY for 1.5 eel).  No reservation required.  

Unagidokoro Kurocyodo

This shop has a tank of live eels in the corner.  The unajyu is 4800JPY for 1 eel, 7000 JPY for 1.5 eels, 9400 for 2 eels.  The eel is very charred (sometimes it tastes like you're only eating charcoal) and the meat is very chewy.  It's interesting to try once since the texture of the meat is completely different to other unagi shops and I would recommend it for people who like gamey meat.  You can collect Hills points (free to become a member) if you are going to shop often at the Hills Malls.

For my list of restaurants, check out  my new map.

Akasaka Fukinuki Unagi Restaurant - Shinjuku Stn, Tokyo

  I remember the first time someone tried to convince me to eat sushi and how squeamish I felt at the thought of eating raw fish.  It was a relief that sushi bars offered some cooked dishes, and the best safe-to-eat sushi was unagi (grilled eel).  Even though I am far less finicky when it comes to food these days, I still enjoy eating unagi and I often have it as a proper meal at unagi restaurants.  Unagi  is one of those dishes that lives up to its hype: the grilled eel is covered in a delicious thick sauce and the meat itself has a wonderful, tender texture. One of the best unagi restaurants is the Akasaka Fukinuki Restaurant near Shinjuku station.  The unagi here is

Hitsumabushi

extremely tender and moist, however, it lacks a crispy skin that a long grilling would give it.  If you prefer crispy-skinned unagi, the Yodobashi Camera electronics store in Yokohama and Akihabara station have a decent unagi restaurant called Unasho on the top floor that does that style.  Unasho's unagi sometimes comes out badly burned, enough so that it ruins the taste of the sauce and leaves carbonized, black flakes in your mouth.  However, when it's charred just slightly, it's amazing. 

The lunch special is in the white box on the right side of the sign.

   The Akasaka Fukinuki Unagi Restaurant is on the 14th floor of the Takashimaya Department Store on the south side of Shinjuku Station. Here they serve unagi in a variety of ways, the two most common being unaju (grilled eel on rice) and hitsumabushi (grilled eel on rice with various accompaniments).  The lunch set at Fukinuki is a great deal.  To compare, Takashimaya has a ready-made food floor in the basement  that sells unagi alone for ¥1680 or unaju for ¥1980 to ¥2625.  Fukinuki is on the 14th floor of the same building and it sells unaju for ¥1700 and hitsumabushi for ¥2200.  So, in essence, you get warm unagi and rice along with hot green tea for less than cold unagi by simply going the distance of an elevator ride.  For Fukinuki, the lunch special is available Mon-Fri 11am-2pm and Sat-Sun 11am-3pm; unfortunately,  it isn't always available for special holidays and not for the two weeks surrounding Unagi Day (the Day of the Ox), which generally falls a little after mid-July.  The dinner menu for Fukinuki is a bit more expensive with prices starting at

The sign where no lunch special is available.

¥2110 for unaju and ¥3910 for hitsumabushi. To make sure that the lunch special is valid for the day, check the sign on the stand to the left of the entrance.  If there's a lunch special, it will be written in a white box on the right side of the sign.  When you sit down, the waitress will place the menu in front of you with the lunch special on the right-hand page.  The writing on the left side of the page is for hitsumabushi and the right side is for unadju. 

The lunch special menu page.

  Hitsumabushi is recommended to be eaten in 3 sequential steps for maximum pleasure.  Using the flat wooden spoon, scoop portions of the unagi and rice from the large laquered container into the small  bowl.  The first way to enjoy unagi is with as much Japanese pepper as you like, which is in a container to one of  the side of the table.  Between each small bowlful, try some of the pickled vegetables.  This will clean your palate, so that you can enjoy the full flavours each style offers.  The second method is to add negi (green onion) and nori (seaweed).  The third manner of eating it is to mix in negi, nori, wasabi and lots of warm dashi (Japanese soup stock) from the white flask.  After trying all 3 methods, the rest of unagi and rice can be eaten in any different combination of accompaniments.  Fukinuki gives free re-fills of the toppings and dashi, which is better than a lot of other unagi restaurants which refuse to or charge for it.  To get extra green onion and seaweed, simply say "yakumi no kawari, kudasai" (more condiments, please).  Dashi, wasabi are also possible by replacing the "yakumi" in the sentence with the words "dashi" or "wasabi".  Since this restaurant is in Takashimaya, a lot of the staff also speak English, so you can try that first.

Step 1:  With green Japanese pepper.

Step 3:  With seaweed, green onion, wasabi and dashi.

Step 2:  With seaweed and green onion.

   Each tray of hitsumabushi comes with a lacquered soup bowl.  This soup contains greens and, interestingly enough, the liver of the eel, which is very mild in flavour.  The soup is hot, and I always smile inwardly when I see people awkwardly struggling to open these types of containers after they have left it closed for too long.  To easily open it at this point, simply place your thumb and finger on opposite sides of the rim.  Gently press inwards (a very slight touch will do) and this will relieve the pressure inside the container, allowing you to now remove the lid with no problems.

Soup flavoured with greens and eel innards.

  The Fukinuki Restaurant in Shinjuku is a branch of the main restaurant near Akasaka-Mitsuke Station.  They also have another branch close to Ikebukuro Station.  Since the Shinjuku branch is in Takashimaya Times Square Department Store, it is a smoke-free restaurant; and since it's on the 14th floor, you can enjoy the view of Shinjuku and its environs while eating.  The service here is impeccable with the waitresses being polite and attentive; they constantly change your cups of hot green tea, so they never have the chance to get cold.  It's a great restaurant and it has a reasonably-priced (for unagi) lunch special.  You'd be hard-pressed to find a better deal with such great service anywhere else.



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