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| The entrance--the restaurant is in the basement. |
After you enter the door, you go down a set a steps into a little entryway where you are asked to leave your shoes and put on slippers. Very homestyle and cute. I wish I'd remembered to take a picture of the slippers all lined up by the door. The interior is really small and probably only seats about 30 people at most, so reservations are a must. I called about an hour and a half ahead of time, and was able to get a reservation for Saturday lunch at 1:15 pm.
The waitresses wear traditional robes, and serve green tea once you are seated.
Everything about this place is cute, from the tiny tables and stools (with storage space for coats underneath) right down to the dishware. Our cups had cherry blossoms on them, and the waitstaff was very attentive and always onhand to refill. We decided to order the lunch box set for $17, which was a chef's choice set of assorted fish and other items. I always think chef's choice is a good bet at places like this, and it allows for a lot of variety if you come back.
The meal started with a steamed mussel soup. The flavor was wonderful, with hints of ginger and a smoky undertone. It was a little hard at times to work the mussels free from the shells, but it was wonderful.
Next came 3 small appetizer dishes. Clockwise from top--a crab salad with pickled turnip and cucumber; seaweed; and avocado with miso sauce. These were perfect too. I especially liked the miso sauce on the avocado. The bite-sized portions sort of ensured, however, that just as you started to enjoy something, it was gone. The only dish I wasn't too impressed with was the seaweed, as it was very standard and there weren't any special flavors to it.
The main course came next. Clockwise from top left: Orange roughy with sliced tamago omelette; yellowtail tuna sashimi; assorted veggies and shrimp; steamed salmon and tofu. The variety in this lunch set was the best part. For $17, you really get a very satisfying number of items that boast a lot of different flavors. Of these, the orange roughy was my favorite--grilled with a melt-in-your mouth texture and a sweet and savory flavor. The yellowtail was very fresh, as was the steamed salmon.
I just had to show the little teapot above--it's actually a soy sauce container! It's the details like this that make Makoto such a wonderful experience. You really feel like you've stepped into a homey, cozy little corner of Japan.
The lunch set ended with a dessert of grape sorbet made with some sort of alcohol. I'm not exactly sure what kind of alcohol since the descriptions from the waitstaff seem to get lost a bit in translation. All in all, this was a great meal and I can't wait to come back to try dinner or other box combinations ^_^
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