There is a hotel called Hotel Muse Ginza Meitetsu in Ginza 7-chome.
There is a restaurant called “Ginza Breakfast Labo” in the hotel that I had been eyeing for a while.
Although some restaurants give priority to hotel guests, they are also open to the general public and can be used by those of us who are not staying at the hotel.As the name suggests, the restaurant was originally intended to serve breakfast to hotel guests. However, the restaurant is now open for lunch as well, which has lowered the bar for out-of-towners like me.
Like many business and city hotel breakfast restaurants, this restaurant uses a buffet style, but what sets it apart is that it strives to provide a “good-looking, pleasant buffet.” First, the table at which you sit has a tray divided into nine sections, and here you take small plates of food from the counter and place them on the tray.
Buffets are usually prepared on platters and placed on the counter. Then each person uses a spoon or tongs to divide the food onto his or her own plate, taking only as much as he or she wants. This is fine, but it can sometimes result in a messy presentation, and the food on the platter can be a mess. Especially in the case of gratin, the plate has a high percentage of sludge.
On the other hand, the small plate style provides a nice and tidy view of the counter. And when the dishes are placed on their own trays, they do not look messy. In addition, there is no waiting in front of the counter for people to pick up their dishes. All in all, it is a smart and pleasant space.
Buffets make me feel dirty. I try my best to put the food on my plate while feeling guilty or perhaps disgusted by it. So if there are negative factors like the restaurant being dirty or the customers being all fat, my satisfaction level drops dramatically. I really appreciate a comfortable place to hide my negative feelings.
Of course, the price is not cheap. It costs 2,800 yen per person because of its location in Ginza, the fact that it is a hotel restaurant, and the fact that the chefs put a lot of time and effort into preparing the dishes on small plates.
2,800 yen for lunch! I’ll have to come to terms with that in my mind by saying that it’s a reward for something. If you start to think that this kind of financial sense is normal, your angel coefficient will increase rapidly in the future.
First, the waiter will show you how to use the breakfast tray. You will use the 9-square tray for the first time and for subsequent times if you wish.
This tray is unique to this restaurant but some dishes, like rice, will be served on separate plates that won’t fit on the 9-square tray. While I find the 9-square tray to be cooler, for convenience, it is more practical to use the regular tray for the second and following times.
To get pork shabu-shabu, go to the food counter with your table number on the order tag. The chef will cook it there and bring it to you right away.
The service is excellent, and drinks come free of charge, including milk. However, alcohol comes at an extra cost. This izakaya has a great selection of small dishes and is perfect for those who enjoy drinking.
Since the eatery is open in the morning and afternoon, they offered non-alcoholic beer and non-alcoholic sparkling wine to choose from, which I found pleasant since I enjoy non-alcoholic beer. However, I chose not to order it due to the brand of non-alcoholic beer they carried, which I did not prefer.
I pick up my food with excitement.A row of small dishes are lined up, and I place them on my tray one by one.A young woman customer, appearing to enjoy posting on social media, is contemplating the dishes in front of her, trying to decide where each dish would look its best on her tray. It’s like piecing together a puzzle as she continuously rearranges the dishes on her tray.
I like how at a small plate restaurant, you don’t have to reserve a lot of room for food on the buffet. You can even use two layers of dishes, which is hard to picture at a regular buffet.
Rice and takikomi gohan are served in a large hittsu. As one would expect, the rice is not served on a small plate from the start, but is placed in a rice bowl by oneself.
The dishes at this restaurant are mainly Japanese cuisine. I wondered what people from countries where it is not customary to eat rice would do. I wondered, but they had bread available as well.
Delicious-looking jams and honey are also available.
Dishes such as gratin and meatloaf were served in a style often seen in regular buffet restaurants.
Why is that? I wondered, because these dishes need to be kept warm because they are not good to eat cold after they are made.
This is what I have laid out for the food without any consideration for appearance.
This restaurant does not have that many dishes, so the dishes shown in this picture take up roughly 70% of the total.
Taking a photo of your food plate at a buffet restaurant and sharing it is not a good idea. That’s because the image is dirtier than you’d expect. But, in this eatery, the plates are perfectly set up beforehand, so they look beautiful when viewed from above. However, when captured from an angle, it adds depth and a three-dimensional feel to the picture.
The women next to me were trying to post their food on social media but didn’t fill all 9 squares. A blank square was left on the left side where no dish was placed.It’s unknown whether they didn’t want people to think they were having a full meal or thought it looked better. Nonetheless, it was more emotional to have a blank square.
Although the restaurant’s appearance is usually the top priority, the food tasted awful. However, this restaurant is not one to judge by its looks, because the taste of the food outweighs everything else.The dishes made with dashi (Japanese soup stock) provide a defined umami flavor.Every dish, no matter the texture, has a bold flavor that will make the customer’s back straighten up. The urge to overeat with a slouched posture disappears, and in its place, a feeling of gratitude arises, saying, “Let’s savor the thoughtfully cooked food.” This food is the type that alters your perspective.
I dislike buffets that only provide tasty rice and miso soup because I enjoy consuming vast amounts of food. Rice fills me up quickly, so I should eat alternative dishes as much as feasible, but rice is hard to resist.
This restaurant seems to update its lineup of small dishes every three months. It is likely that they adopt seasonal items according to spring, summer, fall, and winter.
I was in trouble, not exaggerating, because all the dishes listed here are delicious. I finished all the dishes. I thought, “I’ve finished all the dishes and I’ll have another helping of only the ones I thought were good,” but everything was so good.
Since I couldn’t find a superior dish, I ended up having to get all the small plates again.
I was surprised to find that the beef croquette was delicious, despite my expectation that it would be plain. The beef tenderloin croquette was served twice on a plate of dessert items like monaka and French toast. I frequently visit buffets and all-you-can-eat restaurants nowadays, but I often stop eating before feeling full because I already feel satisfied or regret overeating later on.The eating experience at the restaurant was unique. My partner Ishi and I felt both mentally content and physically satiated.We were so full that our chopsticks naturally stopped just before we hit the point of overeating, and we couldn’t help but smile with the feeling of satisfaction in our hearts.
It was a recurring experience for us to say “Let’s go back to this restaurant!” We enjoyed our meal so much that we still feel happy about it even though we haven’t been back in a while.We didn’t think, “This is so amazing that we have to come back every three monthswhen the menu changes!”
Instead, we said to each other, “We should go back to that restaurant someday when we can’t remember how good it was.” It was the best restaurant experience we’ve ever had, and we think we found a really great place to eat.
(2023.11.02)
Comments