6.04.2011

Tokyo Food - Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu

Before moving to Japan I heard a few things about the now famous Gonpachi. The first well known point is that Quentin Tarantino was inspired by the restaurant's Edo-style awnings and lanterns; so much that he recreated the space in the film Kill Bill. Secondly, a friend told me it was George Bush's favourite place to eat when he comes to Tokyo!?

Despite this little bit of trivia, Gonpachi has some very strong dishes. The traditional setting of the restaurant contrasts with Gonpachi's food, much of which is Japanese with a modern twist. Tempura avocado and cheese (this was a little strange), super spicy chicken wings, delicious bacon wrapped asparagus kushiyaki, succulent beef, and the beautiful-but-difficult-to-eat prawn dumplings. And that is not to mention the drewl-worthy sesame and chocolate desert, and original Gonpachi cocktails.

Gonpachi has sister restaurants in various locations around Tokyo, including in Shibuya. All restaurants have sections which specialise in kushiyaki (grilled skewers), soba and sushi. I am yet to try the sushi menu, but this is definitely on my to do list.

Gonpachi website (in English)

Asparagus with bacon kushiyaki

Spicy chicken wings

Chocolate pudding with sesame icecream

Gonpachi roof
Photos by Magnus Yang

Location

6 comments:

magnus said...

your post does the food justice. actually it makes me want to go back. =)

Ἀντισθένης said...

Looks good, but Tarantino and Bush are poor company.

Sarah in Tokyo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
::little projects in style:: said...

we were planning to give this restaurant a go! now more so!! the asparagus & bacon looks amazing! :)

Billy Martyn said...

Hi Sarah,

My name is Billy Martyn. I follow your blog and wanted to introduce myself.

My brother and I recently launched a free language learning site with the goal of offering English and Japanese language learners a new way to practice with each other.

Our site (abcloop.com/en) focuses on the “social” aspect of learning, with tools that allow conversations to be translated and checked by everyone who uses it. Conversations, for example in the Good Eats Loop, often start in one language and continue in both English and Japanese.

We think many of our users would be interested in your blog and vice versa.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,
Billy

billy@abcloop.com

Tokyo Bun Bun said...

We will be back in Tokyo in September and just added this to our list. Thanks for the review.

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