The amazing Maru

Last Friday Terry took me out for the best birthday dinner ever: modern kaiseki at Maru, a charming basement-level restaurant off Aoyama-dori, near the Omotesando crossing (same block as Las Chicas, but closer to the main road -- around the corner from Muji and Crocs). Very reasonably priced too.

a few of the dishes we had, all of them scrumptious:
fried lotus root, in a glaze of arum root, red peppers and soy (renkon no kinpira)


corn tempura (toumorokoshi no kakiage)


I think this is duck (kamorousu to nasu moriawase) or it might be the beef (kuroge wagyu isozuke sumiaburi)

chicken with spring onions in a citrus-soy sauce (jidori no tatsutaage negiponzu)

We also had shitake mushrooms stuffed with chopped shrimp cooked in a taijin pot (futami shitake to yasai tajin) and shrimp and summer vegetable croquettes with sweet miso (sakuraebi to okara korokke) -- not the best of the night but still tasty.

As for drinks...
Terry tried three kinds of sake while I worked my way through the umeshu menu.
I think the one of the left was my favorite. It tasted vaguely of apricots.

At the end of the evening our server pulled this fourth bottle of umeshu out from his special stash. It was also very good. I need to stop drinking the cheap stuff from the grocery store. These were so much better!

I always have my umeshu with rocks. Sometimes with a splash of soda if it's too syrupy-sweet but I didn't have that problem at this place.
why is the ice in Japan so good?

From The Japan Times' review:

Rakushokushu Maru

Location: Aoyama KT Building B1F, 5-50-8 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
(03) 6418 5572

Open: Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.); dinner 6 p.m.-1 a.m. (Fri. 6 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sun. 6 p.m.-midnight)