author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Twitter

@tokyofoodfile

Robbie Swinnerton
Robbie Swinnerton has been living, eating and writing about food in Tokyo for over 30 years. His column, Tokyo Food File, has run in The Japan Times since 1998.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 12, 2003
The Oak Door: Steak a claim to heavyweight dining
The first thing you see as you enter The Oak Door is the bar, surrounded on three sides by sleek, glass-fronted wine racks packed with boutique New World wines. The second thing that grabs your eye is the warm, flickering glow emanating from the bank of wood-fired ovens by the kitchen, and the white-clad...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 17, 2003
Sushi-bun: An altar in the temple of fresh fish
Why does sushi have to be so expensive? Granted, a modest meal at your neighborhood sushiya shouldn't involve too great an outlay. And when it comes to the mass-produced offerings that chug around conveyor belts on color-coded plates, you will never want to eat enough of them to seriously dent your...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 3, 2003
Luxor: Pride of Italy, transplanted
You eat better at Italian restaurants in Tokyo than you do in Italy. A preposterous statement of unreconstructed chauvinism? An urban myth propagated by a few disgruntled tourists ripped off in Rimini? No, that is the considered opinion of a growing number of people familiar with both countries and their...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 26, 2003
Tama: Pour a libation to summer's end at a stylish washoku hideaway
At last that spell of late summer heat has broken. At last we can generate something approximating an appetite. And -- all praise to the gods of zymurgy -- at last the first of the fresh-season sake is starting to arrive on the shelves and menus of our favorite ryoriya (restaurants) and izakaya.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 12, 2003
Water Grill Oyster Bar: 'R' you ready to crack open oyster season?
Rules are made to be broken. Change is the only constant. Culture is porous and tradition must be fluid. These are the guiding principles for all life. How can they not apply to what and how we eat?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 22, 2003
O, I do like to eat beside the seaside
Just because the rest of the country is heading back to work at the fag end of this cool summer doesn't mean the beach season is over. In fact, now that the crowds are thinning out, this is probably the best time to plan a day trip (or overnight) down to the Shonan "Riviera" -- that stretch of Kanagawa...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 8, 2003
Keeping your cool this summer
Summer is here, the season of lethargy and listlessness, of sweat and stunted appetites. There are ways to ameliorate (if not actually beat) the big heat, but very few of them involve eating. For us, summer is about sitting outside in the cool of the evening, a nice cold beer at hand, or a bottle of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 25, 2003
L'Ecailler: Why shell out?
One thing should be made clear from the outset: L'Ecailler is not a restaurant for everyone. This has nothing to do with location or exclusivity, though it must be said that tony, well-heeled Shirokanedai does boast a distinctive demographic all its own. Neither is it a question of finances. L'Ecailler...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 18, 2003
This Ricos is posh, new -- but is it improved?
It was with considerable anticipation that we made our way to Akabanebashi last week to try the new Ricos, which opened June 10. After all, this is the latest from the people who brought us Ricos Kitchen near Yebisu Garden Place, which was one of our restaurants of the year in 1999 and remains a reliable...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 11, 2003
Thien Phuoc: Vietnamese cooking puts a spring in your step
It's hard to think of a food that has achieved greater upward mobility -- at least here in Japan -- than goi cuon, those delectable, rice-paper-wrapped spring rolls that almost single-handedly define Vietnamese cuisine. Over the past decade, they have moved out of the minority ghetto of back-street ethnic...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 4, 2003
Taverna Vivace: A hearty 'buon gusto' that's a bargain
It is one of the enduring conundrums of eating out in Tokyo: How come, when we are blessed with so many great little bargain bistros, there aren't just as many no-frills trattoria?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 27, 2003
Museum Cafe: On top of the world
It's one of those universal truths we hold self-evident. Fine food plus city lights from way up above, multiplied by one significant other, equals romance. And the great thing is, that equation always adds up, no matter what city, climate or time zone you're in -- even in Roppongi Hills.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 13, 2003
Dean & Deluca: A slice of NY in Marunouchi
The gentrification of Marunouchi continues apace. No longer a staid salaryman ghetto, it has reinvented itself as some of the most sophisticated commercial real estate in the city. The latest arrival in the neighborhood is the sleek steel-and-glass Mitsubishi Trust building, rising high above the venerable...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 6, 2003
Mikawa: the golden temple of tempura
Probably our greatest complaint about Roppongi Hills (apart from its very size) is its bland uniformity. The entire complex looks and feels as devoid of character as an upscale shopping mall. Everywhere, that is, except Mikawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 30, 2003
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon: Is it worth the wait? Mais bien sur!
As soon as the hype and crowds at Roppongi Hills subsided (a bit, anyway), we ventured in. Not to mill around alongside the gawping multitudes, but to make a beeline to the door of L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. It's not every day that a new restaurant opens from the man who was hailed in his native France...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 16, 2003
Bombay Club: At last, Indian food for kulcha vultures
It's been a very long time -- thankfully -- since we could count the number of places in Tokyo serving real Indian food on the fingers of one hand. These days we don't have to travel too far to find a reasonably authentic curry. In fact, it's a measure of how fortunate we are that our main complaint...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 9, 2003
Le Jardin: The fine art of museum dining
What could be more cultured and civilized -- indeed more pleasurable -- than to spend the morning strolling around a good museum and then, with legs aching and aesthetic senses saturated, to adjourn from exhibition hall to adjoining restaurant for a leisurely lunch? Especially when the cuisine is sophisticated...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 2, 2003
Studio J: Masahito Ueki does it again
While the eyes of the world -- or at least the Tokyo-centric portion of the planet -- have been fixed on the unveiling of the massive Roppongi Hills complex, our attention was focused on another new arrival, not so far away but on a totally different scale. For us, the main event last month was the opening...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 25, 2003
Un Cafe: I'm falling in love again
Going back to favorite restaurants after a gap of several years is much like meeting up with an old flame after being out of touch for too long. Anticipation is likely to be tempered by a good measure of anxiety. How have they changed? What if they don't look so good any more, or they've gone to fat,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 18, 2003
Hachinoki Honten: On a higher plane
Spring is here -- time to head for the hills. And if you take the train south from Tokyo, the first topography of any significance you're likely to encounter will be that swathe of green that rings the genteel burg of Kamakura. A century or so ago, these hillocks were referred to (with no hint of irony)...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER