tofuya ukai

Located near the base of Tokyo Tower, Tofuya Ukai is a beautiful restaurant that serves everything soy.

Saturday, V invited us to have dinner with her and her daughter here.

The grounds are beautiful and you could easily forget you were in a big city...

And the food was delicious and beautifully presented.

Hassun: peanut tofu with miso (kind of reminded me of the Okinawan jimami tofu which is also made from peanuts), salmon roe with pickled root vegetables and yuzu (similar to namasu), kelp cured trout sushi, arrowhead chips and roast duck with kujo onion (hard to maneuver out of the dish and kind of tasted like pork to me)

Age Dengaku: deep fried tofu topped with a dengaku (sweet-salty) miso and fresh negi (leeks)...so delicious, deep fried and thin like a cracker! want to re-create this!

This was also served with some blanched spinach topped with katsuo bushi 

Today's sashimi: maguro (tuna), hirame (flounder/halibut), kanpachi (amberjack)..we think…we couldn't remember the types of fish that the staff had mentioned...

Ebi imo Fukumenni: ebi imo (type of taro root found mostly in Kyoto shaped like raw shrimp) that is simmered in stock then fried so that the outside is super crispy while the inside is super tender, there was also some ginkgo nuts and the sauce that was drizzle over had a little yuzu flavor

Tousui Tofu: Fresh tofu simmered in a seasoned soy milk broth

Having eaten here before, this is the dish that V said she loved and the reason why she wanted to eat here again.

Eat as is first to enjoy the flavors of the tofu and broth, then add some sansho konbu and/or shoyu

Really simple and flavorful.

Tokusen wagyu tataki: Seared premium wagyu roast beef

Roast beef so tender that your chopsticks could cut through the meat and you didn't need any teeth to eat it either! talk about melt in your mouth.

There was a shoyu based sauce and the roast beef was coated with pepper, eaten with the fresh veggies matched nicely.

Freshly ground pepper or wasabi was also served to change up the flavors, but the shoyu sauce was enough flavor for me.

Taigohan: Grilled red snapper mixed into takikomi rice

Thank goodness it wasn't a lot as we were all getting full at this point.

Dessert: Poached apple with a wine jellied sauce served with a green apple sorbet

Thank you for generously treating us to dinner V, we hope you had a nice birthday and we’re honored that you let us be a part of your special day.

Tofuya Ukai

4-4-13 Shibakoen

Minato, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3436.1028