Restaurant Hashimoto, Ogikubo レストラン ハシモト 荻窪

Restaurant Hashimoto is a delightful little French restaurant in a backstreet of Ogikubo, not far from the American Express building and the train station. The chef used to work at L'ecrin in Ginza, and the refinement in food and service he learned there is evident.

Hashimoto features in Livedoor's list of best inexpensive French restaurants so I thought it may be worth trying out. For 2,500 yen you can order a lunch set featuring an entree, main and dessert. A number of dishes such as the foie gras or the duck require some supplement so you could end up paying more than that.

After starting with a very dry glass of the house sparkling white, I ordered a bolognaise risotto for my entree (sounded intriguing), while my dining partner ordered a meat terrine plate. My risotto was very tasty and was garnished with some very nice powdered parmesan and olive oil. I'm not that into charcuterie but I had to try my dining partner's ham mousse, which is one of the specialities of the house. It was an interesting, smokey, creamy concoction and went very nicely with the hot little bread rolls we were served.

The main for both of us was duck, topped with fresh fig, a viscous, sweet and slightly spicy fig sauce and a baby gruyère gallette. The dish was simply superb, with just the right balance of sweet and savoury flavours - I could have easily reached over and stolen the lady's one at the next table for a second helping!

Dessert was a dense marron cake topped with a scoop of homemade pear and caramel ice cream. Although there was no choice as to what to order for dessert, the dish was far from the afterthought you get in a lot of places. As much effort was put into creating this as was given to the rest of the meal.

If I was you I'd find some excuse, such as losing your Amex card, to make it out to Ogikubo to try this place out.

Tel: 03-3398-5552
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/a090200/