Miravile, Komaba ミラヴィル駒場
Miravile is somewhere that has been on my list for well over a year, but it all just seemed so hard. Every time I mustered up my best pidgin Japanese to make a booking they were full. My pride seemed to prevent me from making bookings weeks in advance as that would seem way too keen. On a recent attempt I lost my nerve and just kept asking "what about next week? what about next week? what about next week?". In the end I managed to get a booking three weeks in advance for lunch on Sunday.
And boy was it worth the wait. Miravile really earns its Michelin accolade from start to finish. The ambience is lovely (I believe the chef even did some of the paintings, lending a real personal touch), and the service is extremely attentive - I think keeping the dining room small helps a lot. It was basically love at first sight when my customary Sunday lunch aperitif "coupe de champagne" (a delightful Drappier Carte Blanche to be exact) was refilled!! A refill of champers! Be still my beating heart!!
The food is uniformly superb. We started off with a mousse of tongue, foie gras and trufle topped with a little pastry log. You can tell I'm not a real gourmet because I still get grossed out by things like tongue and brain and especially shirako - but I braved it and was glad I did!
Next came some fat, baked oysters which were as delicious as I've come to expect Japanese oysters to be. Frankly I don't know what all the fuss about Sydney rock oysters is about - give me some scrummy, engorged with yumminess Japanese ones - don't care where they're from- any time!!
The fish that followed was a "kobudai". To be honest, especially if there's sauce on it, I can't really tell one "tai" (bream) from another but this hit the spot really well. My main event was an excellent duck with boudin noir.
Dessert was great too as you can see from the pics! (In the interests of full disclosure, it has been six weeks since I went so I kind of forgot exactly what it was!!).
But don't trust my faulty memory - get your toosh along to Miravile sometime. Expect there to be a bit of a wait to get a table, but I promise you something a definite cut above the rest.
Tel: 03-5738-0418
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