Hokkaido/Ebisu北海道/恵比寿

 

Ebisu Hokkaido is at the top (39th floor) of Ebisu Garden Tower in Ebisu. The restaurant is an izakaya-style place that specializes in dishes from Hokkaido and northern Japan. One wall of the place contains large windows that open up onto western Tokyo (looking west from the Yamanote loop from between Ebisu station and Meguro station). On a very clear day with low smog you can usually see the top of Mt. Fuji peeking up from behind the foothills. I happened to be dining here with my wife one night and I noticed that they had miso ramen on the menu. While knowing that Hokkaido is famous as the birthplace of miso ramen, but not expecting to find it on the menu at this place, I was suprised. The ramen was a quite decently-sized portion and contained lots of grilled vegetables including corn and lots of grilled onions. The noodles were decent but plain. The miso flavor was not as strong as other misos that I have had (regular readers may have noticed that I do not review a lot of miso ramen dishes or places that specialize in miso since I find the taste a bit strong for me). It actually tasted like mostly broth and just some miso. As for the other toppings there was just a small piece of pork and 1/2 of a completely boiled egg. This is a decent bowl in a good restaurant. Also note that the building has a special touristy elevator on one side that goes directly to the 38th and 39th floors, but the elevator is slow and the line to get on it is even slower. The regular elevator in the 31-39 bank that the office workers use is much quicker, but I guess tourists are not supposed to use it.

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