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| Vegetable Curry (front) and Hash Beef |
You can call it fate, good judgement or an innate sense that someplace could be great that often has led me to wonderful, off the beaten path, restaurants. There can be no better example of this than “Cafe Ohana” in Tokyo’s Ginza. With a hungry 18 year old boy by my side and a safe, comfortable choice of a “Subways” sandwich shop right in front of us, I took a chance to walk down a narrow hallway and take the elevator to what has turned out to be our “place to go” for lunch when we are taking photos for my other blog, “Panache Japan”
http://panachejapan.blogspot.com/.
We dropped in, on a whim, for the first time just 2 days before the terrible earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. I was impressed right away with the friendly greeting in English as we entered and the quick, excellent service. Even more so. I was delighted by the thinly sliced ginger pork lunch I had then, which I believed I only posted on Twitter.
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| Facing the entrance & bar |
Last week, June 1st, we returned to Tokyo for a spring photo shoot and began to look for “Cafe Ohana” again. The streets of Ginza as you approach from Yurakcho Station can get pretty confusing amid all the traffic and distractions, but we did manage to locate our landmark “Subways” sandwich shop and the narrow passageway that leads to “Cafe Ohana”. We purposely went there early to beat the rush and were lucky enough to get the interior shots, you see here, of the charming cafe without any other customers. If you look closely on the tables you can see “reserved” signs, a warning to anyone wanting to go there for lunch without calling first. We were lucky.I had intended to get the pork again, but decided to try the vegetable curry. You can see my meal in the forefront of the food shot along with the “Hash Beef” that my son ordered.
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| Heir to the throne |
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| Overlooking Ginza |
Both meals were wonderful and not expensive at all, only coming to ¥2000. The vegetables were fresh and the salad was very crisp.So I’m sure that the next time we go to Ginza we will at least stop in for coffee, but most likely call and reserve a table for lunch, charming service, great food and a relaxing atmosphere all in one “off the beaten path” cafe.
Cafe Ohana
Tel: 03-3567-4388
Chuo Ku Ginza 3-3-12
Ginza Building 4F
