A restaurant that serves only one dish, one wine and only plays one artist’s music? Welcome to OUT Restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo, a tiny 13 seater minimalist restaurant that is perfect for the indecisive diner but especially suited for Japan where specialty shops and restaurants are highly valued.

Sometime last year, the boy and I had just landed in Tokyo and dropped off our luggage before setting out to meet Yas. Jetlagged and getting horribly lost, we finally arrived at OUT and settled at the u-shaped dining table to the sweet tunes of Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog.

Like most places in Japan, there’s a ticket machine in the corner to order your food- ‘The Set’ (¥4,000/AU$50.30) comes with 150 grams of fresh pasta, five grams of fresh truffle, and a glass of wine, or you can get the pasta separately (¥2,900/AU$36.50). If you have any problems with the ticket machine or have any questions, the staff are more than happy to explain.

We watch as the chef dunks portions of fresh tagliatelle into boiling water before draining and twirling onto our plates with a slick of butter and a touch of parmesan.

And then the glass cloche displaying the truffles in the centre of the room is ceremoniously lifted aaaaand then it’s time to rain truffles!

The heady fragrance of truffles fills the room with every whisper thin shave and I can’t help but silently urge the truffle bearer for a never ending shower of truffles onto my pasta. The dish is simplistic yes, but it’s just so delicious- the pasta is spot on al dente with a perfect bite to it, the truffles are delicate in flavour but the incredible aroma has me in raptures.

OUT Restaurant
150-0002 Tokyo-to,
Shibuya-ku, Shibuya,
2 Chome−7−14, Vort Aoyama

Trading Hours:
Mon: Closed
Tues – Sat: 6pm – 12am
Sun: 6 – 10pm

I’ve always thought food in France would be super rich, full of butter and utterly indulgent. It was our first time to Paris and in need of sustenance after a day at the Lourve (much art, daaaaarling), we googled best duck in Paris and managed to snare a table without a booking at Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie.

I have got to mention the absolutely lovely service we received, I’d been warned about the brusque nature of basically the entire population of France but wherever we went everyone was so nice and polite! We had zero problems with communication and were smilingly handed an English menu with no problems. We absolutely loved our first meal here that we ended up visiting again on our last day so don’t @ me with the amount of food in this post!

Noods had his heart set on the Bourgogne snails (6 for €13.80/AUD$22.43) which were tender meaty morsels absolutely drenched in garlic butter. He did almost have a Pretty Woman moment using the escargot tool but luckily no slippery little suckers were flung across the room 😛

The onion soup (€9.50/AUD$15.45) was like drinking a bowl of happiness, it was laden with what felt like the lives of hundreds of onions cooked till tender and then layered with bread and then there’s the magic that is melted cheese.

The roasted duck with balsamic sauce (€17/AUD$27.60) was a beauty, ridiculously juicy and fork tender with a perfect baby pink center. The skin was gloriously crisp and I carefully set it aside to savour slowly. Oh and not forgetting the oh so buttery mash!

The menu had listed a range of foie gras dishes and not wanting to miss out I end up ordering 3 of the 4. When the foie gras carpaccio with honey balsamic sauce and sea salt (€19/AUD$30.90) arrived at our table we were thinking oh crap this serve is friggen massive! I mean we finished it but it was definitely a struggle with all the rich food we’d ordered and consumed the past couple of days! The ribbons of creamy foie gras was served cold and while it did come with a serve of bread I instead relished placing a piece on my tongue and letting it slowly dissolve… be still my heart.

Oh boy. The pan seared foie gras with gingerbread (€17/AUD$27.60) made my heart skip a beat or two and not just because of my rapidly increasing cholesterol! The lobe of foie gras had a great sear to it so there was a great textural contrast of crisp to creamy. I wasn’t too keen on the gingerbread because that’s always a dessert to me but I loved the pineapple which I think was roasted/grilled and provided a relief from the richness.

Foie gras ravioli with a truffle sauce (€19/AUD$30.90) was just mind blowing, the truffle cream sauce though! My god is this what heaven tastes like? Incredibly rich and and oh so creamy the truffle flavour was just amazing and you bet I mopped up each last drop of the sauce with bread! The pasta itself was just so silky and tender and beneath their folds held nuggets of foie gras. Technically the foie gras wasn’t really the star of this dish but to me it felt like a perfect marriage. Of rich and more rich hahaha

Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie
34 Rue Montmartre,
75001 Paris, France

Trading Hours:
Mon–Thu: 6:00 AM–11:00 PM
Fri–Sat: 6:00 AM–Midnight