Bonheur Place, Nishi Eifuku

Eiiiiiii- fuku? Once in a great while, we venture out to odd places. And in this case not even the bustling metropolopolis of Eifuku, but the western suburb thereof. I needed to meet The Recruiter, had no particular objection to travel, and suggested we might as well meet 2 minutes from his house. He suggested that the French place at the corner had been open for several years, which can't be a bad sign, we booked it up, and here's the review.

Considering the location and target price/customer range, it was pretty good. That sounds like a bad review, but I don't mean it to be. It's right at the main intersection of Nishi-Eifuku (and I'm sorry, I'm having problems with my camera so I can't post the pictures) and is fit out with a blue-tableclothed and china-cabineted bistro that's a little bit country. We had the middle course (Y3200, I think) which included a choice of starter, a mushroom soup, choice of main and choice of dessert. If you stretch, you can have fish and meat. If you bring 4 people and order ahead, you can have the chef's special course(s).

The 'order ahead' thing highlights one potential problem: with turnover like this (none, we were the only customers that night, which, I grant you, was a Tuesday), it's got to be hard to keep that menu fresh. But The Recruiter liked his sauteed foie gras, while I was pleasantly surprised with my snails. The cepe soup, while not blindingly fresh or anything, was grainy and deeply mushroomed. For mains, we both had the Iberico Pork, which was a largish chop baked in crust and cut in half for the two of us. It was mediocre; Spain is obviously not making Ibericos like they used to. Desserts were good though - a nice pear tart for me with plenty of fruit and a good crust (not almondy, unfortunately) and an interesting twist for him with stewed fuki (you could be forgiven for calling this 'Japanese celery') with figs in a maple syrup sauce. Cool!

I write safe in the knowledge that you don't live close to Eifuku and thus are in no danger of having your opinion swayed one way or the other by my review. But if you did live here, you'd have to give this a try once, just like we did, just to see.

Hopefully there are more people on other nights.
03-3314-1137