New Arabashiri: Great Food, Wine & Sake
Published: March 23, 2023
Great news for sake lovers! And wine lovers too! The popular sake izakaya Arabashiri has added another restaurant to its burgeoning chain in the shape of Wine and Nihonshu New Arabashiri Monzen-nakacho. Known as New Arabashiri for short, it opened its doors for business in February 2023. On a sunny spring afternoon, we strolled down for a chat with manager and chef Mr. Yasuhiro Yokokura.
New Arabashiri is located on a back street just across Eitai Street from Tomioka Hachimangu, two minutes’ walk from exit 2 of Monzen-nakacho station. There are two Arabashiri restaurants in Monzen-nakacho so make sure you have the right one (They’re both really good, of course).
ORANGE, SPARKLING, RED, WHITE, SAKE
Just like the Kameido Arabashiri, the New Arabashiri is dedicated to the delights of Japanese sake and boasts a fine wine list. The sake list is the same but the wine list is the work of Mr. Yokokura, and features some 18 varieties. Both the wine and the sake are 790 yen a glass. There’s a strong line up of the currently popular orange wine; from left to right Italian, a rather rare vegan Romanian orange wine and a sweeter Spanish one. Very appealing.
The sake selection is varied and interesting. On the left here is a stunning pink sake from the Ryujin Brewery in Gunma, while on the right is a rarely seen (in Tokyo) Tokachi junmaishu from Hokkaido. Customers can choose their own cup from the basket!
The food menu is selected to suit both sake and wine. One of the most popular plates is this grilled selection of vegetables from the Miura Peninsula of Kanagawa Prefecture (970 yen). Grilled carefully, the vegetables are seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
This may appear to be regular deep fried chicken but in fact it’s seasoned with orange juice for a fruity base and then spiced with sansho pepper, the fragrant, mouth-tingling green peppercorn powder most associated with grilled eel dishes. 660 yen and a total taste sensation!
The highly appealing menu continued with this blue cheese gratin (869 yen). The gratin is meat free, containing mushrooms, tomatoes, and broccoli and naturally goes well with a glass of wine but as Mr. Yokokura explained, “Pairing cheese with sake has become popular recently. I’d like to recommend our customers try this dish with one of our sakes.”
Mr. Yokokura learned to cook in both Japanese and Western restaurants. At New Arabashiri he’s putting that experience to work creating imaginative dishes with a twist, that match both wine and sake.
The menu features several other dishes made to enjoy with a drink: pâté de campagne, marinated octopus, stewed beef tendons, horse sashimi, mackerel with cream cheese, and yuzu chili sauce, pork shoulder with honey, lemon and basil sauce, duck with balsamic sauce and many more. Sounds great!
The interior is very easy on the eye, with blonde wood and a pleasant moss green tone dominating. Cool jazz burbles from the speakers, creating a mellow vibe that felt very comfortable on a sunny afternoon.
The open kitchen counter seats ten, while a further eight people can be accommodated in the back room. New Arabashiri is popular, so we’d recommended making a reservation in advance for weekend nights or larger groups.
For those unsure of which wine to order, this handy wall chart made by the owner’s youthful daughter categorises the various ones on offer. From left to right is sweet to dry, refreshing to full-bodied for sparkling, orange, white and red wines. Mr. Yokokura dropped some heavy hints about rare wines and other surprises on the drink menu in the future.
New Arabashiri looks like being as big a success as its predecessors in Koto-ku! If you’re in the mood for some tasty treats accompanied by top sake and carefully selected wine, just head for New Arabashiri.
by Stephen Spencer
