Signature

Five stars for the view alone, even if they left you sitting at your table with no food or drink, smacked you in the head as they walked by, and made jokes about your mom.
We stopped in for a glass of wine on our way to dinner at Narisawa, so I don’t have much of a review except to note that the prices are expensive, the service is exquisite, and the view is completely breathtaking.

NB: Signature was my 29^th birthday dinner. Photos were taken by the No1DP as he wanted me to enjoy my meal.
CONCEPT: One of the Mandarin Oriental’s five fine-​dining options and one of three (yes three!) Michelin one-​stars. Signature adds a contemporary Japanese flair to classical French cuisine.
VENUE: Located on the 37^th floor of the hotel. Most tables have a stunning view of the Tokyo sky, though it is darker at night than other cities like NY or LV. The semi-​private area can seat 12 and felt more intimate than other tables. The booth seating felt quite comfortable.
SERVICE: Excellent service. I remember being served by 2 Japanese waiters and 1 French waiter. All spoke excellent English and even the French guy spoke Japanese pretty well with a French accent.
One of the waiters forgot our wines that would pair with the main course but they apologized after the fact and poured our wines. Pours were somewhat generous.
Signature offers a-​la-​carte and 2 prix-​fixe menus: a menu which one can choose between 4 (12,000円, choice of cold/​hot appetizer and fish/​meat) and 6 courses (15,000円, includes both appetizers and fish and meat choices) and one 20,000円 8-​course menu. All options include canapés and amuse-​bouche in the beginning and café, petit four and take-​home pastries at the end.
WINES: I forgot exactly what I had, but I remember having dry champagne and a red blend from the Burgundy region. As a California gal I’m not super familiar with old world wine, but it was more dry and had more tannin than what I’m familiar with. I know that Cabernet is found in Bordeaux so I wonder what would be similar to Cabernet in Burgundy. It’s supposed to complement the quail, which I thought it did a decent job.
LE MARCHE
Canapé: Four «finger foods», one was a celery stick, one was duck pâté and the other was an intense chorizo taste reminiscent of SoCal Mexican.
Amushe-​bouche: A pea pod with pea-​flavored chips topped with pea purée. The purée is smooth, mild and slightly sweet. I normally do not like peas yet the pea flavor was quite mild.
1. Appetizer, cold: Sea bass carpaccio, artichoke purée with olive, cucumber and shellfish. Carpaccio is just basically raw meats as a plated dish. Each seafood piece tasted fresh and light and the artichoke purée was a creamy brine.
2. Appetizer, hot: Slow cooked Japanese white asparagus, sorrel, light sabayon. The sabayon sauce is similar to hot custard. The sorrel, shaved asparagus and proscuitto were sprinkled on top. The salty meat and sour sorrel blended well with the creamy sabayon.
Breads: I *loved* the butter rolls as texture was similar to brioche and the French butter is creamy. No1DP doesn’t like creamy butters all that much.
3. Le poisson: Lobster poached in a rhubarb juice, confit potato, fresh pepper sauce. The lobster was a bit on the tough side, had to use a knife to cut the lobster into pieces. The confit potato texture was analogous to polenta. The dish tasted like eating a potato lobster risotto.
4. La viande: Roasted quail stuffed with foie gras, conchiglie pasta, morel mushroom purée, garlic leaf paste. My favorite dish of the night as everything blended just right. The quail didn’t taste too gamey and could be easily sliced with a fork. Vegetables and pasta were cooked al dente. The foie is supposed to be in a pâté form but initially was in a slight coagulated mass but melted in the mouth.
No1DP got the pan-​sauteed milk fed veal, seasonal vegetables, veal jus with fruit tomatoes. The veal was tender and soaked in its juices. No1DP enjoyed his dish.
5. Le fromage: Seasonal cheese selection. Four small cheeses with a piece of hard bread. The brie went very well with the dab of honey. Blue cheese was on the strong side. There was a cheese that tasted quite weird — too jelly-​like for my liking.
6. Le dessert: Mango variation, green tea meringue. I loved the little bits of sweet mango and mango sherbet but I am not a meringue person as it’s just simply too sweet though I can taste the tinge of green tea.
Not pictured are the petit fours — No1DP gravitated towards the chocolate while I gravitated towards the cream puff — luscious cream with a burst of vanilla sandwiched on soft cream puff pastry.
The take-​home dessert was pastries from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel gift shop. These pastries were meant to go with coffee and had the taste of madelines. I had some a few days later and being individually packaged they tasted still fresh.
This was a wonderful experience for us. As for me I have a grudging relationship with French food and this was one of the few times where I was thoroughly impressed with the meal preparation and execution. Among the French restaurants I’ve tried foodwise this ranks above Sous Berre but just slightly below TFL purely due to the ingredients used. The total experience is hugely reminiscent of TFL — one of my life-​changing foodie experiences.
Again, a huge THANK YOU to the No1DP for taking me here.