IR Second House

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  3560 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Pork and turnip pasta in cream sauce, eggs benedict with salmon
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Possibly outside

My wife and I were downtown on Saturday to sign papers for our lease renewal on our apartment and ended up near Shirokanedai station in Tokyo.  We used bento.com's excellent GPS location service to find nearby restaurants that they had reviewed and saw that IR Second House was recommended and close by.  What drew us was the promise of beer (for my wife, as I was driving), but while there were some interesting selections, there weren't a ton that we were interested in.  My wife ended up getting a decent hefeweizen though.

I ordered the lunch special (pasta) and my wife got the eggs benedict with salmon.  But first we were surprised with seriously hefty salads that were delicious!  The tomato in particular was so flavorful and juicy.  Then the actual food arrived and we were very impressed.  My pasta dish was a little small, but the flavors were excellent and the pasta cooked to perfection.  The eggs benedict (not a dish we've had often) was also quite tasty, the sauce just a little tart, the eggs perfectly runny, the lox was...well...loxxy, and it even had some wilted spinach underneath it all.  The french fries were a surprisingly tasty addition that was perfect to nibble on in between bites.

Pork and turnip cream pasta

Over all we were very impressed, despite the smallish portions.  We left feeling appropriately full however, which is good.  We'd be excited to come back and try their grilled meat which appears to be what they are known for.  While we were there, out on the back patio there were several groups of people next to barbecues where meat was being cooked for them fresh on the grill.  I don't know if that was a special thing or not, but it looked pretty incredible!  I suspect we might be giving this place an Excellent in the future, but for now it was a very high Very Good.

Eggs benedict with salmon