Tokyo Haunts for Sampling Our Finest

New Zealand cuisine is well represented in Tokyo with a number of restaurants in Japan’s megapolis serving lamb cutlets, clay pot hangi-cooked meat and green-lipped mussels.

There are two large eateries in Tokyo serving New Zealand-produced meat: Wakanui and Arossa.

“Wakanui is a big posh steakhouse. Their French rack of Canterbury lamb is grilled on Japanese binchotan charcoal (considered Japan’s best),” Rebecca Milner writes for the Japan Times.

“The Kiwi friend who recommended Wakanui tells me his go-to dish there is the grass-fed beef, grilled over the same premium charcoal. Ideally, he’ll pair it with a red from Providence, one of New Zealand’s most ambitious and acclaimed wineries.

“Arossa, a less expensive option, does pastured lamb and beef, too. It’s also probably the only place in Japan where you can get hangi, a traditional Maori dish of roots and meat wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. Well, a version of it: The traditional method involves digging a hole in the ground and filling it with hot stones; at Arossa they use a clay pot and an oven.

“Both restaurants do steamed green-lipped mussels, another New Zealand specialty.”

Original article by Rebecca Milner, The Japan Times, June 3, 2014.