Kagoya Tasuku

Few months back on 7/18, a new local restaurant opened its doors. Located to the left of Komae city’s famous “籠屋秋元酒店” (which you NEED to visit if you fancy sake), “Kagoya Tasuku” (Japanese name: 籠屋たすく ) unsurprisingly was opened by the owners of the sake shop. Being a few minutes’ walk from home, I ...had to check out their digs. They open for lunch at 11:30am and I arrived at 11:45am. I took the last available table. They have seating inside for 12 people only, so get there early or you may need to wait! When you enter the inconspicuous newly built structure, initial impression is you are walking through a peaceful Zen-like garden. As you walk through the small maze to the entrance, you can already sense a calming feeling coming over yourself. Inside is very small, with only 6 tables that seat 2 people each. The atmosphere is very simple, clean, and homey. For lunch, you have 2 set lunch choices- pork or fish. I chose the pork set lunch. The set lunch comes with a 3 item starter, a main, a dessert, and a coffee or tea. After ordering, a nice and cold glass of ice water was brought out, shortly followed by the 3 item starter. It consisted of a small piece of quiche, carrot salad, and a tofu seaweed salad. The quiche was very nice- they definitely paid attention to the fine details, like using fresh ingredients. Crust was flakey and my only complaint is the piece could have been 3 times the size . The carrot salad was light, crisp and refreshing- just perfect for the 34C day we are having today. The last one was the tofu seaweed one. It had the consistency of potato salad, just without the potatoes. The sesame seeds just completed the dish. This one was my favorite out of the three. Next came the main dish, which was roasted pork, some rice, and a small salad. I started with the salad as I saw these small little red berries- they were peppercorns! Not too spicy and who uses whole red peppercorns in their salad? Kagoya does! Salad dressing was a nice an light vinaigrette. The rice was very nice- it was a combination of koshihekari rice and another famous Japanese rice. The star of the dish was of course the pork. Hints of ginger and miso made a very delicate piece of pork. Once again, could have had 3 times as much meat, but that’s only my American stomach talking. Most people would be fine with the portion of everything they served. The dessert was a small piece of freshly made banana cake with some nuts in it. Cashews maybe? I nice finishing touch to a pleasant JPY 1500 yen lunch. One thing to note- they use sake in almost every dish they make here! Helps when you own a 115 year old sake shop next door! If you look at the menu, they explain what sake is used in what dish. I had a look at their dinner menu, which is pretty simple, with prices that are VERY reasonable. I will need to come back here and try a bunch of stuff from their dinner menu. You can check out pix of the menus which I uploaded for your viewing pleasure. Good news is they have their own, free, off street parking lot, so feel free to drive here. They also have an immense 2nd floor deck/patio area, which I assume they will host parties/events. Can someone say Sake tasting party?!?!?! Oh they also have a large room with a counter and stovetop. Maybe they will offer private dining or have cooking classes? Will just have to wait and see. They are closed on Mondays, and if you do want to go and eat here, I recommend you calling them for a reservation! Stop on by Kagoya Tasuku if you are passing through Komae and looking for a nice place to eat at. Then afterwards you can pick up some rare sake and other liquor at their shop next door!

Visited July 2017