Address Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Takadanobaba 2-9-12 Shibahara Bldg 1Fl. Opening hours - Closed on Monday, open 11:30 to 1:30 and 18:00 to 22:00 Map - See Shapla's Telephone 5272-5010 Menu - In French and Japanese CC - Probably not

February 23, 2006

The food is as good as always, but booking has become a lot easier than it used to.

December 2000
Right next to Shapla (see map), L'Amitie is always full, so that last week I couldn't get a seat even trying to book four days in advance. We will see how good it is ...

January 25, 2001

OK, I am giving up. Today I called one last time L'Amitiè trying to book a table for next Tuesday, SEVEN DAYS IN ADVANCE, and I was told that yes, I could have a table, but only after 8:30 ... I will never try again. No restaurant deserves so much effort.

May 5, 2001
Some days ago a friend and I were in Takadanobaba and wanted to go to dinner somewhere. He proposed L'Amitiè, saying that because of the Golden Week holidays they might have had a table. They did, a small one in a corner, but they did.

The place is in most ways just another budget-French restaurant, and very much like La Dinette or Pas-a-Pas: very small and unpretentious, but it offers better value than some very expensive venues I know. It's just a small L-shaped room with less than fifteen tables, posters from France on the walls, but there are three cooks in the kitchen and a very efficient waitress at the tables. It was soon clear to me why L'Amitiè is so popular: cheap it might be, but it's managed very well, and everything is in sharper focus than in other similar restaurants. The menu, which includes ten entrees and ten main dishes among which you can choose one of each for two thousand yen, is interesting, service polite, the food prepared with a certain attention to details ... Incredible what you get, for just two thousand yen.

I ordered poulet farci, or chicken stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies in plain English, and mousse de patè de volaille; my friend had couscous (the best I have ever tasted in Japan. It was accompanied by authentic Harissa, a Tunisian sauce I had never seen before) and an excellent fish dish. We decided to skip desserts, which are extra, because we had already had enough, but I can tell you they looked great, especially the tarte tatin. The wine list is modest, just eight whites and as many reds, with prices ranging from 2500 to 5300 yen: according to Claus Regge, my personal oenologist, none of them is something to write home about.

In conclusion, L'Amitiè is a good restaurant which produces small miracles from very little and it definitely deserve its success.