Address - Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Nishi Waseda 2-1-19 YK BUILDING B1 Opening hours - Dunno Map - No Telephone - 3202-7642 Menu - In Japanese CC -OK

This restaurant was for me a disappointment of epic proportions, mainly because of the contrast between the pretensions in the printed material I had read and the realities I have seen.

In a word, if Rera Chise's is Ainu cuisine, then this last is the cuisine of an assimilated people, whatever the ambitions of the various flyers, posters, and slogans I have read. The food is hardly any different from that of just any Japanese Akachochin. Example: on the menu one finds the name "Eggplants in Miso Sauce" accompanied by the comment "You have to taste it to understand". I did, and it was an ordinary Nasu Miso Itame. Same for the rest of the meal. Grilled fish with shoyu and daikon, and salmon, ikura and seaweed on a bed of rice.

The most interesting thing about the place is the staff, physically obviously different from the Japanese. Broad, strong, hairy faces. In summary: while not bad, Rera Chise is hardly worth a trip to Waseda.

By the way, there's another Ainu restaurant called Kamui Kotan in Nakano, but the menu looks much like Rera Chise's, so I am not going.