Address - 2F Hill Top Bldg 3-6-3, Kagurazaka Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Opening hours - Open from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm (lunch) and from 5:30 pm to 11:00 pm (dinner) Map - Yes Telephone - 5261-3880 Menu - In English and Japanese CC - OK

Some time ago I visited a friend who lives near Iidabashi and, after having finished our work, we decided to have dinner at nearby Turkish restaurant Sofra.
I had already been there some years back and had quite liked it, although the food is anything but traditional: being cold-water fish, I doubt salmons ever make it to Turkish waters to have themselves wrapped around avocado slices.

Another not-so-small fly in the ointment was in my view the belly dancer who, as I now know, has a daily show there. Mind you, I have nothing against dancers, but I like to choose when and where to enjoy their, or anybody else's, art. A customer should always have a choice, and not be forced to watch or listen anything.

That first time we had just finished eating when she entered, so we could easily weasel out almost unnoticed. Last week however we had just started eating, and in any case I had completely forgotten about her, so when she suddenly appeared my heart sank. I must admit though she was excellent, the best I've ever seen and a real professional.

Having no other option, we resigned ourselves to give up our conversation for a while.

After the third piece our resolve began to crumble and finally turned into despair when the cook, who instead of preparing our food had previously also been watching the show, reappeared in a turbaned traditional costume with a thousand yen bill between his lips. Dancing, he put it under the shoulder straps of her bra and quickly disappeared.
It was a clear invitation to pay her. She started choosing men from every table as dancing partners and soon she was festooned with money sticking out of each of her many corners.

Twenty minutes of continuous din with drunken, overweight businessmen enthusiastically belly-dancing in the dark with a bill between their lips was not what we had expected from Sofra: we felt we should have at the very least being told in advance of such a long, noisy, and tasteless show, so we paid and left, never to be seen again.

Dixi, June 2003

Allan Miles' Review
Well worth a visit. It's a nice restaurant with simple, tasteful decor and tasty, authentic food. The management was very friendly. The night we went was a special party to mark the end of Ramadan and we had to have a set course for ¥ 3600. It consisted of 5 dishes, all very tasty except for the nondescript vegetables accompanying the kebabs. The bread was very nice. The set course was enough for a reasonably hungry person and they said it was similar to their regular set course. From the extensive à la carte menu appetizers, soups (our soup was delicious) and salads run about ¥ 1000 and main courses ¥ 1000 - 3000 with most being around ¥ 2000, so my guess is you'd spend ¥ 3500 - 4000 on food. Start eating early as there is belly dancing nightly at 8:30 and it's good to be finished before this intrusion on an enjoyable meal.
Nearby Sofra there are also several other interesting (untested) restaurants. In the same building is an interesting hot spicy garlic restaurant (presumably Japanese). On Kagurazaka Dori on the corner of the street opposite to the shrine is

Gojuban, a Chinese restaurant which has a good reputation among locals. Just past the Moroccan restaurant Agadir (see review) is an interesting looking Izakaya.
After dinner you could go to nearby Billy Barew's Beer Bar (with its large range of foreign beers) or walk down to the:

Canal Café for a romantic coffee overlooking the canal*. In summer it has an outdoor area as well. Alternatively, there are several very interesting looking cafes on Kagurazaka Dori between Sofra and Iidabashi Station.

Received from Allan Miles.

* The view and the atmosphere are indeed romantic, but the food is remarkably unremarkable.