Marutoku

Whether you fancy a drink first thing or want to take your time over snacks with lunch, Marutoku is open from 8:00 on Sundays and from 10:00 on its other days of business. Visitors have paired draft beer with dishes such as nasu dengaku—miso-glazed aubergine—and obanzai featuring shellfish. One diner recalled the aubergine as particularly large and tender. It is the sort of place where you can start with a single small plate and see where the meal takes you.

For fish, the menu includes raw bluefin tuna, amberjack sashimi and assorted sashimi. One visitor enjoyed the generously thick cuts in a three-fish assortment; another found squid sashimi with soy sauce and a quail egg yolk to be a new and enjoyable combination. With a wide choice of dishes, you can make sashimi the centrepiece and add small plates to suit your mood. Dote-ni, a rich stew, and simmered octopus are options when you want something more robust. One diner said the sweet-and-savoury depth of white miso in the dote-yaki went particularly well with beer. Other snacks include fried taro, deep-fried aubergine in broth and nikujaga, a meat-and-potato stew.

Oden items such as egg and kinchaku, tempura assortments and seasonal small plates round out the menu, making it easy to order a few things at a time and build a meal gradually. One diner enjoyed asparagus tempura with matcha salt and tentsuyu dipping sauce; another appreciated the crunch of boiled sugar snap peas with mayonnaise and lemon. The counter seating makes the restaurant suitable for eating alone. It opens in the morning on weekdays and Saturdays as well as from breakfast time on Sundays, making it an option for an early drink or a lunchtime visit in Kyobashi.