Beard

目黒 1丁目17-22
1-17-22 Meguro, Meguro-ku | Chef’s table

Tuesday to Saturday from 5:30pm to 12midnight (last order at 10:30pm)
Sunday from 10am to 2:30pm (last order at 1:30pm)

I was really curious to eat at Beard for it had been praised endlessly on Monocle Magazine, even winning its Restaurant Awards back in 2015. I made the reservation well before leaving home to guarantee my table using Open Table. There were a few email exchanges and all was good. The restaurant is tiny, with an open kitchen and a few tables around, so you get to see all of the chef’s activity while having your meal. The ingredients come from different parts of Japan and are all top quality so you will eat the sweetest carrots, the tenderest octopus, the healthiest broccoli and so on.

The food is good. We ordered the chef’s menu and two glasses of wine (the wine by the glass is not the best, go for a bottle). The music was fun – the chef’s Spotify playlist with a lot of Beirut. It was a good evening out, we had a nice time (I was with a friend) but left feeling that there had to be something else to make it so special for Monocle. The news now is that Beard will close down. Chef Shin Harakawa has passed the helm to Envall Utbult, from Copenhagen’s Relae, and will pursue a new venture in Tokyo. As soon as I know what he has in mind, I will publish here.

Image by Tansy Kas

Image by Tansy Kas

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