Train Café in Tokyo

[JR East]

Hi Fans, 

 

Back in 2019 ... the marvelous era when travelling to Japan was not a nightmare. 

 

Let me introduce the "Platinum Fish Café" (here : https://goo.gl/maps/yqKWgf1mhUaDs4HU9), a gorgeous place for commuters lovers rsp. the Chuo Line. It's 10mn away from Akihabara station (JR loop line rsp Yamanote Line, other lines ....)

 

In summer, even in september, it's warm in Tokyo and the terrace is widely open, thus no air conditionning. Better to stay inside and have a fresh beer for 750 yens. You can also have light meals / cakes. 

 

If you prefer a video (out of youtube roster) 

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by JR East

[katoftw]

Had various write ups about this cafe before. Nice place.

[gavino200]

That's very cool. Are those your own pictures from the visit?

[JR East]

1 minute ago, gavino200 said:

That's very cool. Are those your own pictures from the visit?

 

 

yes for the pictures - the videos is from Youtube, not me

Edited February 19, 2021 by JR East

[cteno4]

Thanks always great to have a set of picts like this from interesting bits to model from later! Really is a nice use the platform and well done design wise. It looks like a place I could linger a long time.

 

jeff

[miyakoji]

This was once Manseibashi Station.  Thanks for the pictures, I look forward to visiting this some day.  My interest in this location is actually the siding visible at the right edge of the video thumbnail, and beyond the inbound running track in your fifth and eighth pictures.  Although I could go for a cup of coffee as well :).  If you look around, you can find pictures with various things parked there.  My impression is that in the last 10 or 20 years it’s mostly for maintenance-of-way equipment, while older pictures show more trains parked there.  I wonder how it figured into operations during its busier periods.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manseibashi_Station

[railsquid]

Yes, it seems used just for maintenance stuff now.

 

I imagine they might have come in handy for stabling coaches etc. back in the days when there were loco-hauled trains on the Chuo Line (up to ca. 1975). I have vague memories of them looking quite abandoned during the late 1990s.

 

I have recently seen a picture of a sleeper train which was shunted there for an exhibition or something ca. 2003 or 2004 (when the museum was still there).

[railsquid]

4 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

I have recently seen a picture of a sleeper train which was shunted there for an exhibition or something ca. 2003 or 2004 (when the museum was still there).

 

E.g.:

 

https://c5793.ebo-shi.com/sayonara-kouhaku09.html

 

https://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/trsweblog/diary/200604260000/

[maihama eki]

We've eaten in this cafe twice. It is on the edge of Akihabara, so convenient for lunch before or after perusing Akihabara. The first time we went there in 2016, it was known by the name Cafe & Bar N3331. They had a very limited menu, and in fact when we arrived toward the end of the lunch hour, there was really only one choice remaining - a curry. It was quite good. The view of the trains passing on either side is of course the main attraction for me.

 

 

The second time was in 2017 or 2018, and it was still known by the same name. The menu was completely different, still very limited and still very good. I remember a sort of mixed bowl with sashimi.

 

The last time we tried to go there, I searched for the hours for N3331, and Google said it was permanently closed. In Tokyo fashion they may have been reincarnated with the new Platinum Fish name. The interior looks exactly the same in your 2019 photos.

 

There is an extensive row of shops, restaurants, maybe a bar or two in the lower level of the old station that are worth a look too. There is a terrace along the river adjacent to these shops that is nice with a view of the Sobu Line bridge over the river.

 

[cteno4]

I’m trying to think if I ever had a bad meal in japan...

 

jeff

[disturbman]

Bad, maybe not, mediocre probably. I expect that, in the large chains, food would be a bit less high quality.

 

To be honest, I don’t think I ever had a bad meal outside in Europe. I had a few dubious meals in Korea but it’s not because the food was bad, more the tastes were slightly too foreign for me to enjoy.

 

But I had some amazing food in Japan. Particularly that seafood sashimi in Kanazawa, ate things I didn’t even know what they were, and the urchin was to die for.

Edited February 21, 2021 by disturbman

[railsquid]

If you are looking for bad food in Japan, head to the nearest Saizeriya.

 

There was also a pasta restaurant near Asakusa which was uniformly awful, funnily enough it didn't stay in business for long.

[kuro68000]

I got food poisoning from Gusto (ガスト) once. Dodgy chicken.

 

For the most part though food in Japan is universally excellent.

[gavino200]

6 hours ago, disturbman said:

 

To be honest, I don’t think I ever had a bad meal outside in Europe.

 

Brace yourself if you ever think of travelling to Murica!!

[cteno4]

I don’t think even mediocre in japan, always good and usually great for me. But I never frequented chains (well Lawson’s for a fast snack and even that was quite decent and of course amazing selection compared to quickemarkets in other parts of the world) and usually was eating Japanese food and just looking for interesting little places to eat. Even the dive bars I tried just for fun were really surprisingly good food and street food all excellent. I admit I have popped into a kfc just to check out the chicken once (it tasted like chicken) and macD a few times when in a pinch and just for a change, but that doesn’t count... I really enjoy Japanese food so much I never really searched out other cuisines to see the Japanese take on it, except I did have a amazing French dinner in tokyo, but that was on an expense account of a pharmaceutical vp so that really doesn’t count...

 

I had the same experience as maihama in delaying lunch too long and popping into places that had limited options left and usually just deciding to go for what ever left and usually not something I would particularly order, but I always had that pleasant surprise. 🤤

 

Good food has always felt so accessible japan and the variety of the little independent places were so much fun. But I expect these days this may be different with more chains.

 

sorry about the wandering, bowl of curry just stirred up many warm food memories from japan!

 

jeff

[disturbman]

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Brace yourself if you ever think of travelling to Murica!!

Been there a few times. Never got used to the way beef is cooked there, but I'm coming from a country where we eat our meat still slightly red. That said, I had the most amazing desert at the MOMA. Perhaps my most intense food experience ever. Pure moment of bliss.

I don't know when I'll go back to the US. I think my next trip to North America will be in la Belle Province.
 

40 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

sorry about the wandering, bowl of curry just stirred up many warm food memories from japan!

Funnily enough, when I was in Beijing, a Katsu curry would be my go to food to heal my stomach from all the oil Chinese uses. It was the most neutral dish I could find and I needed once a week.

[gavino200]

1 hour ago, disturbman said:

Been there a few times. Never got used to the way beef is cooked there, but I'm coming from a country where we eat our meat still slightly red. That said, I had the most amazing desert at the MOMA. Perhaps my most intense food experience ever. Pure moment of bliss.

I don't know when I'll go back to the US. I think my next trip to North America will be in la Belle Province.

 

Ah, yes, the food in the MOMA is very good. Really the big cities in the US have excellent cuisine. It's when your get to the center of the country - the "flyover states" that things start to get a bit odd. Almost every "restaurant" is a chain, and it's generally expected that salads will be seasoned with bacon bits. 

[disturbman]

11 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Ah, yes, the food in the MOMA is very good. Really the big cities in the US have excellent cuisine. It's when your get to the center of the country - the "flyover states" that things start to get a bit odd. Almost every "restaurant" is a chain, and it's generally expected that salads will be seasoned with bacon bits. 

Reminds me of Denmark, usually salads there come with cream (and perhaps bacon) and do not contain any salad leaves. One of the trip I have in mind is to drive down the Mississipi from North till South, following the trail of the French explorers/influence.

[bikkuri bahn]

Yeah, avoid places like Saizeriya or Gusto- they don't actually cook the food on site, it's prepared at a central kitchen and then vacuum packaged, and then zapped in a microwave as soon as a customer orders it.  That's why those places are so cheap, and taste it.  

[kuro68000]

On 2/22/2021 at 11:11 AM, bikkuri bahn said:

Yeah, avoid places like Saizeriya or Gusto- they don't actually cook the food on site, it's prepared at a central kitchen and then vacuum packaged, and then zapped in a microwave as soon as a customer orders it.  That's why those places are so cheap, and taste it.  

 

Interesting! I've had good luck with Denny's and Royal Host. The menu at Royal Host is a bit limited but it's good stuff.

 

I love soba and ramen too, but I've found they can be a bit messy. Hard to avoid splashing yourself. I like the taste of udon as well, but find it incredibly hard to handle with chopsticks.

 

There is a lot of good foreign food too. Loads of great Chinese curry places, but also some decent Indian food. Every pizza I've had has been mediocre though.

[railsquid]

Wait, Chinese curry?!

 

Decent pizza can be had, but you need to look for it.

[disturbman]

Agreed. Chinese curry? I had a lot of Southern Chinese food but I don’t remember ever having a curry. In my experience, the spices are different, mostly chilies and Sichuan pepper.

[kuro68000]

Japanese curry is kind of a mixture of Indian and Chinese curry. I think the Chinese curry is also kind of a mixture of Chinese preferred ingredients and Indian style, imported by the British during colonial times.

 

So although in Japan it's hardly ever called Chinese curry, some styles kinda are and my wife being Chinese she and her friends always referred to it that way, so I picked up the habit.

 

If you go somewhere like Yokohama Chugoku-machi you can get Chinese curry, although most of the time went I went there everyone else I was with was fasting for religious reasons and could not eat meat!

 

Where can you get good pizza? I tried a few places, from chains to independents. Maybe it depends what you mean by "good", I think it's mostly American style which is very different to European style. I'm not a fan of American style, it's nothing like proper Italian pizza.

[railsquid]

19 minutes ago, mojo said:

Where can you get good pizza? I tried a few places, from chains to independents. Maybe it depends what you mean by "good", I think it's mostly American style which is very different to European style. I'm not a fan of American style, it's nothing like proper Italian pizza.

 

Like I said, you have to look for it, and yes I mean decent Italian-style pizza. I used to live almost next door to this place in Mejiro, which was very good, but has evidently closed; the main branch in Kagurazaka is still there, I think.

[kuro68000]

5 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

Like I said, you have to look for it, and yes I mean decent Italian-style pizza. I used to live almost next door to this place in Mejiro, which was very good, but has evidently closed; the main branch in Kagurazaka is still there, I think.

 

The photos aren't great but next time I'm going to try it if I can, thanks!