Tokyo: Uoshin Nogizaka

On the recommendation of my sister and a friend who had gone to Uoshin before, we set off on a cold Friday night searching for the restaurant. Thanks to a friendly Midtown Roppongi staff, we found the place fairly easily. Thankfully the sister had made bookings - the last one available for the night - and we scored the last table on the open rooftop verandah. We were pretty excited to see the place looking very busy and noisy, which is always a positive sign.
It was absolutely packed with people drinking, smoking and eating
Fortunately we were on the open deck which meant we managed to avoid most of the cigarette smoke. It started hailing about an hour later, but that's another story for another day. The clever sister had told the waiter to prepare heaters and blankets, which was a stroke of genius since we really needed them.

The more extensive menu was mostly in Japanese - which we completely couldn't understand. But we managed to get hold of an eigono picture menu, and lots of fingerpointing ensued.
This clam sashimi platter was the first to arrive - it was a pretty exciting looking plate with 4 types of clams that we couldn't quite identify completely
I think this was geoduck
Akagai (ark shell)
No idea what this was, but it was pretty crunchyAnd this must have come from a pretty big clam - I loved the crunchy texture, and was most annoyed that I couldn't even ask for its name for future reference.We ordered a tamago yaki - delicious with grated daikonOne of the 2 grilled fishes - can't recall what it was but it was amazingly fresh. I loved the grated daikon. The second grilled fish which we enjoyed - again, no idea what it was!The Must-Order dish is the Nokezushi (¥1,500), which is a normal sushi roll with cucumber in the middle, heaped to overflowing with kani, uni, ikura and negitoroThe other side - this was so decadent, with all the amazing flavours in one dish. I wish we could have ordered another oneOur other sashimi platter came, and the husband instantly declared this fresher than what we had eaten at Tsukiji market upon arrival. I think the flavours were amazing but I wasn't so keen on such thick slicesWe also had a clam and scallop soup in dashi stock.The clams and scallops were very sweet, and every drop was licked upSalmon ochazuke - a lovely way to end the meal
When the bill came, we had another pleasant surprise - for 6 adults, dinner came up to less than S$150. This was a fabulous meal, and the value for money factor was simply amazing. I think it was a pity we didn't manage to order whole fish because of the language barrier, but we were quite happy nonetheless. Bookings are absolutely, absolutely essential, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. It's pretty easy to get to - just get to Midtown Roppongi, face the main road and turn right and walk down the road, and it's about 200-300m away.
9-6-32 Akasaka, Minato-Ku, Tel: +81-3-3405-0411 Open 5.30pm-12.30am Mondays to Saturdays Closest stations: Nogizaka and Roppongi