All Aboard!

A Ta Guele

The Orient Express? In Tokyo? Well, needless to say it’s not the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, but chef George Somura worked for 6 years aboard the equally chic Southeast Asian E&O Express, and now, complete with his own full size train carriage, has made the successful journey from 12-seat Ebisu private kitchen to full-fledged 28-seat restaurant close to Kiba Park.

Now, 28 diners and a full service kitchen are not going to fit into a sleeper carriage, so Somura rather smartly uses the train as a natty pre or post prandial lounge, while the purpose built, glass-walled dining salon (or station!) next to it affords a spacious if spartan backdrop to the traditional Gallic fare.

The dinner menu features two prix-fixe menus of 3 or 4 courses and a whirlwind caper through the traditional recipes of yore, like French red quail with white port sauce, meuniere of red ray with girolle mushrooms, roasted French pheasant with green pepper sauce, or for the more adventurous Tanba wild boar stewed with Belgian Trappist Chimay beer.

With a flair for choice, classic ingredients like rabbit terrine with foie gras, and blood-rich Boudin Noir sausages, Somura's passion for game means he'll go to any length to source perfection, like grouse flown in from Scotland and venison from Nagano. Appetite whetted? The train now standing at Platform 1 is the 7.30pm to Delicious.