Celeb de Tomato: A tomato-themed restaurant

Posted on 02 February 2010
Tags: Eating in Tokyo

It’s been a while since I did a proper restaurant review, eh? I know that I made quite a dramatic announcement last year about not being very interested in cooked food anymore.

I think many folks might have thought I transformed into a hermit and only ate at home (or my own bentos). It’s been quite the contrary, I must say. I have been eating out but have not been actively taking photos and posting them here.

The truth is, while preparing food is a great passion of mine, I obviously still appreciate good food, flavours, and textures and find immense pleasure in dining out with friends.

Well, any food reviews from here on in would have a more vegetarian focus. I actually don’t eat at veggie places in Tokyo because my friends aren’t vegetarian, so I hope my reviews will help those who want to chow on veggie dishes in “normal” restaurants. Since the kangaroo is omni, I might take photos of his food and let you know what he thinks of it.

Celeb de Tomato (website here) is one such restaurant that has something for everyone. It’s quite common to find a specialty restaurant in Tokyo, but to give the spotlight to the humble tomato in chic surroundings, now that’s quite unique.

We kicked things off with a couple of salads.

The mixed tomato salad had red, yellow, green tomatoes in different shapes and sizes. Drizzled with just olive oil, I could taste the sweetness and tartness of the different varieties. The freshness of the tomatoes stood out for me, especially the green tomatoes.

The second salad had parma ham, black olives, tomatoes, arugula and crutons. Another simple but delicious dish. My friends kindly took their share of parma ham so I could eat the veggies.

Here’s a photo of my half-drunk Bloody Mary:

I thought it was one of the best Bloody Marys I’ve had — it was mildly sweet instead of salty or spicy like most I’ve tried. There was no hint of celery and it seemed it was just tomato juice and vodka. Even my friend who dislikes Bloody Marys thought it was surprisingly good.

For my main, I had the sundried tomato risotto with black truffles. I think there was a hint of cream or cheese in it and the chef was generous with the oil, so although it looked small in size it quickly filled me up.

My friends had the prawn pasta, tomato carbonara, and lamb dishes, which looked pretty good in terms of presentation. They didn’t ooh and aah but I personally thought my risotto was very tasty.

So what is my conclusion? This restaurant is typically Japanese in that it uses high quality, fresh ingredients and cooks its food with a gentle hand. I would recommend this for a weekend brunch or lunch instead of dinner because of its small portions and subtle flavours.

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