Tucked in an alley parallel to the Hiroo Shopping District (Hiroo Shotengai) is a new restaurant called Visionarium. The place is trying to be cool with two menus (one for drinks, another for food) tucked inside a box, served to customers after they are seated. The place serves tapas-style food, as well as hearty entree (which we did not try as the menu noted the 20-30 minute preparation time, and we were just too hungry to wait that long). We tried the Mushroom Risotto, Cabbage and Anchovy Pasta, Mini Burger Set, and
Steak Tartare, and Iced Lemon Tea.
A waiter came by with small fried fish, which we certainly did not order. He announced that this was the Amuse Bouche; and we thought that it was "on the house" or compliments of the Chef. It was basically fish tempura and was supposed to be eaten whole, but I ended up with having to spit out a lot of bones and scales (weird, considering my dining companion did not encounter this problem). The Iced Lemon Tea came, and boy, that tea was extremely sour. What had they done to it? Squeeze an entire lemon into a small glass of iced tea? In addition to the sliced lemon they had put there? I had to put so much gum syrup to balance the taste. The wait staff realized that it was extremely sour but made no gesture to replace it with another glass.
Finally, our order came. Interestingly, the steak tartare was found under the Cool Salad section, but when it arrived, it had no vegetables whatsoever; nevertheless, the mini-sized Steak Tartare was surprisingly good: fresh raw beef with just about right seasoning, topped with raw egg yolk. Next came the Burger, which was a small, sliced brioche with Foie Gras tucked in between, which reminded me of the burger at l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, and this, too, was delicious. While waiting for the risotto and pasta, another wait staff came to show us big brioche still inside the baking pan. She asked if we would like one or two brioche, and we said just one, cut in two. My companion and I looked at each other and asked if that was complimentary or that we had to pay for it. Time would tell. Meanwhile, we asked for two glasses of plain iced tea, no lemon this time.
Both risotto and pasta arrived, and they were fine. Both of them were cooked al dente; mine came as spaghetti with cabbage, and a side dish of anchovy paste. There was some broth at the bottom of my plate, which really should not be there at all as it diluted the anchovy paste that I put into the pasta.
Bottom line, the place has a Chef who knows what to do. We enjoyed the food and the friendly service, but there was some fine-tuning to do. For a long time now we had not seen "table charge," fee paid for "using the table or space, which was rather common back when we started living in Tokyo in 2004. Apparently, the fish tempura fell into that category. We certainly did not order them, but we got charged for them. There was no way around table charge; even if you do not eat the fish, you would still be charged for it. I think Tokyoites know and understand this. What surprised us was the iced tea: it cost ¥600 per glass (not the surprise yet), but because we asked for iced lemon tea, they actually charged us for each lemon slice (this was the surprise), at ¥50/slice. It was too ridiculous to be disputing this; and to think that that iced lemon tea was horrible!
Visionarium
フロストバド 1F
Hiroo 5-10-3
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Japan
+81 (03) 3473-3196
Mon-Sat: 11:30 - 26:00 (that's 2 AM)
