Norubune

On arriving in Tokyo, and heading for the bright lights of Shibuya, we spent at least a jetlagged hour trying to find Nagi Shokudo (なぎ食堂), only to eventually discover from their neighbours that it was closed for the holidays and had helpfully taken down any sign of its existence.

So our first meal was supplied by an unplanned trip to a Korean restaurant in the basement level (B2F) of Seibu department store - Norubune (ノルブネ).

Korean food is generally a good bet for vegetarian options and the staples of pickled vegetables and bibimbap (big bowl of rice, vegetables, egg and hot sauce) were available as hoped. The pickled vegetables (spinach, bracken leaf, some other things) were nicely arranged and tasty. The bibimbap disappointingly wasn't served in a hot stone bowl but did the trick and the very sour lemon soda was a plus. It all worked out at slightly more expensive than downscale Korean places in London, but not by much (¥4,704).

Less positively we ordered a kimchi pancake with cheese only to find that it came with meat as well - this was the only time this happened on the trip as after our unsuccessful search tiredness had very definitely set in by this point and we didn't go to the effort to gain assurance this wouldn't be the case. A pre-written note explaining that we eat no fish and meat and some enquiries worked out fine everywhere else and didn't seem to get us too many weird looks.






Norubune ノルブネ 渋谷SEIBU店
〒150-0042渋谷区宇田川町21-1 西武百貨店A館B2
Phone & Fax 03-5784-1788