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Travel consultant Amy Bowinski recently revisited Japan, where she spent a spare evening testing out Ninja Akasaka: Tokyo’s famed ninja restaurant.
Tokyo is well known for its many theme restaurants – Jailhouse, Robot, Alice in Wonderland, Gundam, Pop Idols, and all the rest. The themes vary hugely, but one thing is guaranteed – you will never find another restaurant quite like it.
This November, I found myself with an extra evening on the town in Tokyo and nowhere to go. I decided I wanted to check out one of the fantastic restaurants that I hadn’t been to before. After considering visiting the Gundam Café again (it is one of my favourites for its adorably Gundam-shaped food), I decided to go to Ninja Akasaka. It was definitely the right choice.
A visit to Ninja Akasaka is an adventure in itself. First, I had to find the entrance to the building. It took me a few minutes to find the unobtrusive lantern marking a doorway that is just large enough for one person. There was a nice man dressed in a suit standing there, ready to turn away those that do not belong, and welcome those that would become ninja.
The corridor was dimly lit and I couldn’t help but wonder where exactly I was going. Clap clap! Out of seemingly nowhere, a trap door opened and a ninja appeared. She was dressed in black with a mask covering part of her face. She pulled it down and explained that before I could be escorted to my table, I had to pass through the ninja training passage.
My personal ninja guide led me away, up a small staircase and around a curve and into semi-darkness. She told me to watch my head as we passed under a low beam, and then to watch my step as we went up a bit further. I cannot here reveal all of the secrets of that ninja training passage, but suffice it to say, it was an adventure! There are secret doors and booby traps along the way that you will have to discover for yourself.
In the restaurant itself, each table is set in a semi-secluded room with a dim atmosphere reminiscent of a secret den. My ninja guide reminded me that I should memorize the name of the room I was in as it is easy to get turned around if I needed to get up for any reason. The benefit of the separate rooms is that it is quiet – I felt as if I was one of very few people in there, when in actual fact the place was fully booked.
While I sipped my drink, a relatively pricey Ninja Rin, the set meal I had ordered began to arrive. Each course had something to do with the ninja theme: the appetizer was shaped like shuriken (throwing star); the soup was in a black bowl that obscured its contents; the main meal had the side dishes arranged to look like a face peering through woods, and so on.
My favourite dish, however, was the “Treasure Chest Salad of the Season”. For the salad, my ninja waitress brought me a beautiful salad of fresh, seasonal greens, and a mysterious steaming box that was tied shut. She told me to open the box. I was a little confused, but I untied the cords that were holding the lid in place. All I could see was billowing white steam. My waitress told me to reach in with my thumb and forefinger and grab whatever I found, so with a bit of trepidation, I reached into the ominous white vapor rising from my box and grabbed the round object. It turned out to be an egg-shaped topping for my salad filled with hardened dressing that melted as soon as it was out of the dry-ice cooled box around a mixture of seafood. It was really delicious, and quite a fun way for it to be presented!
The rest of my meal was just as fantastic. My only protest about the main course, a beautifully cooked wagyu steak, was that it was too delicious and left me wanting more.
Between the main course and the sushi plate, I was also shown a brief ninjutsu (ninja arts) performance at my table. This consisted of a young ninja-in-training showing me a few magic tricks. It was a little bit silly, but I was impressed. He was very good at what he did and while the first trip was easy to understand (he did it slowly just to show me how to do it myself), the second, third, and fourth trick were amazing and for the life of me I could not figure it out!
The meal ended on a high note when I was given a cheesecake frog for dessert. Not only was he adorable, he was also delicious – even the chocolate biscuit lily pad that he was sitting on.
All and all, I think I’ve found a new favorite theme restaurant. In my opinion it was way better than the Robot Restaurant, if only because the food here is delicious. It was a little costly, but well worth the price!