HARAGUCHI | SHIZUOKA GOURMET

Service: professional and smiling
Equipment & facilities: spotless clean. Superb washroom. Entirely non-smoking. Cloakroom.
Prices: slightly expensive
Strong points: high-class French cuisine. Pate and terrine, the specialty! Superb local and Japanese products. Excellent wine list. Doubles as a superb wine bar during and after hours.

When Hiroshi Haraguchi/原口広さん decided to open his own restaurant in Shizuoka City this year after a long stint in a star-studded establishment in Tokyo he certainly hit the jackpot, the more for it that French restaurants of note in this City had become scarce of late!
Having already published books of his own masterpieces, here we were suddenly finding ourselves with a new chef of renown!

It is a busy place but at last I had the opportunity to share dinner there in great company!
To start with HARAGUCHI offers an excellent wine list for all budgets. Although the food is consequently priced, I found the wines quite reasonable!
As only two of our group drank wine we chose a Crozes Hermitage 2010 offered by ever-reliable E. Guigal dealer!

The cuisine is both traditional and modern, as well as the table settings!

Naturally the (whole wheat) bread is home-baked!

As amuse-bouche/starter, we were served an elegant salmon mousse!

Now, as the main starter, being French, I couldn’t help sample the exquisite-looking and very generous terrine de campagne (although called “pate de campagne”!)!
True to tell, it was more than par with the many I ate back home! And the home-made pickles and local fine salad were just perfect!
Actually, I would recommend anyone to first visit the wine bar and savor a great one with one of the terrines and pate on the menu!

As for the fish dish, we had a sawara/Spanish mackerel caught in the neighboring Suruga Bay, cooked to perfection with a crackling skin!

One of my friends opted for this succulent beef raised in Aichi Prefecture!
I don’t have to extol the qualities of Japanese beef, do I! It certainly doesn’t need any artifices!

Pork is probably the most underrated meat away from these shores, and it is just impossible to list them all1
his particular piece was from a nasu-ton, that is pigs fed with eggplants in Tochigi Prefecture!
Tender, juicy and so tasty! Even the fat! I didn’t leave a iota on my plate!

The dessert, an exquisite example of simplicity consisted of seasonal apple tart, very Alsatian in style, cinnamon ice-cream and bitter caramel sauce!

And I can assure you that the mignardises did not last long, just the time to explain their origin to my friends!

Now, since I have to sample all these terrines and pates myself at the wine bar, expect more visits and reports!

HARAGUCHI

420-0035 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Shichiken-Cho 9-5, Trenz Bldg, 1F (along the Aoba Park Street)
Tel.: 054-251-3803
Opening hours: 11:30~13:30, 17:30~20:30 (LO), ~24:00 (wine bar)
Closed on Mondays, 1st & 3rd Sundays
Lunch: 3,500, 5,000 yen
Dinner: 7,500, 10,000 yen (a la carte also available)
Credit cards OK
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