Blah, Bland Bice...

A mighty ho-hum experience

Our frequent consultations with Monsieur Michelin always yielded some new dining spots and Bice is one such find. My other half, coming from a city where skyscrapers are a rarer find than four-leaf clovers, thrives on "a dining experience at a high altitude" and Bice certainly rise to the challenge with its mighty 47th storey address. The muted tones of cream and brown throughout its premise allows the magnificent views of Tokyo Bay to hold court while fans of famed Italian kitchenware designer Alessi will weep at the sight of all its flashy steel designer pieces.

Given the Bice's group impressive resume, the food at its Tokyo branch was sadly unexceptional and forgettable. My starter of smoked salmon with capers was simple enough while my other half's Vitello Tonnato was a crude rendition of the original. Instead of thinly sliced veal, the slices were at least a centimetre thick and looked just plain vulgar with a quarter segment of a hard boiled egg as garnish. The pasta dishes fared much better here. Our respective spinach tagliatelle with artichokes and bacon were simply presented yet al dente and tasty. The risotto with spicy squids though was the first hint of brilliance from the chef. The dish was a veritable explosion of flavours as the rice grains were completely soaked from the full-bodied stock used during cooking. With the mains, we were back to negation. My sea bass was a mite dry and my other half's lamb loin was quite peculiar as we could not quite get the inkling between the slab of goat cheese perched atop the meat and the meat itself. The menu's description was "cheese gratin" but somehow we just could not see any signs that the cheese had paid a visit to the oven.

A trio of champagne flavoured crushed ice, peach melba and cubes of brownies with cointreau flavoured orange at the end were enough to give us a sugar rush. Too funky for my taste, I would have much preferred the traditional and comforting Tiramisu after such a harrowing experience.

Check out the eccentric Alessi cake stand

The only silver lining was our pseudo-anniversary which was kinda hilarious. For a small fee, most restaurants in Tokyo will provide a little extra if you inform them beforehand that you are celebrating your anniversary or birthday and counting the number of times which we had done or pretended to be so, we would already have been married for at least 50 years!

Though housed at an enviable height, Bice did not leave us feeling on top of the world. Rather, I was left pondering over the dubiousness of some of these restaurants creaking under the weight of their Michelin stars.

Bice
Address: 1-8-1 Higashi-Shimbashi, 47F Caretta Shiodome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Telephone: 03-5537-1926
Michelin: *