Peter Luger Steak House Tokyo — Restaurant in Tokyo

This was my second time visiting Peter Luger after the first visit in the last May and I couldn’t help but tell that it came quite mediocre in contrast to the first amusing and startling visit. My second visit largely owes to the main server exemplifying exceptional professionalism and servicing attitude that I sincerely appreciated during my last visit. As there are a few points I would like to share with you I’ll break down them into pieces in order to improve clarity.

Ambiance: As I stepped inside, the hostesses promptly seated me at a table to the main floor where the familiar utensils and tablewares had already been set up before arrival. The house remained as charming as the fine touch of top notched marvels and wooden floor of the house. Toilet was perfectly maintained, tables were spaciously arranged and staffs were attentive enough to accommodate visitors’ needs without making them waiting. You could easily tell this restaurant was well aware of what their customers expect during visiting.

Main dish: I’ve got not much to say. Just like the last month I ordered a lunch hamburger topped with bacon, grilled onions and tomatoes. A juicy patty in the bun, warm and fluffy breads and their signature sauce were all satisfying. I would be surprised if there was anyone on the same day complained those. The foods were self-explanatory to their descriptions on the menu.

Dessert: I ordered a bowl of sliced mango sided with another bowl of whipped cream. Surprisingly, it was literally just everyday mango where you can get any grocery store near you. There is nothing to be regretted unless this was the main reason you came back to the restaurant. Its scent, texture, juice and looks felt like a totally different menu. Maybe the mango bowl I tried was well ripened last time whereas this time it lacked the same level of post-process before serving. If my friends want to visit this restaurant in any time soon this bowl would unlikely be my suggestion. Simply to put, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Servicing: as I mentioned earlier, overall experience was satisfactory, yet not very impressive in relation to their price scale. Maybe it was my expectations set too high during the first visit. But aside from foods, I must emphasize that the house should practice rigorous calibration particularly in their staffing and servicing, as there is some degree, if not evident discrepancies in qualities among staffs. Unlike the last visit, communication was not smooth enough to convey my requests and receive timely responses to my inquiries. Such discomfort is very much understandable as there was language barrier between us. But it is important to note that the restaurant is not located in a random residential area where they only cater to locals, instead, they are situated at the venue constantly interacting with non-Japanese speaking visitors. Given that the neighbourhood is the district where a number of esteemed gourmet house rivalling each other I believe such consideration would help entrust visitors to their business, eliminating chances of trying-out to competitors.

*pictures following respectively representing this time vs the previous experience: you can easily find denoting difference on the first one lacking post processing seen...

The location is a bit out of the way but not too far from Ebisu Station and fairly close to the Westin, one of the best hotels in Tokyo The place itself was dimly lit, which I really like, and the male greeter greeted my wife and I very courteously. We were also welcomed by other staff and got seated immediately even though we were a good ten minutes early. Unlike the flagship restaurant in Brooklyn, this one seemed to have just one main room but I could be wrong. The atmosphere was pretty lively and we were attended to right away. There was not a great amount but enough room between tables and the area itself was clean and well-kept, same for our table. It can get pretty loud in such a large open space and you can hear several conversations at the same time, making it harder to hear your own. The decor was nice with some tall, live(?), tree-like plants spread throughout the room. As I've posted before about dining out, traveling or even working in Japan, the female staff tend to not speak or make eye contact with me and with the exception of one of the older staff, this was the case here too. Even when I replied in Japanese to something that was asked, they still looked at my wife or in a general direction. The older lady was really nice and attentive and I appreciated her genuine smile and attentiveness. On to the meal - for appetizers, we ordered the Caesar salad and some boiled shrimp. The salad was nothing special and contained a lot of the hard back, for lack of a better word, as I have no idea what the hard part running down the middle of lettuce is called. They should have removed all of that, in my opinion. The shrimp was great, with cocktail and tartar sauce as condiments. We had the t-bone steak, medium, for two as the main and it was juicy, cooked perfectly and not overly seasoned. I am not particularly good at describing flavors so I won't try too hard but you could taste the searing with a bit of a burned but pleasant flavor. It came with warm rolls, which I pointed out to my wife because the flagship's was cold and that is a major no-no in my book but she didn't care then and now. They only had Ebisu beer, which is slightly bitter to me but is supposed to be a type of luxury brand in Japan. I prefer Asahi Super Dry or Sapporo but Ebisu is drinkable. The dessert of ice cream and pecan pie was tasty and not too sweet. Their lemondrop martini was also pretty good with a nice kick and I appreciated the fact that we were able to stay well past the closing of that area, I believe. They gave us a doggie bag for the leftovers. The bathroom was very clean with the same subdued lighting and cool 1970s music piped inside. If I had had some more time, I would have checked out the bar. I liked this place a lot and it made me miss home so I definitely recommend it but be ready to drop around ¥55000 on a nice dinner and...

I always wanted to try Peter Luger and being in Tokyo I got my chance, overall the experience was fantastic. From the initial walk in where the staff greeted us to guiding to the table, to the ordering of the food and plating everything went perfectly.

Food wise we ordered the 28 day aged porterhouse for 3 and lamb chops, with slice tomato (and luger sauce) for appetizer, broccoli, cream spinach and french fries for sides. I would say the slide tomato is a must for tomato lovers, the quality combined with the luger sauce it very unique, then sides I would recommend the cream spinach and the broccoli. The steak itself was definitely cooked over open fire (pretty sure it was not Sous vide but purely over fire) the crust was thick and crunchy but yet the core was medium rare as requested, the meat was flavorful with a balance salt/pepper and moist and tender with a good texture, comparatively it was among the best steaks I've had.

A bottle of wine starts around 10k yen, a decent bottle would set you back about 12 - 18k yen. Glass of wine would be around 1.4k towards 3k per glass. Decent one would be around 2k yen a glass. Our Aust Shiraz bottle was around 12k

Special shout out to our server Joe who really ensured we were well taken care of, from the order to the serving of food he never missed a beat. He always ensured our wine glasses were topped up (literally eyes at the back of his head). At the end of the meal he even splashed out a set of gold luger chocolate coins which really fascinated my kids.

Another shout out out to Beeky who really took care of my kids and made my kids feel at home with his light humor and warmth, really took special attention to make sure my youngest was alright as she needed as she is quite a picky eater.

And also to all the staff we encountered, overall the nights experience could not have gone...