Coconoma Season Dining

Coconoma Season Dining

The lunch course that tested my limits & knocked it out of the park – Coconoma Season Dining

Let me share a recent food highlight with you!

I got the chance to try the dinner course at Coconoma Season Dining in Minami Azabu – and it was wonderful!

My favorite food experiences are those where I get the chance to push my comfort zone a little and try something new (that in best case doesn’t ruin the night 😆)

Coconoma Season Dining did just that for me

The minute the amuse bouche, a fois gras butter, in shape of a candy, was served, I knew I could expect great things today!

For those who don’t know me too well, I am (sadly) not great with anything that tastes like seawater (other than the sea itself! Probably owe that to having had my fair share of seawater throughout my childhood, learning to swim…but that’s a story for another day 🙊)

Living in Japan, this is obviously a problem 😆

The occasions I have ended up at a group dinner rather hungry or sad are countless! But on the flip side, I have also had the chance to more or less “train” to get better at my disliked foods and after 5 years of self-imposed foodie *training*, I managed to become friends with the least fishiest of fish. That’s a total WIN in my book 🏆

Given all this, you can imagine my utter excitement, when the waiter served us a plate of awabi (abalone) sashimi, decorated with a sauce of awabi innerds(…), topped with Ikura, fish eggs. Things basically just went from bad to super worse in a fraction of a second.

I believe I might have sighed noticeably 🤣

BUT

You won’t believe it because neither did I. 😱

The fresh and thinly sliced awabi was unlike ANYTHING I’ve ever had. Lovely texture with a crunchy bite, no fishiness and it paired absolutely wonderfully with all the ingredients of the salad and the tangy salad sauce it was bedded on! Incredible.

Fabulous kick-off! What’s next??

Next up was a chance of me rethinking my image of what pasta looks and tastes like!

The most unusual pasta I’ve had in life for sure. We ate al dente spaghetti made of genmai (brown rice), which had the bite and flavor of Soba but with a smooth and slippery pasta texture!

Third base: Mind. Blown.

The pasta was topped off with chili olive oil, Shirasu whitebait (those tiny white little fishies), kujo negi (leek) and petals of the edible yellow Kiki flower, which added some beautiful color to the unusual ensemble!

Quite enjoyed this new texture experience!

My main dish brings all the drums to the yard

We were served none less than a prime A5 Wagyu filet, lightly seared, just perfectly medium rare!

These days, for environmental reasons, I do not eat much beef, so it is a wonderfully rare occasion, enjoyed with much appreciation, when I get a very good cut of meat!

Needless to say that the meat was melt-in-your-mouth buttery deliciousness.

The 5 pieces were served with homemade shiso ponzu sauce with some freshly grated wasabi for that EXTRA kick, which is actually my FAVORITE combo to pair meat with 😍

Knocked it out of the park. Home Run

Coconoma Season Dining is a well-kept secret, smack in the middle of the Nishi Azabu triangle, between Roppongi Station, Hiroo, and Nogizaka station, conveniently out of the way of the Roppongi buzz.

Have a special occasion coming up or just want to have some REALLY high-class lunch without breaking the bank?