Blame it on Tokyo's love affair with all things organic, but we've noticed a lot of attention being paid to tofu these days. This humble ingredient is the star of the show at several restaurants and seems to crop up everywhere in our local grocery store. So on the recommendation of a foodie friend, we decided to search out Sora no Niwa.
And search we did-three cabs, two phone calls to the restaurant and at least ten wrong directions later, we arrived at the Shibuya tofu restaurant one hour late for our reservation. Luckily, the staff held our table and politely withstood our exasperated demands for a better map. Perhaps their serene deportment had something to do with Sora no Niwa's Zen-like décor, which featured stone walkways strewn with white pebbles, pale wooden walls and tables, and varying sized rooms fit into every nook and cranny.
Our table was separated from our neighbors' by thick plaster walls, offering some privacy in a restaurant packed with boisterous groups of twenty-something partyers passing around pitchers of beer. Happy to have finally arrived at our destination, we got our own evening going with a glass of draft Kirin (¥500) and cold sake (¥600) as we perused the menu of-you guessed it-tofu. Sora no Niwa prides itself on using organic soybeans from Hokkaido and fresh spring water to create its handmade tofu. So despite the presence of avocado, cheese and peanut versions on the menu, we decided to begin with the basic chilled tofu (¥800). Within minutes, we were digging into a basket of silken tofu served with salt and sliced negi.
Next came the negitoro tofu no maki zushi (¥600), bite-size sushi rolls with tofu in place of the rice and some kind of soy product taking the place of the tuna, and the tomato and tofu salad (¥700), which looked and even tasted like a caprese salad with its light vinaigrette dressing. Looking to add some texture to our tofu feast, we next tried the fried tofu (¥600) and seasonal vegetable tempura (¥850). The fried cubes of curd literally melted in our mouths, with the warm center tasting like a mild cheese. The tempura, meanwhile, consisted of gingko nuts, matsutake mushrooms, yuba, sweet potatoes and more that while generous in portion were also a little too heavy on the oil.
Having noticed the portable range on the table when we first arrived, we couldn't help but test it out with the house specialty warm tofu (¥1,200). One of Sora no Niwa's young waiters placed a covered box on top and instructed us to wait 15 minutes for it to "become tofu." By the time it was ready, we were reaching our tofu saturation point but managed to enjoy a few scoops of the incredibly silky dish.