Slightly bigger and far brighter than the Ginza original, Vinpicoeur Marunouchi sits in the basement of the Shin Tokyo Building, across the hall from a Lawson and a few doors down from a barbershop. When we visited on a recent weeknight, the casual dining room was nearly full with a lively after-work crowd and a smattering of couples.
As we munched on small servings of sliced cucumber and bean salad (¥400), we began to notice that despite its hidden location this Vinpicoeur managed to be far more international in flavor. From the Parisian waiter-who also spoke English and Japanese-to the French-sounding diners who arrived later in the evening, we almost felt like a pair of Francophile travelers.
In addition to fresh salads and pate, Vinpicoeur serves a variety of meat and fish grilled over sumi in an open kitchen that takes up the lion's share of the small restaurant. Eager to try something new, we chose a whole yari-ika (¥1,000) and quarter serving of chicken (¥1,400) from France from the day's specials. We rounded things off with the kushi set (¥2,800), a sampling of skewered pork and vegetables, plus a serving of foie gras.
Matsuoka worked his magic with the wine (¥700-¥1,000/glass), even introducing us to a fruity white from a little village he visited last year in France. Each selection matched perfectly with the moist and slightly salty chicken, as well as the succession of juicy kushi selections. The squid had more of a smoky, grilled flavor mixed with its own ink. Having a few more sips of wine left, we finished with a small yet tasty cheese plate (¥750).
As we reluctantly made our way out the door, we happened to glance at the lunch menu-a Vinpicoeur novelty. Steak frites (¥1,200) and a variety of French brasserie fare sounded too good to pass up and when we came back a week or so later, we were glad we did. The heaped serving of frites and a generous cut of juicy steak, grilled over the sumi, were even better than we had hoped for. All that combined with the French radio playing in the background proved that we didn't have to go to France to get a taste of the real thing.