Zōjirushi, the company famous for electric rice cookers and many other products, has a restaurant near Tokyo Station in the Kitte building. The concept is smart marketing with Zōjirushi rice cookers in the middle of the restaurant. Zōjirushi sesame grinders and a Zōjirushi insulated cup are on each table. The drink bar includes a variety of teas, both hot and cold, so a good test for the cups which did keep the hot teas very hot.

At lunch time there are many options including wagyū beef katsu, chicken with mushrooms, or codfish bouillabaise. The rolled cabbage is in a milky yuzu kosho soup was warming on this cold, windy day. Each meal comes with colorful small bites that call out for rice like spicy mentaiko roe, a sour umeboshi pickled apricot, or a wasabi nori Tsukudani paste.

The main star of the meal is the rice. The white rice today was a blend of Saga Sagabiyori and Yamagata Tsuyahime (our house rice). The rice is cooked with two different settings on the Zōjirushi rice cooker, one on the regular setting and the other with the mochi mochi chewy setting. There is a subtle but notable difference. The third rice, developed by Kindai University, that is both delicious and nutritious. Today it was cooked with barley, another good test of the rice cooker.

The meal ends on a sweet note with vanilla ice cream that includes some cooked rice which adds a chewy texture to the dessert. The lunch is a great value for ¥1980 ($13.50).

Zōjirushi Shokudō 象印食堂

Kitte Marunouchi 5th floor

Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 2-7-2

#foodsaketokyo #tokyo #shokudo #washoku #japanesefood #rice #zojirushi #ricecooker #tokyolunch #丸の内 #東京グルメ #東京ランチ #象印 #米 #炊飯器 #東京駅 #東京駅グルメ #和食 #米料理 #japan #japantravel #visitjapan #nihonryori #象印食堂 #食堂