La Cave Alt

Walk along under the tracks heading east from Akihabara station, and you'll find a bunch of little cafes and restaurants, offering decent lunchtime deals to woo customers from the nearby shops and offices. One that I tried was the slightly oddly named La Cave ALT, where I got a tasty, filling lunch, and still came out with change from ¥1000.

It's pretty cosy inside, decorated like a cross between an old-school Japanese neighbourhood izakaya and a French countryside inn. There's lots of wood, plenty of random objects around the walls, a few seats at the counter, and a couple of those low tables with a sunken floor beneath so you don't have to cramp your legs up.

And there are bottles everywhere - some of them patrons' keep bottles, some empties for decoration - wine and spirits, sake and awamori, whisky and bourbon. I arrived just before the lunch rush and it filled up pretty quickly, mostly with staff from the nearby offices, but also some shoppers and students, making for a lively, chatty atmosphere.

My lunch was a salmon steak plate for ¥850 (but I went before the recent consumption tax increase, so prices might be higher now); that got me a good sized piece of deliciously tender salmon in a creamy, slightly tangy sauce, along with a generous helping of perfectly steamed sticky rice. On the side there was soup and a salad, as well as a small slice of quiche and a single deep-fried oyster, and I enjoyed the variety of flavours and textures.

Other options on the lunch menu are a foie gras rice bowl for ¥1100, squid peperoncino pasta or salmon cream risotto for ¥750 each, or a one coin beef curry for ¥500. I couldn't get much from the regular menu, because it's written in Japanese, on the walls, and is in no evident order. Some of the dishes I could see and decipher were seafood paella at ¥950 a head (for a minimum of two people), smoked salmon for ¥620, smoked camembert for ¥680, or carpaccios for between ¥830 and ¥1150.

There's also a 'Party Plan' menu, with three plans, costing ¥4200, ¥5300 or ¥6500 a head. These get you a full big meal with a range of different dishes, including roast beef, salad and pasta, along with two hours all-you-can-drink alcohol and soft drinks, which sound like pretty good value.

It's not a high class dining venue, but it's well located, and gives affordable food and drinks in a fun setting, so La Cave ALT is certainly worth a look!