Shamaim - Israeli Restaurant in Tokyo
Chooch had her exam for Level 4 of the Chinese Proficiency Test yesterday. She has been studying pretty hard recently for it so we thought we might go out for dinner last night. After a bit of a search around on the internet for good vegetarian restaurants we ended up choosing Shamaim - an Israeli / Middle Eastern restaurant located about half an hour from central Tokyo in Nerima ward.
In New Zealand we don’t have much in the way of Israeli restaurants (at least not that I am aware of), but we do have a lot of food from that area, particularly Lebanese restaurants - and these have long been a favourite of mine. It wasn’t until we moved to the Kansai area in 2001 and discovered a great little Israeli felafel place in Nara (which I have heard has since moved to Kyoto) and I was very happy to discover that they served wonderful food much like I was used to in New Zealand. I suppose it should have been obvious that Israeli food would be very similar to Lebanese food, but my image was more of New York deli style grub.
So we rode the Oedo line from Azabujuban station out to ShinEgota station which took a bit under half an hour. After getting out of the station we had a nice stroll through the streets of Nerima ward. That area is very Haruki Murakami - peaceful semi-urban Tokyo and it wouldn’t seem so strange to stumble upon a character from The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
After a bit of a walk we found the restaurant. The area it is in has a pachinko parlour, a book store, and even what looked suspiciously like a bia hoi (sp?). From the outside Shamaim didn’t look like much, still we were hungry, hungry as polar bears as we went up the stairs. Once inside we were pleasantly surprised - the decour was nice and homely and would have been fine in any half decent cafe in New Zealand.
We ordered the all you can eat 2100 yen vegetarian special and dug in. It was damn good. Nice veggie soup to kick things off and then a great selection of dishes to dip our pita bread in. The all you can eat special lasts 2 hours - but we didn’t. After an hour or so, and a couple of extra orders we were as full as could be and very sleepy! Too much food 
A mighty fine repast.
Shamaim is highly recommended. If you click here, you can get a map to the restaurant as well as a coupon you can print out to get free Shamaim special dessert “Marabi”, or free Arabian spicy coffee, or free mint tea - the choice is yours.
One thing that stood out was the music. A lot of restaurants like this try to play traditional local / ethnic music. Shamaim didnt - some great beats to keep the dining kicking along. Gotta appreciate that!