Food and travel inevitably go together: whether you’re cooking for yourself or staying in a hotel and eating out travel takes you out of your normal routine. The grocery store is different, the restaurants are new and the culture of the food can be completely different.

So, even a travel diary that starts late can start with food. In this case, with a small restaurant that I ate at three times when I was in Tokyo for ten days (and no, it wasn’t sushi which I ate less of then you might imagine.)

I stumbled on Bistro Ryumilu early in my visit. I think it was the second night, and I was wandering the back alleys and streets of Sumida near my hotel. I can’t find an address for it so my best advice to find it is to find the Sumida Hokusai museum, and head to the south side. There’s a small market across the street. From there head west and keep an eye out on the north side of the street. I’d say you can’t miss it but honestly…you can. It’s that small: I think there were three tables and a few seats at the bar. This isn’t a place that’s listed in guidebooks or recommended by the hotel. They probably don’t even know it exists, which is a shame.

I sat at the bar every time I visited, a habit when dining alone. On the first night there were two women sitting at the other end and three people (including a young child) sitting at the table behind me. The owner/chef doesn’t speak English but the translation app on your phone is an easy way to order: the food is European here, and I ordered the Caccio e Pepe. I think I wanted something familar. It was fantastic, and it was only about 15,000 yen or so–roughly CDN$15.

What made the night memorable though was what happened next. I hadn’t ordered a drink (I’m in a not drinking phase right now) but the table behind had ordered a bottle of wine and pretty soon a glass was put in front of me and everyone at the bar had some. Much conversation in Japanese ensued with a little English in between–it was a birthday dinner for the family of three. With a little translation help I figured out that it was the mother’s 40th birthday.

It was such a warm, lovely welcome to Tokyo and so much fun so I knew I’d be going back.

Sure enough there were two more trips and the chef and I started chatting through the translate app. He would speak into my phone and I’d read, and then type back. I had the pork and then for my last meal in Tokyo the Hida beef. Both were fantastic. The steak was the brest I’d had in ages, and at CDN$33 incredibly well priced–I told him in Toronto I’d have paid at last $100 for this, and I think that’s true.

What makes a great restaurant experience? That first night birthday party was part of it for sure but it all counts for nothing if the food isn’t good, and everything I had was fantastic and well priced. If I’m back, this will be one of my first stops and I highly recommend making it one of yours too.