PATH Restaurant in Shibuya

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The restaurant

Tucked into a side street in Shibuya, not far from Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park, lies PATH, a dimly-lit French restaurant we visited last week while we were in Tokyo. With a menu of French favorites and great atmosphere, it was a fantastic place for a reasonably-priced romantic evening.

Drinks and soup

For drinks, my wife had an orange juice and I got an iced coffee. The iced coffee was so-so, but the orange juice was fantastic. It was fresh-squeezed, and so flavorful it almost tasted like eating a fresh apricot. They also brought us some onion soup that was very well-presented and quite tasty.

Appetizers

We started off with some bread and pate (note that I’m gonna be spelling it pate, without any accents, because I am lazy). The bread came with no butter, and honestly, it didn’t need any. After four years of being in white-bread-loving Japan, I was ecstatic for the rich wheat taste and nice crust on this thing.

As for the pate, I’ve had pate a few times in my life, but it was always a gooey pile, never something so structurally sound as this tasty square. It was delicious on its own, with the provided mustard, or on the bread. There was a bit too much crunchy stuff in it for my liking, but we both pretty much agreed we’d never had such good pate (thought neither of us are very pate-experienced).

Entree

We were exhausted after a day of seeing Tokyo, so we weren’t hungry enough for a main course. Instead, we shared some duck confit with parmesan. I have a love-hate relationship with duck: every time I see it on a menu, I go “Ooh, duck!” And then after I try it, I remember duck is basically JV chicken. This stuff was okay, but I’m pretty sure any other meat would have been more flavorful. The cheese was okay, but I can’t have cheese these days, so I concentrated on finishing up the pate.

Conclusion: is PATH worth seeking out?

The service was fantastic, and the atmosphere was superb. I’ve missed nights out with my wife like this during COVID, and for a price tag of around 50 bucks, it was definitely worth it. If you’re ever in Shibuya, swing by PATH for some bread and pate!