Coedo (CLOSED)
Coedo is a recently opened Japanese tavern in the Porta Romana area. I can finally find a table in this place after weeks because of the owners' constant technical problems: every time I called or presented myself at the restaurant I always found it closed. It seemed like a joke but in the end I made it: incredible but true.
In the room there is Taka, a kind and hospitable owner, who explains to me that he decided to open a restaurant in Milan after opening one in Florence. In the kitchen his wife, Kiyoe, works just as kind and smiling lady who does the honors of the house. And when I say home, I mean literally: Coedo is in fact a single room, a bit spartan with some Japanese decorations. The feeling is not that of being in a restaurant, but in a domestic environment, which should be warmed and modernized. Attention to the restaurant and prices a bit too high for the type of food offered remain an important discriminant.
Taka tells me that he has lived in Italy for about ten years and that his country of origin is a town 30 minutes by train from Tokyo, Kawagoe. Coedo beer is produced in this city, from which the place takes its name and where it is obviously possible to order it. Together with beer you can also taste the sake made by friends of the owners.
The menu is concentrated and concerns the typical dishes of Japanese everyday life: no raw fish or sushi, therefore, but hot home-made preparation (and not).
In the appetizers section you will find takoyaki, okonomiyaki, gyoza, karaage, menchi katsu (the Japanese breaded hamburger), aji fry (fried horse mackerel) and yasai korokke (Japanese pumpkin croquettes).
Then proceed with the noodles which include ramen (with or without soup, also in a vegetarian version), udon and soba.
Then opens the large parenthesis of the meat, where the pig is the master. Cooked fried (tonkatsu) or in its various variants with curry, in the form of a sandwich (katsu sandwich), with or without rice. Personally, I really enjoyed the buta don, the rice bowl with frayed pork in sweet soy sauce, onion, pickled ginger and egg.
There is also the famous homemade oyako don dish (chicken cooked with sweet soy sauce, onions and eggs on rice) and tofu donburi for those who do not eat meat.
Another note of merit certainly goes to the cotton cake made by hand, the ultra light and soft Japanese cheesecake. Other desserts include dorayaki (also in the sundae version), parfait and daifuku mochi.
To drink, in addition to the beer and sake already mentioned, there are umeshu, sochu and green tea.
🌎 https://www.instagram.com/coedo_milano/
📍 Corso di Porta Romana 107, Milan
💰 $$$