Post #624581 by Michelle66 on Sat, Feb 11, 2012 3:00 AM

Today was a national holiday in Japan, so there was a rare Saturday brunch at TV's.

And since Valentine's Day is fast approaching, the restaurant is currently dressed up with decorations and the brunch had some nice surprises (which I'll get to in a minute). (Unfortunately, I forgot my digital camera today, so all I had was an iPhone to take pictures with.)

Here's the entrance as it looked today:

This is an old-school tiki I don't think I've photographed before:

And a mask:

Larry, TVT's GM, loves to add special dishes to each brunch that are themed to the season. Since chocolate is the most-popular gift for Valentine's Day in Japan, today's brunch featured a VERY delicious Mexican chicken mole. (Larry is from San Diego, so he likes to celebrate the cuisine of Mexico quite often.)

I had never had a mole sauce before, so I was a bit apprehensive. (For me, chocolate sauce meant something to pour out of a can with "Hershey's" written on it...) By chance, the head chef was standing at the table when I was looking at the various foods and he cajoled me into trying the special dish.

He then explained how to prepare one, and I when I ate it I was stunned at how good it was!

Definitely not Hershey's syrup!

And definitely my favorite dish at today's brunch! (I ended up eating four of them!)

Here's the chicken mole station - with chicken covered in chocolate mole sauce, toppings, and steamed flour tortillas:

Another standout special dish today was a pork dumpling soup. The dumplings' filling tasted like the pork-based Peking Ravioli/pot-sticker filling served at Chinese/Polynesian restaurants in the USA, not the cabbage-based "gyoza" filling served everywhere in Japan. Fresh cilantro was available to add as well.

If you happen to be in Tokyo right now, get to Trader Vic's for tomorrow's (2/12) brunch. The chicken mole and pork dumpling soup were amazing! (Everything else was great too.)

Another positive development in Japan is it looks like Lemon Hart demerara rum is being imported again! So, Trader Vic's will soon be able to go back to the original recipes for drinks that call for Lemon Hart (like "Navy Grog","Tiki Puka Puka", and other favorites).

In fact, as I was on the train heading to the brunch, I got a call from my local liquor store to tell me the bottle of 151 I had ordered was in.

And here it is - new label and all:

This is great news because sellers at Yahoo Japan Auctions were trying to get upwards of $100 per bottle of dead-stock Lemon Hart 151. (Maybe a "Hell In The Pacific" would be a great way to celebrate Lemon Hart's re-availability here...)