This is one of 3-star restaurants in Tokyo, that allows me book for a table only for one person. The restaurant is located on the top floor of a shopping mall next to the imperial palace garden. I got a table with a great view to the imperial garden especially during the sunset through the dinner time. Also, all the waiters dress up in the traditional clothes that gives customers great visual experience. The menu for the night was fairly long, with a strong focus on seafood. I was also very happy that there was non-alcohol, tea pairing, which was very fun and thoughtful.

The first dish I liked was the “Green Bamboo (綠竹) from Kagoshima (鹿况島)”. Bamboo shoot is almost tasteless—only a very light earthen flavour—and has tough fabric texture. Also the bamboo shoot they served was a tougher breed, making them even more difficult to cook. The chef cut the tender part of the bamboo shoot and grilled it until just cooking through. That is to say, I could still taste the strong fabric, earthy flavour, and a very light sweetness. Then the coming soup, “Matsutake mushroom Soup (松茸) & Pike Conger eel (鱧)”, brought a warmth feeling. It was surprisingly a smooth-like soup base, rather than liquid style; the soup base was full of mushroom flavour. Both matsutake and eel were just cooked through, remaining crunchy and crispy. The entire soup gave a very warm welcome to your stomach for the following dishes. I disliked the next dish, “Ise-Ebi Lobster (伊勢海老) & Sea Urchin (雲丹)”. The problem was I did not know how to eat it properly! The lobster was very large, and I have been told use my hand to eat them. However, there was sauce in the bowl, and the sea urchin was slippery. In fact, halfway through, the waiter realised I was struggling hence he gave me a small wooden spoon, but I really need a knife to cut. Regarding the flavour, it was nice (raw) lobster yet with no surprise. One of the must fun dish was “Shark Fin (鱶鰭) & Squid-ink Somen noodle (素麵)”, although the ingredient of shark fin is controversial. It was the hot fin on top and cold noodle in the bottom. I have been told not to mix or stir them together. The fin part was a little sticky (and jelly), full of umami and the noodle part was fresh, soy-sauce based flavour. It was very interesting they managed to separate those two parts in one dish, and it was especially fun that the soup gradually changed flavour. The first main dish was duck, “Original Smoke method (藁燒) Megumi Duck (惠鴨)”, which I surprisingly liked a lot. It was cooked perfectly: no greasy skin, but tender muscle/meat, in the perfect dark red colour. The duck was juicy but no extra liquid when cut through. I could actually taste the duck meat just by itself, which was very enjoyable. One could also added a bit of salt and/or the shallot on top of the duck, which boosted the main duck flavour very well. All the sides, including mushroom and nuts, provided bitter flavours to balance out the strong duck flavour, which I thought was a good idea. This was a dish looking extremely simple, but the chef puts much thought. The second main was unadon (鰻丼), “Fresh water Eel (鰻) fron Oigawa Tiver (大井川) & Kodavari Eeg (美卵)”, i.e., eel with rice (plus extra egg here). Similar to duck, the chef removed the greasy part of eel but kept the rest flavours, which I found impressive. Many unadon are paired with heavy sweat and soy sauce, however, here the sauce was very light; this allowed me still taste the eel flavour very well. The pairing soup was also towards bitter end, that follows a similar idea as the duck, that is, bitterness to neutralise greasiness. There was one dessert I found cute, “Coconut (椰子果) & Sesami (胡麻)”, basically a warm coconut milk with a sesame jelly. The coconut was slightly sweat while the sesame was much more savoury and creamy. I was not sure how the chef made the sesame jelly, which in fact, had a more paste texture.

Overall, this is a 3-star restaurant with more than £500 bill including the tea pairs. It was an interesting summary of some Japanese food and cook: (1) focusing on the original flavours of the ingredients and (2) balancing different tastes. Here the chef especially like to mixing some earthy and bitter seasoning and ingredients; I personally enjoyed. Yet we still need to ask if it was good enough for the price? I would say borderline, because I got some surprise dishes but also some boring dishes or dishes needing more thoughts. Nevertheless, I will still recommend this place in general as it will be a good experience.