HG Cozy Hotel No.34 Tenjinbashisuji 6-chome Station

The star of the menu is the bounty of the Hokuriku region. Seafood is delivered from the chef’s native Ishikawa Prefecture; seafood from every part of Ishikawa express the shifting seasons: Noto abalone, Nanao egg cockles, Chirihama oysters, and Kanaiwa male snow crab. As he cooks on an earthen charcoal brazier, the chef holds forth on their particular qualities and the passion of the fishermen with whom he does business. The restaurant name derives from the historic Higashi Chaya district of Kanazawa. From behind the counter, the chef waxes eloquent on the charms of his birthplace.

The chef spent years fine-tuning his skills in a Japanese restaurant in Hozenji Yokocho. While treasuring the lessons he learned there, he now blazes his own culinary trail. Mindful of how knife technique can affect the flavour of sashimi, he practises daily and his grounded approach to cooking is reassuring to watch. Bringing together everything he has learned over his career, he expresses it in cuisine of the ‘here and now’. Rather than just copy his mentor, the chef treads his own path in the gastronomic world.

Weave Kansai food culture and Chinese tradition together and you get Kamigatachuka. Ingredients from the Kinki region are prepared using Chinese and Japanese techniques; continuing the theme, items are served on Chinese and Japanese plates and bowls. Vegetarian cuisine, dubbed ‘Naniwa’ (‘vegetable garden’), brings to mind the Kawachi Plain’s fame as a vegetable-producing region. The fare is the self-expression of a chef who was born in Osaka and grew up in a family that ran a Chinese restaurant.

The crockery forms an essential part of the cuisine of Miyamoto. From a collection years in the making, each item is carefully selected to complement the item served on it. The arrangements remain simple to let this harmony shine, and there is a refreshing honesty in the chef’s unstinting use of ingredients. He honours the customs of Japanese cuisine yet cooks unbound by theory; he aspires to run a restaurant where he freely creates what is simply delicious. House-made udon is prepared according to the season. The purity of white rice cleanses the soul.

Tenboshi is managed by Numata, a developer of tempura restaurants. The chain has several locations, but this one is popular for its prices and casual style. Born in Amakusa, the chef gets many ingredients from his native Kumamoto, as well as other parts of Kyushu. Tempura, fried in a blended of fresh-pressed sesame and cottonseed oils, is light and airy. Providing seafood and vegetables alternately, with dipping sauces to set off each item to advantage, is one way to show off individuality.

The chef interprets the seasons through kaiseki, adding twists and tricks that make the cuisine his own. To express each season, appetisers are accompanied by leaves collected on hill and dale and a slim strip of paper is inscribed with a seasonal phrase. White rice, cooked in clay pots, is specially selected and treated. Rice grown in serpentinite soil, with its rich mineral content, is seasoned with salt and soy sauce to bring out umami and flavour. In a unique touch, scorched rice is served like a rice cracker. The basics of Japanese cuisine are safely guarded, yet imagination has room to r

Countertop French dining by a single skilled chef. The name was chosen out of the chef’s fondness for films. The style here is a three-plate prix fixe menu of appetiser, main course and dessert. For each of the three, guests choose from a pleasingly extensive list. Old-school French cuisine that proudly upholds tradition with classic technique and bold flair.