LiveGRACE Hotel Azabu 麻布芝公園

The long table bears a close resemblance to the dining tables of European nobility. Dinner is served table d’hôte: guests gather around a single large table, sharing the joy of good food and conversation. Reading the mood of the era, Chef Hiroyasu Kawate serves up delicious food and eco-consciousness, actively incorporating plant-based ingredients. The choice of vegetarian dishes as main meals is a new twist. Whether vegetarian or vegan, the fare blazes a fresh trail in vegetable cuisine.

This restaurant has been in business since the days of the Edo shogunate. Kanejiro Kanemoto is its fifth-generation proprietor, committed to a life of craftsmanship. Guided by the belief that eel is ‘a delicacy for the people,’ he has worked to share its appeal. With practiced craftsmanship, he patiently steams the eel to drip out excess fat then grills it without seasoning in the shirayaki style, or dips it in sauce and broils it to create beguilingly aromatic kabayaki. The dipping sauce has evolved over the generations, with the proportions of soy sauce and mirin shifting according to changi

The Japanese love of small spaces is deeply connected with the spirit of the tea ceremony and its cultural background. The counter, affording just the right distance between guests and Chef Toshiya Kadowaki, seats just six. The private room, whose low ceiling suggests a tearoom, is so intimate that guests can feel each other’s breathing. The menu features dishes where ingredients in season come together to create fleeting sensations that linger in the memory forever. Truffle rice, enriching the meal in both aroma and flavour, is a case in point.

A noren of Tokushima indigo, Tokushima sakes, fish from Naruto and Awa beef make Hiroyuki Kanda’s roots clear. Selecting ingredients carefully and applying minimal preparation is Kanda’s style of cooking. For example, rice should be cooked to perfection, each grain distinct, with small holes like crab burrows dotting the surface. The chef’s motto is ‘subtle flavour is true flavour’, and it is in the subtle flavours that depth of character is known.

A cypress counter in a room with adze-hewn ceilings and clay walls – an austere décor by which the proprietor sets the tone. ‘Simple fare’, says the menu, whose offerings avoid shows of splendour in favour of honest presentation. Sense of season flows entirely from the taste and aroma of the food. Sashimi wrapped in kombu, for example, or wanmono prepared with clear soup. Results are all the more impressive for the effort paid where few will notice. Natural flavours to calm the soul.

Service consists of many dishes in small quantities, hence the name. Creativity abounds, inspired by ingredients and preparation methods from numerous countries. Steamed spicy beef rather than chicken, chicken-wings stuffed with foie gras, and Peking duck wrapped in kadaif pastry show off Series’ talent for arrangement. To accentuate the variety of culinary styles, pairings range widely as well. Pair wine, sake or a cocktail with your meal.

What Kanako Wakimoto aims to deliver is simple, honest deliciousness. Ingredients in season are picked when they are ripe, reaping maximum nutrition in each season. The chef’s sweeping selection of meat dishes, rice dishes and sweets stems from her earnest desire to please the customer. To suggest closeness to nature, Wakimoto named her restaurant Sorahana, ‘Sky Flower’. As she devotes herself to her cooking, Wakimoto is in her element, like flowers blooming in a field under the sky.