illi Eme Tokyo-Toranomon

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.

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.

Being originally located in the grounds of Seishoji Temple is why Daigo began serving shojin ryori. What Nomura inherits as the restaurant’s fourth-generation owner is shojin ryori for gracious service. Note that dried bonito flakes are used in the broth, so the meals are not completely vegetarian. The nutrition and flavour of the vegetables and the sukiya architecture put the mind at ease. Relax and enjoy this moment of tranquillity.

The name of the restaurant means ‘highest compliment’ or ‘apex’. The pinnacle of cuisine, perched on the top floor of a soaring skyscraper, is the concept here. The precepts of apothéose are a trinity: respect for French culinary culture; a deep spirit of inquiry into Japanese ingredients; and devotion to knowing the present moment. Willingness to experiment, unconstrained by convention, ensures customers understand the joys of food.

A detached, glass-walled house stands across from a park; ascend the stairs adjacent to the kitchen and you reach a dining room with a Scandinavian interior. The prix fixe menu begins with tea in season. The restaurant’s name refers to ‘friends who will drink tea together always’, referring to the circle of guests, staff and food producers. The chef’s aim is to serve food that is simple yet original. Both service and kitchen staff bring the food to your table.

Although rooted in French techniques, the cuisine here minimises butter and cream, allowing the natural aromas and flavours of the ingredients to shine in a lighter finish. Chilled oysters with seawater and citrus jelly, as well as kadaif-wrapped john dory, have become the chef’s signature dishes. A plant-based vegan course also reflects his philosophy. ‘Edition’ speaks to his approach of constantly editing and refining recipes, always updating them.

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.