PLAZA IN MIYAKOJIMA HOTEL

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.

The low-profile exterior, small billboard and stripped-down accoutrements express an understated Japanese architecture aesthetic. The goal here is cuisine of which one never tires. Rishiri kombu kelp is selected for the dashi stock drawn for soups, reassuring with its light flavour. Fermented seasonings are handmade fish sauces, provide the subtle seasoning that enhances other flavours. Relying on patient craftsmanship rather than fancy ingredients, Katamachi Kawaguchi impresses with technique and singular character.

Located close to the beloved Osaka Temmangu Shrine, the ‘Yu’ in the restaurant’s name is a character in the name of the chef’s mentor. Apprenticing at an old-school Osaka kappo, the chef learned not only cooking skills but also the bold spirit of a chef who holds court behind the counter. Courteous yet charming, his gregarious manner keeps the conversation flowing. The format is omakase, but with the flexibility to indulge diners’ whims.

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.

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.

Locally raised chickens from Kagoshima are shipped directly to the restaurant and grilled over Bincho charcoal. The appetiser for the prix fixe menu is lightly seared chicken thigh. Yakitori is almost always salted, so as to bring the high quality of the meat to the fore. Yuba tofu, soy milk thickened with starch, is the house’s renowned palate cleanser. The flavour of the chicken melts into the soup of the soy-sauce ramen that brings the meal to a close. Adding oyakodon is warmly recommended. As befits the restaurant’s name, which starts with ‘sumibi’, ‘charcoal flame’, the interior is ash-gr

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.