Lucky Jay Rayner from The Guardian has been there and some of the best restaurants aren’t even in the new Michelin restaurant guide which sort of rates it 4 times better than Paris.
Just click here and enjoy. It reminds me of the whole Jamon or Tempura Hajime experience.
Bloggers banquet round-up coming soon – just as soon as I can relax on some grown-up stories…
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I never knew Tokyo was such a foodie heaven. I’ve heard about how expensive it can be, but I was just wondering how many variations of sashimi and sushi you could do. Apparently a lot.
I still have to try and get to Tempura Hajime eventually. I wonder if their bookings have died down yet?
Now we may begin to get an idea about the true philosophy & dedication of japanese cuisine. Never compromise, from a cucumber to a fish to a piece of meat, never compromise, never, means not even once !
Nature gives us the seasons which gives us the produce at its finest point in its life, and our job as chefs is to offer only food at that point.
In 11 years of Jamon (opened 26.11.96) I have strived to meet this philosophy and tried to share the finest foods with my clientele.
In Australia we are blessed with the greatest variety of produce at the lowest prices in the world and most importantly the shortest logistics of source to plate.
Thankyou for offering this article
Interesting article. Thanks for the link. When I was recently in Tokyo, I deliberately decided against eating at all those Michelin type places, even though for example, I haven’t visited Joel Robuchon before and would love the opportunity to go to one of his restaurants one day. While in Tokyo, I wanted to experience more typical or traditional Japanese food, like Kaiseki, or tempura, yakitori from a street stall or even great sashimi from Tsukiji. Even then, there’s such an incredible number of restaurants over there that it was hard to pick just one to go to sometimes.
Fascinated by some of the comments of the London experts. Does anyone know if there are significant numbers of top quality restaurants outside of Tokyo e.g. in Kyoto or is this a Tokyo phenomon?
Thanh, I’m not sure about hajime but you could try them on the off chance.
Charles, I’m baiased about Jamon as you know and it’s through eating at your table that i’ve learnt more about Japanese food than anywhere else. look forward to visiting again.
Y, I think that’s the point made in the Guardian. Elliot, I have no idea but i would imagine the food culture would be as strong in kyoto or Osaka. The difficulty probably is as a westerner getting into the culture and finding out where to go.
Hey Ed, Looking forward to the Blogger’s Banquet round up as I was so disappointed to miss it.
Ali-K, no problem.There will be a next time and several more already being planned.
I would say that the whole of Japan has fantastic eating! On our recent trip there, the best eating we did were in the ryokans (inns) where we stayed.
Kyoto has some very exclusive kaiseki restaurants that are extremely difficult to access for Japanese, let alone non-Japanese. Like hiring geisha to entertain guests in a teahouse, you usually require someone to introduce you first. That said, Kyoto is a great eating city, famous not only for kaiseki, but youdoufu and obanzai (Kyoto home cuisine). Kyoto Station itself has so many great restaurants that you can sample the breadth of Japanese cuisine just in the station!
Osaka has a reputation as the eating capital of Japan, with good reason. Though we did not go to many high end places there, the street fare like takoyaki and okonomiyaki were definite highlights!
EG, I know so little about Japan but find the whole idea of the place so exciting. I’m wondering whether it is simply a cultural thing and how the hell when I visit early next year i can get an introduction. look forward to reading about your adventures.