Tokyo has countless soba restaurants, from which 8 are currently awarded one Michelin star each. Muto soba-ya is one of them. Every morning, the chef-owner wakes up early to make his soba noodles, later in the day served hot or cold with some dashi dipping sauce and leeks. Here, simplicity…

Beautiful food at Kyoto’s Kikunoi… P.S. Longer posts will be resumed soon!

The hardest to reserve restaurant in the world is not in Brooklyn, Barcelona and not even in Copenhagen. It’s in Tokyo and you’ve probably never heard of it before. I’ve been trying to get into Kawamura steakhouse without any success each time I went to Tokyo. And I am not…

Despite August being my least favourite time of eating raw fish in Japan, Harutaka sushi-ya was as outstanding as always.Harutaka Takahashi, who started his sushi chef career at the famous (or… infamous) Sukiyabashi Jiro, was especially generous this time. The snacks prior to sushi (otsumame) included abalone and three types…

Before you ask me how I managed to get a reservation at Kawamura steakhouse in Tokyo – I didn’t. There are two Kawamuras which both happen to be in Ginza. The famous one where it’s almost impossible to get into as the chef gives priority to his regular customers (I…

Despite the fact that I’ve been to Japan several times (12 if to be precise), I recently found myself in two situations where, to my dismay, I realized that I had not yet learned, or at least kept in mind, the elementary rules concerning tipping in Japan… The first time,…

If young and aspiring chefs in the West might believe that being creative and innovative is the key to one’s first Michelin star, in Japan you can get a Michelin star for being really good in what you are doing, even if what you are doing is deep-frying pork cutlets.…

In the normal world of fine dining 38000 Yen or 290 Euros will buy you a tasting menu containing at least a bit of truffles, caviar or other expensive ingredients. Not in Tokyo’s 3 Michelin starred 10 seat tempura restaurant 7 Chome Kyoboshi (Ozio Ginza Building 6F, 5-5-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku,…

Chef Seiji Yamamoto is fond of dragons. The walls of his restaurant and the 400-year old presentation plates are all adorned with these mythical creatures. Even the restaurant’s name, ryugin, means “singing dragon”, while Nihonryori translates as “Japanese cuisine”. Three Michelin star Nihonryori RyuGin (7-17-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo; tel.03-3423-8006) specializes in…

The very best sushi experiences in Tokyo are rarely less than ¥ 15 000 – ¥ 20 000 per person, so I was very curious to visit 2 Michelin starred Kimura sushi(3-21-8 Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo; tel.03-3707-6355) where dinner costs from ¥8,400 to ¥ 12,600, while lunch “only” ¥5,250 for an omakase.…