"I am not very fond of sugar and sweet things, and yet I became a pastry chef." The story of British pâtissière Rose Carrarini, whose quote adorns the wall in the growing number of cafe-bakeries that bear her name, is an eye-opener on many ...

Japanese cuisine at its loftiest is elegant and profound. It can be taut as a tea ceremony or exquisite as a furisode kimono. But inventive, irreverent? Only at Den.

Tempura and soba: Separately, they’re two essential elements of traditional Japanese food culture. Put them together side by side on the table and they add up to one of the all-time classic dishes. Even at its most basic — at a stand-and-slurp noodle counter, ...

Japan's prodigious ability to assimilate, reproduce and then develop homegrown adaptations of products from other cultures is legendary. Why should it be any different when it comes to patisseries?

  The red-framed doors and purple canopy that mark the front of Le Verre Vole a Tokyo are a cheerful sight at any time of year. In the chill dark dead of winter, their glow is even more welcoming, especially if you’re arriving on ...

First impressions are everything — and at Convivio they are distinctly underwhelming. The elevator entrance, just off a busy main street in brash Shinjuku, is right by the service counter of a KFC outlet, the stern glare of the Colonel seeming to reproach you ...

Tradition rules at this time of year, and few parts of Tokyo are more traditional than the grid of narrow streets to the south of Ueno’s Shinobazu Pond. Although many of the buildings in this former geisha district have seen much better days, there ...

Before we usher out the Dragon and ring in the Snake, it’s time to pause, look back and appreciate all the fine eating that Tokyo has provided this year. Gongs and rankings are meaningless in a city the size of Tokyo: How can anyone ...

As the dust settles from the annual pronouncement of Michelin stars — and, yes, Tokyo remains the tire company’s gastronomic capital of the world — it’s timely to remember that stellar dining does not have to mean stratospheric prices, even in the most rarefied ...

If Christmas is the time when adults pander to their inner child, then it is holiday season all year round at Papabubble. Tokyo’s premier purveyor of artisan candies is no ordinary sweet shop: it’s more like a Santa’s grotto — complete with happy toiling ...