Going back to favorite restaurants after a gap of several years is much like meeting up with an old flame after being out of touch for too long. Anticipation is likely to be tempered by a good measure of anxiety. How have they changed? What if they don't look so good any more, or they've gone to fat, or have lost their sparkle? Were they -- and this is the bottom line -- really as fantastic as our memories tell us they were?

No such worries at Un Cafe. For a couple of years after it first opened in 1996, we were frequent visitors to this super little place tucked away behind the forbidding portals of the UN University on Aoyama-dori (yes, the name is meant to be a pun). But then our attention wandered, and until last week we hadn't been back there in years. With relief and pleasure, we found it's just as good as it ever was.

For some people, it's the location that makes Un Cafe special, hidden from the outside world like a secret between lovers. For others, it's the effortless way Un Cafe combines stylish with casual. The setting may not be quite so cutting-edge as it felt seven years ago, but the pastel-cream, '60s-revisited interior hasn't dated at all. The furniture -- much of it Philippe Starck before he franchised his name to convenience stores -- melds bistro simplicity with Conran Shop sophistication. The stainless steel counter that delineates the open kitchen gleams as bright as it did on opening day.