Japanese cuisine at its loftiest is elegant and profound, uplifting, sometimes even transcendent. It can be taut as a tea ceremony or exquisite as a furisode kimono. But inventive, irreverent, humorous? Only at Den.
From the very first bite — most likely a monaka wafer stuffed with rich foie gras — to the final mouthful — invariably a trompe l'oeil dessert — dinner at Den unfolds with a series of unothodoxies, visual puns and witticisms. Whether it's your first visit or your 30th, there is only one way to approach it: Expect the unexpected.
Not that you'd guess it from the outside. Facing onto a quiet pedestrian-only alley just steps away from the Jimbocho crossing, the dark timber facade looks nothing but traditional. Carefully illuminated and with only a small kanji character on an unobtrusive stick-on seal to identify that you have come to the right place, it feels as discreet and refined as a high-end kaiseki (formal Japanese) restaurant in Kagurazaka.