Tokyo is a tough place to open any business, especially your first restaurant. Along with kitchen skills and front-of-house nous, you need the right location, good connections and a strong underlying raison d'etre. A catchy name and some funky background music can't hurt either, ...

Tokyo has never been big on outdoors dining. Save for the old-school beer gardens that mushroom in midsummer, there are too few opportunities in the inner city to drink, snack and while away the time al fresco. At least there's Commune 2nd. Following its predecessor, ...

There are lots of good reasons for visiting Kamakura. It has temples, shrines and walks in the hills. You can windsurf, laze on the beach or just enjoy that rare sensation of having escaped the megalopolis. But dining out rarely comes high on the ...

It is all too easy to overlook Hanabi. Every day streams of visitors walk past this unprepossessing noodle joint without giving it a second look as they hike between the center of Kamakura and the Hase area and its famous Great Buddha. That's their ...

Many of Tokyo's finest restaurants are so hidden away you hardly know they're even there. But there's little chance of missing Maruka. In the unlikely event that you fail to spot the large white noren curtain across the entrance, you won't miss the long ...

Everybody likes a happy ending, especially when the story involves one of Tokyo's most popular pubs. That's why many cheered when Mikkeller Tokyo announced its return this spring. A year after calling it quits in Shibuya's Udagawacho district, the Danish-based craft beer bar has reincarnated. ...

There has never before been a tasting menu quite like it. The first dinner presented by wagyu beef grillmaster Kentaro Nakahara, yakitori supremo Yoshiteru Ikegawa and sushi maestro Takaaki Sugita was unprecedented in so many aspects. All three are among the finest chefs in their ...

This is an era of gastronomic collaboration. Chefs fly from one continent to another, swapping kitchens, recipes and sometimes even their homes. But rarely does this restless cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques involve the world of washoku, Japan's traditional cuisine. That is why it was ...

Beware of basement dining bars with neon signs, dim lighting and moody music. All too often they deliver style with little substance and menus that titillate but fail to deliver. Thankfully, there are a few exceptions. In Nishi-Azabu, one of the best is S'accapau. From ...

With its gleaming glass frontage and punchy name in purple neon beaming into the Shibuya night, you can tell straight away Out is going to be a bit special. But it's only when you're inside and ensconced at the elegant little horseshoe-shaped counter that ...