Autumn is the golden season. Fruit and hearty root vegetables; mushrooms, nuts and new-season rice; plentiful fish and seafood, too: This abundance is the palette from which Japan's top kaiseki chefs draw in creating their intricate, elegant multicourse meals. Few are as accomplished at the art as Toru Okuda.
For aficionados, the name needs no introduction. Okuda's intimate high-end restaurant, Kojyu, which he set up in Ginza nine years ago, is among the finest in the city, lauded both at home and increasingly abroad, especially after gaining three stars since the very first Tokyo Michelin guide.
Far fewer people, though, are aware that he has a second restaurant. Simply called Ginza Okuda, it opened in August of last year — and it's very well worth knowing. Far from feeling like a spinoff or an attempt to cash in on his (deservedly) growing reputation, the new place is more like a Kojyu clone, almost identical in scale, appearance and atmosphere.