Autumn is our reward for overcoming the extremes of summer. The harvest that comes with the season also makes it quite possibly the best time of year for eating out. Zeshin, opened more than three years ago by Hideyuki Ohishi, will make you wish ...
One of my favorite occasions to eat out in Japan is after returning from a long trip abroad. I have learned to empathize with those Japanese tourists who can't wait to get home and eat Japanese rice after a whirlwind tour of Europe. But, incidentally, ...
I'm seated at one end of a wooden counter, hewn from the dark wood of a bubinga tree and streaked with hues of purple and red. The white pebbles in a nearby rock garden fan out around a patch of moss shaded by a ...
Midway through lunch at Sara, a family-run restaurant in northern Kyoto, I started to suspect that the chefs subscribed to a philosophy of daintiness. The food was as pretty as it was good to eat, but the portions were decidedly petit. This was especially so ...
There's every chance that while dining at Sakamoto you'll end up in a tourist's photo. It's not because of who you are, but where you are. Diners sit overlooking the shallow Shirakawa River, which is lined with restaurants, bars and cafes on one side, ...
The answer: bento box. The question: What Japanese food — or type of meal — would I miss most if I left Japan? And now for some qualifications, before an explanation in the form of a restaurant review. Owing to a combination of globalization and ...
Regrets? I have a ton. Here's one: I didn't get to eat bear meat at Godan Miyazawa. Perhaps one of the drawbacks of the omakase (chef's selection) here is that there's no actual menu to provide information about what's being served. Trusting your chef ...
Toru Kitagawa, the chef and owner of Oimatsu Kitagawa, has a casual air about him that borders on insouciance — an air that belies the imagination, creativity and earnestness of his cooking. Perhaps this equanimity is an Osaka trait, but it could just have ...
Tsukasa Yamaguchi likes to play. But not much of what he does behind the counter of Rikyo, which he opened nearly two years ago, suggests this. Like many of his contemporaries working in haute cuisine restaurants, Yamaguchi has the manner and intensity of a ...
In 2000, Harvard political scientist Robert D. Putnam wrote "Bowling Alone," a book about the decline of community and rise of individualism in the U.S. I thought about the title of that book over lunch at Rikichi — indeed there was plenty of room ...
I am almost certain that I wouldn't survive a day working under chef Noriyuki Hashinaga. I am, however, certain that I could eat his food every day. He is an exacting boss. On a recent lunchtime visit, Hashinaga was joined at his eponymous restaurant by ...
Tradition looks quite different in Tokyo than, say, Kyoto. Concealed and evolving under constant layers of reinvention, it must be sought out. Where to start? Just head to Kohaku in Kagurazaka, Tokyo's atmospheric nightlife district. The outer wall of dark, tightly packed bamboo, the recessed ...
