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7 Best Michelin Star Restaurants in Tokyo 2020

TripBlog
TripBlog
Feb 19, 2020

Catalogue

  • Sukiyabashi Jiro: The God of Sushi
  • Nihonryori Ryugin: Traditional Kaiseki Fused with Creative Molecular Cuisine
  • Yamadaya: Puffer Fish with A Fatal Attraction
  • Kagurazaka Ishikawa: The Best Kaiseki Cuisine in Tokyo
  • Esaki: Three Star Michelin Lunch for Only 5000 Yen
  • Azabu Yukimura: Crab Dishes You Have to Try in This Lifetime
  • Quintessence: The Youngest Three Star Chef
  • Show More

Tokyo has 13 three star Michelin restaurants, more than any other city in the world. Most of these restaurants serve upscale Japanese-style cuisine such as kaiseki-ryōri or the feast of crabs. However, there are also many other choices available including French cuisine and molecular gastronomy. We’ve picked the 7 most popular restaurants for you, but be warned, they all need to be booked in advance if you want to get a seat.

Sukiyabashi Jiro (すきやばし次郎) is probably the most famous three star Michelin restaurant in Tokyo. The 90-year-old head chef Jiro Ono is known as the "God of Sushi." The restaurant in Ginza of which he is personally in charge quickly became known worldwide as a mecca for gourmets. There is no regular menu available, only the chef's specials for each given day. The only thing for sale is sushi, nothing else. Jiro Ono personally recommends the tuna sushi. He feels that tuna sushi is the kind that best reflects the true essence of sushiDifferent parts of the fish contain different levels of fat. When combined with carefully temperature controlled rice, an extraordinary taste experience is achieved. In theory the Ginza location has reservations available “one month in advance” but this seems to be a matter of illusion as, whenever you call, the phone is always busy. The Roppongi branch, run by Jiro Ono’s son, on the other hand, is much easier to get a table at.

Chef Seiji Yamamoto reinterprets traditional Japanese kaiseki cuisine in innovative ways that push it to a whole new level. The restaurant’s signature dish is an aristocratic “Frozen Strawberry” dessert. This dessert uses molecular cooking techniques to rapidly freeze the strawberries at an ultra-low temperature to make a powder which is then injected into a translucent strawberry shaped icing shell; the taste is interesting and very very strawberry. The dish is accompanied with hot strawberry syrup. Mixing cold and hot together at one time gives it a stimulating feel. Nihonryori Ryugin works on a reservations-only basis. It's best to make a reservation two or three months in advance. The restaurant is only open in the evening. A basic meal set costs 23,100 yen plus a 10% service charge; after 9pm, it is possible to order à la carte, but it is still necessary to have made a reservation that day.

Located in Tokyo’s Nishi-Azabu district, Yamadaya (臼杵ふぐ山田屋) is the only Michelin three star restaurant to focus fully on the deadly puffer fish. The body of the fugu puffer fish is highly poisonous. The slightest bit of carelessness in the handling methods of preparing the food could poison diners. Still, this fatal attraction has actually made it harder to resist... In addition to puffer fish sashimi, Yamadaya also presents a number of other puffer fish dishes such as fried fugu, stewed fugu, and fugu chowder. At different times of the year there are also seasonal dishes such as a sole banquet (May and June) and tiger fish (July and August). Selecting the freshest wild caught tiger fugu, the longstanding Yamadaya restaurant cuts the fish into extremely thin transparent petal-shaped slices, and then plates them from the outside of the plate inwards in a manner which looks very much like a blooming flower. Served with special soy sauce and orange vinegar, the flavor is complete and as authentic as it gets.

7 Best Michelin Star Restaurants in Tokyo 2020

The owner and chef, Hideki Ishikawa, is a master at taking Japanese cuisine’s most important seasonal ingredients and arranging them in a way that retains the original flavor to provide visitors with the most natural taste possible. Hideki Ishikawa is also the head of the One Dragon and Three Tigers Food and Beverage Group. His flagship restaurants White Tiger and Lotus (れん) are also on the Michelin list. This Michelin three star ranked restaurant offers pure and authentic food featuring perfectly integrated seasonal ingredients. The dishes are as elegant and conservative as the gentle wooden interior design. Customers are not given the option to choose what they will order but are instead invited to sample a range of dishes, including soup or sashimi appetizers, followed by a main course prepared on the grill. Per the request of guests, the restaurant also has a special sake to accompany each dish. Dishes are plated on antique ceramics infused with Japanese history, allowing visitors to experience a relaxing yet unforgettable culinary experience.

7 Best Michelin Star Restaurants in Tokyo 2020

Is it really possible to have a Michelin three star lunch experience for only 5500 yen? True to the adage that good wine will be tracked down in even the deepest alleyway, Esaki is located in a small alley in Jingūmae district. It has been awarded three Michelin stars each year for the past 6 years. The restaurant mainly serves modern-style organic Japanese cuisine, and an ordinary lunch package offered on Saturdays alone runs only 5,500 yen. The most expensive weekday dinner is only 14,000 yen. For a three star restuarnt in Tokyo, this is amazingly good value. The restaurant uses only the most natural in-season organic ingredients such as organic wild vegetables and seafood to produce the healthiest seasonal delicacies. This not only maintains the unique taste and sweetness of its ingredients, but also highlights the fine skill used in the preparation of Japanese cuisine.

7 Best Michelin Star Restaurants in Tokyo 2020

Azabu Yukimura has, for many years, been ranked a Michelin three star restaurant. Yukimura, the head chef, painstakingly spent 25 years studying cookery in Kyoto and is one of the foremost chefs of Tokyo cuisine. Of the dishes on offer at the restaurant, one of the most famous is the crab sushi. With sweet and delicious meat, it is said to be something which everyone must try at least once in their life. The signature Horikawa Beef Simmered Crab is made using ancient techniques from Kyoto’s Horikawa along with famous quality beef and crab. Its specialness lies in taking specially brewed white vinegar in which mountain-grown climbing stem roots have been dissolved. The flavor of the vinegar and the vegetable become one with the crab and the beef and have made this dish a popular favorite. The chef specializes in the use of ingredients from all four seasons; in addition to the winter crab dishes, there is also a spring flower spicy beef hot pot, a sweet summer fish, and autumn pine mushrooms. Everything he serves is uniquely a combination of Kyoto cuisine and his own ingenuity.

7 Best Michelin Star Restaurants in Tokyo 2020

Quintessence (カンテサンス), a French restaurant located in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is run by Chef Kishida; winning Michelin three star recognition at the tender age of 33, he became the youngest three star Michelin chef. His restaurant is open daily serving modern French cuisine with a sophisticated Japanese touch. Quintessence adopts a menu-free style of making dishes using only the freshest ingredients available that day, in order to bring out the best in each of them. Roasted meats and barbecue are one of the chef's particularly excellent skillsets. Mastering low and slow cooking, he extracts the delicate flavors from the fine meat. Some of the extremely popular foods on offer include roasted scallions and roast duck breasts; the meat is tender and crispy, the gravy rich. In addition to his exceptional culinary skills, this young genius of a chef has also shown outstanding taste in interior design. Elegant and simple décor creates a delightful dining atmosphere accented by the lighting. The 14-course dinner set has remained at a price of less than 20,000 yen, lunch is 8500 yen, while a standard dinner is 18,000 yen. It is surely one of the most affordable three star restaurants in Tokyo and, as a result, one of the most difficult restaurants to book.

7 Best Michelin Star Restaurants in Tokyo 2020

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