Calling a restaurant “the best in the world” or awarding it with one, two or three stars is a very Western notion. If you ask any well-travelled foodie ( including me ) what is the best sushi shop in Tokyo, she would mention Sushi Saito, Sukiyabashi Jiro or other sushiyas…

If you don’t read at least a little bit of hiragana, you might look for the Suzuryu building for a long time. Like many high-end restaurants in Tokyo’s Ginza, Sushi Yoshitake (3F, Suzuryu Building, 8-7-19 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo, tel. 03-6253-7331) is located in an ordinary office building, on an ordinary…

This is the knife chef Jun Yukimura (Azabu Yukimura, 3*, Tokyo) uses, particularly for shearing pike eels (hamo) bones. The knife comes from Aritsugu, a 450 year old producer from Kyoto, who originally produced swords for samurais. When I asked to hold it, I felt I was holding danger –…

Soba – traditional Japanese buckwheat noodles that can be eaten cold or hot, alone or in a broth. The soba at Tajima (1*) was delicious, but sometimes I wonder if Michelin guide makes any sense in Japan. If to be fair, all the decent restaurants in France, serving fresh, cheap…

Eating the freshest fish possible is part of the fun when visiting the biggest fish and seafood market in the world. Daiwa Sushi (Tsukiji Market Part6 Bldg. 5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo,tel. 03-3547-6807) hides in one of the busy alleys of Tsukiji and is definitely worth the over an hour wait- the…

When you sit at a 7 places sushi counter, you will most likely end up making conversations with your neighbours. My neighbours at Sushi Saito ( Jidousha kaikan Bldg. F1, 1-9-15 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo,tel. 03-3589-4412 ) – a nice Japanese couple who comes to this sushi bar regularly and who…

It never ceases to amaze me the quality of the products in Tokyo. Sembikiya is the oldest fruit shop in Japan selling fruits of unbelievable quality you will get nowhere in the world. The fruits at the Sembikiya shops are so expensive that usually you buy them by units and…

If there is one sushi den in Manhattan that could be easily compared to top sushi restaurants in Tokyo, it would be Sushi Azabu. The location of the restaurant couldn’t be more unassuming and is typically Japanese. It is hidden in a basement of Greenwich Grill ( probably owned by…

I think that the appreciation of Japanese kaiseki art grows with experience. First time I had a kaiseki meal in Kyoto, I found it too unusual to enjoy. The flavours of most of the dishes were very mild, kind of “muted” and some of the ingredients were quite bizarre. Then…

“Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking” by Michael Booth is an amusing and super informative book about Japanese food and culture. If you are passionate about Japan like me, you will really enjoy it.