Here Is Why Tokyo Has The Most Michelin Starred Restaurants
For more than a decade, Tokyo has maintained the accolade as the city with the most starred restaurants in the world, with its 212 Michelin starred restaurants split between 12 three-star, 42 two-star and 158 one-star restaurants.
It’s well-known among professional food critics and passionate foodies alike that Tokyo has one of the best fine dining scenes on the globe. It boasts of more Michelin-starred restaurants in comparison to any other city in the world map. Thus, no wonder that it continues to dominate San Pellegrino’s list of the best 50 restaurants in Asia.
Top 3 Michelin Star Restaurants In Tokyo
Kagurazaka Ishikawa
Kagurazaka Ishikawa has three Michelin stars to its credit for its exquisite cuisine and overall intimate dining experience. It would include attentive staff who will assist you in finding the restaurant’s hidden alleyway location to the chef who enjoys speaking with guests.
You can sit in beautiful private dining spaces or at the cypress-wood bar and witness chef Hideki Ishikawa working his magic! The kimono-clad servers here would remind you of Shinjuku’s history as an integral part of the Geisha region.
Guests get a set menu that includes an appetizer, soup, sashimi, and a grilled main meal. Hideki Ishikawa’s cooking is distinct in that it incorporates creative elements and varies in sync with seasons. During the spring season, wild veggies and wagyu are prepared in tiny pots. In the summer, ayu gets grilled, and its head and backbone are deep-fried. During autumn, Matsutake is chargrilled or served in a broth with hamo. In the winter, the snow crab is served with Tosa vinegar jelly. The foods here are truly refined, born out of a daily exploration of new flavors.
L’Effervescence Tokyo
L’Effervescence, a French term that means “bubbles,” “something which causes people to gather,” or “lively” (depending on the context), appropriately describes this three-Michelin-star restaurant.
This French-themed restaurant is notable for its upscale spin on McDonald’s takeaway apple pie, cooked with wild boar/sage and matsutake mushrooms. It is also renowned for its delectable desserts, such as kuromoji ice cream served with muesli, caramelized apple and its extensive wine list.
This “mountain getaway in the city,” complete with candles on the tables, strives to the tea ceremony’s idea of oneness between server and served. Hence, it stretches Japanese sensibilities to new heights. Mr. Shinobu Namae, the chef, makes his cuisine represent the places he visits out of respect for nature and cultivators. “Artisanal Vegetables” and “Turnip” are two of the most popular meals that you can enjoy here. At the end of a meal, the chef offers guests tea in the fashion of the Sowa school of the tea ceremony.
Ginza Kojyu
Ginza Kojyu (also known as Ginza Koju) is a Michelin 2-star kaiseki restaurant located in Ginza, Tokyo. Chef Toru Okuda owns and runs the restaurant. It lies on the fourth floor of an ordinary office building, where chef Toro Okuda prepares a kaiseki-style cuisine (multiple courses) made with fresh seasonal ingredients (think prawn dumplings with angel hair scallions).
The eight-seater dining room is partitioned by paper screens and covered in traditional Japanese mats. The comfortable setting and kitchen configuration, from which you can watch your meal getting ready at the counter, will make you feel like you’re eating in someone’s living room. The seasonal menu focuses on traditional Japanese cuisine with a few creative items thrown in for good measure.
Overseas reservations are not accepted; so, you’ll need the help of a hotel concierge or a friendly local to get in.
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