Narisawa (** / Tabelog 4.24) – Tokyo, Japan

Visited for lunch on April 29th, which was a national holiday in Japan. As this holiday is a week before Golden Week, my children still went to school so me, the wife and another couple went for lunch at Narisawa. This is our second visit as we had also visited on the same day the previous year, and enjoyed it so much we wanted to come back.

We received a friendly welcome by the staff and were shown to our seats. All the tables can see the chefs working away in the kitchen, but we had a particular good view, which was a nice touch. I noticed that, compared to last year, there was less tables set up- maybe 12 instead of the capacity of 16. I'd also say, barring our party and a separate couple, everyone else was a tourist. This again was different from last year, where it felt like it was 70/30 split in terms of residents. This is just an observation and all the staff can speak perfect English and Japanese.

We opted for the sake pairing to go with the Chef's Tasting Menu (¥68,000 per person), and started with a couple of glasses of Dom Pérignon champagne.

Before the meal begins, our server came and explained the concept of Narisawa – using the best, seasonal ingredients in Japan, with a focus on nature and sustainability. The concept is "Satoyama Cuisine"…basically the areas between cities and mountains that can be cultivated, where people live on the edge of nature and use it in harmony.

1. The meal opens with a 'Welcome Sake' (or you can choose tea if you want). This is Masuda, from Masuizumi brewery in Toyama. The sake is the first of the season produced by this brewery, and has a fairly clean taste. You drink it out of a ceremonial Japanese lacquer plate…that is pretty difficult to drink out of honestly, but a nice nod to tradition.

2. Today's menu

3. Baby Sweetfish – lightly fried sweetfish (Ayu), with a sakura petal garnish, made to look like they are swimming. Nice opener, satisfying crunch and a hint of sweetness from the sakura.

4. Longtooth Grouper – tempura grouper with caviar on top. One bite only, melted in the mouth. One of the highlights, only downside is they don't let you have more…

5. Tuna – maguro sashimi, cut into bitesize cubes, topped with edible flowers and mountain veg, with a sauce made from Yuba, the skin of tofu. Really light and refreshing dish.

6. Hairy Crab, Salmon Roe, Scallop – Found this dish lacking in much flavour – there was a dashi to add some umami but it was too subtle. Just a bit meh, which is a shame given the high quality of ingredients.

7. "Bread of the Forest" – one of the signature dishes. The dough is placed down when you first get to the table, surrounded by leaves to evoke the 'natural' elements of the meal. The bread undergoes its final fermentation at the table, before being placed in a very large and hot stone bowl, with a dash of olive oil, to help it rise. Now it is time to unveil and eat the bread. The wooden top is lift off the stone bowl, and we are served the bread, which is filled with dried citrus fruits. If we like it, they can bring us more from the kitchen. The bread is served with 'moss' – Hokkaido butter covered in dried olive powder and Japanese herbs. It's a bit of a gimmick but the bread was excellent, basically like a hot cross bun with a heavy orange (from the Mikan fruit) taste. I had a couple of extra portions, but I will note that it didn't really match any of the subsequent dishes, given it had a fairly sweet aftertaste from the citrus fruit.

8. Sea Bream, Sea Urchin, Clam – served in an 'Kyoto' onion soup/broth, which was a lovely contrast to the very tender seafood, all perfectly cooked. Loved the creamy texture of the soup, unsure if that only comes from 'Kyoto' onions…

9. Luxury Essence – black abalone caught in the morning from Kanagawa, with a chicken meatball, in a broth made from chicken, pork and Chinese ham. The smell was incredible, like a Sunday Roast in a tiny bowl, and the broth had a real depth of flavour but remained light. The abalone added nothing but a fairly awkward texture, but the chicken meatball was delicious, having soaked up all the broth.

NO PHOTO – Wagyu Beef, Sansho flower – yeah, forget to get a photo of the best dish of the day. Huge slab of Kobe beef, accompanied by a red wine sauce, lightly fried maitake mushroom and sansho flowers. Looked amazing, but I was concerned the steak might be too big, given how buttery wagyu can be, especially from Kobe. I didn't need to worry – it slow cooked over coals for 6 hours, and just melted away, really tender without being fatty. There was a hint of smokiness but not too much, and the Sansho (mountain flowers) added a peppery numbness the worked really well. My wife doesn't really like wagyu too much, as it is too fatty, so I was hopeful I would get her leftovers. Unfortunately, she also devoured the whole plate.

1. Strawberry Sakura – a daifuku containing an amou strawberry, with a strawberry sakura sauce and milk ice cream. Light to eat, really refreshing, with the fatty dairy flavour of the ice cream cutting through the sweetness of the strawberries.

2. Matcha – a matcha souffle served with amaretto ice cream and a red bean sauce. Perfectly cooked souffle (on par with Hand and Flowers) with a very strong matcha taste, with azuki beans inside. Basically Japanese deserts mashed together in a souffle, and definitely not for everyone's taste. The bitterness of the matcha paired well with the azuki beans and ice cream, but I can imagine this wouldn't be for everyone. Got mixed reviews on the table.

Meal finished with an espresso and Lemon Honey Monaka – one bite, very light, nice balance. This were served by Chef Narisawa himself, who had a brief chat and thanked us for coming.

Overall
As you'd expect from a 2 Star restaurant, the food was really polished, using very high quality ingredients with excellent presentation. All the dishes really highlight the Japanese ingredients, with a story behind them all, and the taste aims to be more natural and neutral, rather than big and bold. They are definitely relying on the ingredients more than anything else, which is a classical way of cooking in Japan, and I can see why some people might be disappointed if they aren't used to / or expecting this.

I think coming back at the same time of year again was a mistake – there's a lot of similarity in the menu/ingredients, so it would have been nice to experience a different season.

Service was really good throughout – gave details when we wanted them, kept it minimal when we didn't.

Cost
Here's the kicker. The tasting menu and sake pairing, plus 4 glasses of champagne, coffees and sparking water, came to a total of ¥210K (£980) per couple. Obviously we didn't help ourselves with the additions, but this has definitely gone up in price and hard to justify given the weakness of the yen…and even harder when you consider L'Effervescence (***) is ¥50k and Florilège (**) is ¥24k. Definitely one for a special occasion, which is probably why we only do this sort of thing a couple of times a year.