(Jimbocho) Den, Tokyo

My favorite image from our dinner at Den isn’t one that I captured on camera.  As we walked away into the cool night, I looked back to see the entire staff standing outside the restaurant and waving enthusiastically until we turned the corner.

It was a wonderful introduction to classic Japanese hospitality, and wouldn’t be the last time we received this kind of send-off during our trip!

Den is a small restaurant with 8 counter seats plus a few tables/private rooms upstairs, run by chef-owner Zaiyu Hasegawa and his wife Noriko.  Noriko-san coordinates the front of house service along with two others, pairing sake and wines and introducing the various dishes.  She quizzed us on flavors and ingredients and praised us when we identified them correctly – fun!  There were also four sous-chefs, one from France (I chatted with him a bit in French).

As for what we ate…

1.  Twist on a monaka (usually filled with sweet red bean paste), here filled with foie gras seasoned with white miso, soft persimmon, and small pieces of pickled daikon radish.  We had this with a glass of Champagne. Delicate and beautiful start.

2.  Uni with nori sauce, served over udo (mountain asparagus).  Our first taste of uni in Japan didn’t disappoint! D interpreted this as a play on a piece of uni nigiri; it reminded me visually of uni with abalone, except with the abalone replaced by mild vegetable.  We had small glasses of sake, which Noriko chose for us.

3.  “Dentucky Fried Chicken” is presented packed in straw in a custom box: a wing stuffed with sticky rice and ume (picked plum).  Ours contained a handmade American flag; our neighbors had their own flags from Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong.  Fun and tasty!  This was paired with a small glass of beer.

4.  Spanish mackerel, just barely heated with a torch to crisp the skin and warm the rich fish, and served with nothing more than a dab of freshly grated wasabi.  More sake with this course.

5.  Braised Kurobota pork shoulder with roasted arugula, onion, and bamboo shoot. Sake again – in all cases, it was poured from enormous 1.8L bottles into beautiful small cups.

6.  Salad made with vegetables grown by the chef’s sister in her Tokyo garden and prepared in many different ways: two kinds of tomatoes, shaved white asparagus that looks like a satin ribbon, potato, sunchoke, carrot dusted with tea that looks like soil, squash, a tiny cucumber sliced lengthwise, gobo, white strawberry, edible flowers…

…And, at the bottom of the bowl, carrots with tiny faces carved into them!

7.  Traditional last course of rice with pickles and miso soup.  The rice was mixed with greens and shirasu (tiny white fish) and the pickles were particularly good, including eggplant!  And yes, more sake as well.

8.  Dessert was “tiramisu”, Japanese style: cream cheese mousse, matcha green tea powder, roasted black tea, buckwheat, and sprigs of fresh dill that added a surprising fresh note.  One of my favorite desserts in a long time.

9.  To finish, coffee – except it’s not!  Beneath the foam, you’ll find caramelized sugar cane custard (sort of like a crème brûlée) flavored with a bit of black truffle.  As for the mug?  It’s a tongue-in-cheek message to Michelin, which had awarded two stars to Den in 2013 but only one since then.

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Reservations: Call exactly 2 months before your desired date, 11am-4pm.  Closed Sunday. Link with info here.  Be prepared for French Laundry-level redialing!

Tips on finding it: Exit A3 from Jimbocho station, turn right and walk down the alley next to 7-11, Den is on the left a short walk down.