Narisawa, Tokyo

To understand the thinking behind Narisawa, you must understand satoyama.

It’s a term unique to Japan that refers to countryside where people live in harmony with nature, farming, fishing, and foraging (the translation is village – hill).  Narisawa’s explanation:

It’s a very Japanese philosophy and one perfectly suited to a restaurant like Narisawa.

The meal started with “Satoyama scenery”- a landscape created with mossy green powder, herbs, and “branches” of roast vegetable all covering a soy yogurt beneath.  There was also a cup of forest water infused with cedar.  Interesting, but struck me more as a scene-setting concept than a dish.

Every subsequent course was listed on the menu along with its place of origin, and even a helpful diagram of where that would fall on the landscape: forest, river, lake, sea, or the satoyama itself.

We started with baby sweet fish (the seasonal ayu we had throughout our trip) from Kanagawa, then botan ebi from Ishikawa, Hokkaido uni, and oyster from Hiroshima with “green caviar” of sweet baby peas from Mie.

One of the famous dishes at Narisawa is the tableside bread, which was presented as dough early in our meal and then wheeled away to continue proofing.  When it returned, our waiter spooned it into a hot stone bowl to bake and then served it piping hot.  Definitely one of the best breads I’ve ever tasted – sweet and yeasty, with pieces of candied kumquat.  The butter was equally delicious, shaped to look like a moss-covered stone.

It was so good we asked for a second serving!

More seafood arrived, including a superb mi-cuit “cherry salmon” from Hokkaido with vegetables and caviar.  It was just warm and velvety tender.

There was hamaguri clam and prawn soup with a gold-leafed lattice of daikon, then impressively-sized spiny lobster from Shizuoka.

For our main, we had a choice of proteins: two preparations of beef, venison, pork.  We had incredibly rich Wagyu beef coated with charcoal powder.

Afterwards, a cocktail palate cleanser of citrus sorbet and Japanese vodka.  Delicious!

Matcha tea featured along with Japanese red beans for dessert, followed by a sort of monaka (crisp mochi wafers surrounding a filling) with Okinawan pineapple and mango.

Quite fun to have a meal that was also something of a tour of Japan through its ingredients!

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Reservations: Make them online starting on the first business day of the month before your desired reservation month (ie, first business day of March for an April reservation).