Here you’ll find the most Michelin restaurants close together
Where can you find 432 Michelin restaurants with more or less the same postcode? In Tokyo, because it’s the city with the most Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. They’re all featured in the fifteenth edition of the Michelin Guide Tokyo. Got a full bank account, a healthy appetite and an empty schedule? Book your holiday to Japan now and make your reservations, because this isn’t the culinary capital of the world for nothing.
And then you arrive in Tokyo, where you can choose from 12 three-star restaurants, 41 with two stars, 150 with one star and 229 Bib Gourmands. Good luck. Experts from the Japan National Tourist Association already recommend these five restaurants to help you get started.
French food in Japanese surroundings
It may seem illogical: why would you visit a French restaurant in Tokyo? Because Crony has two Michelin stars, for example. Chef Michihiro Haruta trained as a chef in several countries, but the French cuisine remains his main source of inspiration. Sustainability is important to the chef: he works with sustainable seafood, avoiding young fish and endangered species. That’s why Michihiro also received a green Michelin star, awarded by the guide to sustainable restaurants.
Awabi and tai like you’ve never tasted them before
Because you probably have no idea what they are. At his restaurant Kanda, chef Hiroyuki Kanda prepares typically Japanese dishes, and he sources that awabi and tai from his birthplace, Tokushima. The restaurant even grows its own rice. Crazy! Three Michelin stars, naturally, and a reservation waiting list stretching from here to, well, Tokyo.
Mystery with a nori flavor
Chef Kanako Wakimoto received her first Michelin star this year for her cooking at restaurant Sorahana. For example, she serves sazae, caught near the Miura Peninsula, which smells of nori and the sea. (You have no idea what sazae is either, do you? That’s how exotic eating out in Japan is, and honestly, those mysterious ingredients make me want to go to Japan even more.)
Tasting the Japanese landscape
Restaurant Narisawa is all about sustainability. Every year, the restaurant’s crew visits mountain villages to clean up litter and plant trees, because they see it as their duty. The menu also features innovative dishes that express the Japanese landscape through food – I’m curious to know what that tastes like. Two stars, and of course a green star for sustainability.
French star chef in Tokyo
Of course, global superstar Joël Robuchon also has a restaurant in Tokyo. Top chef Kenichiro Sekiya is at the helm. A distinguished restaurant, a chic atmosphere, enchanting dishes – and three Michelin stars.
I had to find out, so I checked Wikipedia: sazae is a shellfish, a bit like a large cockle. Awabi is a large shellfish called ‘abalone’ in English. Tai? No idea – if you know, feel free to email me.
