Life & Style | Travel
Elite diners with simplicity to feast on
Kakureigas, eateries conspicuous by their location and simple menu, are the latest craze in Japan
- By Gwen Robinson, Financial Times
- Published: 23:32 September 26, 2008
There is a genre of elite restaurants in Japan that are rarely written about — kakureiga or hidden places. Entry is by introduction only, from an established customer.
They are usually small and hard to find. There are no signs or menus with prices. The chef, usually the proprietor, decides the menu and sets the “rules'' — although the customer at all times feels like an honoured guest.
Kanda, a small restaurant in the backstreets of the entertainment district of Roppongi, welcomes all — if you book far enough ahead.
Since it landed a top three-star rating in Michelin's inaugural guide to Tokyo restaurants early this year, the waiting list — and Kanda's fame — has grown. But in many ways, it has retained an unpretentious and low-key feel.
Anonymous address
The place is small, with just 10 counter seats and a private room for up to eight, and is tucked away on the ground floor of an anonymous-looking, low-rise apartment block.
The sole clue outside is a tiny sign bearing
the two characters for Kanda.
The only choice here is in the three different prices of menu — 15,000 yen (Dh525), 20,000 yen (Dh700) and 25,000 yen (Dh875). All feature 10 or 11 courses.
Despite its adherence to traditional Japanese culinary concepts, Western classical music plays softly in the background.
Chef-proprietor Hiroyuki Kanda grew up in a traditional restaurant family.
Now in his mid-forties, his culinary philosophy has evolved through strict training and experience in both traditional kaiseki (haute cuisine) restaurants in Tokyo, his native Shikoku and in France, where he worked for some years.
Yet, there are few overtly European influences in Kanda's food, although he will happily discuss the finer points of French culinary concepts such as ageing and fermentation, which have had a strong influence on his cooking.
A dish on one of Kanda's menus summed up his approach: shin wakame, a seaweed, picked off the island of Shikoku and flown to Tokyo that afternoon, was brought to the table we were sitting at in a bamboo basket.
It was plunged briefly in boiling water by our waiter and served — bright green, briney and slightly chewy — with a piquant citrus and soya sauce as dip.
It takes confidence and understanding of flavour and texture for a chef to serve a pile of seaweed and turn it into an absolute taste sensation.
Simple elegance
Kanda's more elaborate creations still have an elegant simplicity: a cube of tamago tofu, egg mousse, sat on a bed of dashi jelly, studded with junsai (a delicate, slimy vegetable known as “water shield'') and green soya beans.
A fragrant soup contained a ball of minced, broad beans and prawn, perfectly complemented by yuba, soya bean skin, mountain vegetables and yuzu, a citrus fruit.
Desserts are light and fruity — a fig sherbet on one occasion; jellied bunbu, a grapefruit-like fruit, on another.
The flourishes in Kanda's clean, unfussy environment are in the exquisite tableware and attention to detail — including the service.
Kanda presides, occasionally presenting the dishes himself and sometimes even cracking a smile.
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