Higashi Yama Tokyo

Honestly, I think this place deserves a Michelin star. We splurged for the chef’s taster menu (8,200 yen), which was worth every penny (or, um, yen) for the incredible quality of the food and supremely professional service. When you do the conversion, it’s only £50 which is a truly unbelievable deal for what we got. I think it was 8 courses, lush from start to finish, in elegant and peaceful surroundings. The meal is such an art — hilariously, my husband tried to go have a cigarette and they basically told him «no,» he had to wait until the meal was done. It’s all timed impeccably and presented beautifully, no doubt served at just the right temperature, so they don’t want the food sitting on the plate waiting for you to come back in!
Particular highlights were the soup, the sashimi, and the Kobe beef (ohhhhh myyyy gooood). Everything was shockingly fresh. Didn’t realize we’d get so full as the plates are small, but after 8 I was well full. Loved the homemade udon for the last course (before dessert). After dinner, you are asked to go downstairs for tea and dessert (or another drink, in our case). Sipping that lush grassy green tea and spooning gorgeous panna-​cotta-​type-​stuff into our mouths at the sleek, dim bar was an elegant wait to end the whole affair.
It’s definitely modern, upscale Japanese food. Utterly worth a try, especially if you are mostly trying to eat within a budget and having a lot of ramen and cheaper meals — if you’re going to splash out somewhere, this is a great place to do it.

Elegant and peaceful, this is a fantastic place for a nice dinner or a date. The service was exceptional and the ambiance like others have said is modern, clean and simple. I really enjoyed it. We opted for the ¥4500 course which included a delicious bacon and fig salad (very generous with the bacon) followed by a tempura plate of deliciousness and seasonal vegetables and fish. Finally we were greeted with Wagyu beef with the creamiest and delicious potato mash ever. I opted to also splurge and order a bowl of Udon noodles which were very tasty. Super chewy and fresh. Overall, I really enjoyed this place, hoping to try more dishes next time!

it serves gorgeous modern japanese cuisine and they have various Sake as well.
really good atmosphere. and suitable place to go on a date (only with precious person) or celebrate anniversary.
highly recommend its «Nikujaga»!

Food and ambience both presented elegantly, and chefs made good use of seasonal ingredients. We were sitted at the counter and managed to get a bird’s eye view of how the dishes were prepared. The menu was お任せ so all you have to do is just sit back, relax and get fed! We particularly enjoyed the non-​smoking environment; however, for the final course of dessert, we were ushered to the bar downstairs to have it — and it was a smoking room! That’s really was the low point of our experience…
Hopefully they would change that policy to be a five-​star place!

A bit of a plain entrance from the street but after walking up the stairs you’re treated with a lit pond full of fish and see the large windows to the minimalistic beautiful restaurant which was serving us a seven course menu.
We started with some very good super fresh tofu served with wasabi and some salt to dip it in.
Then we got a very nice salad with bacon followed by a flat fish sashimi which didn’t impress at all (I wonder if Jiro has destroyed all raw fish dishes for me? ;))
After that we got some deep fried stuff with a tonkatsu sauce and some nice greens. The croquette with meat was good as well as the mushroom. The fugu was OK but the salmon was dry, tasteless and didn’t do it for me.
Then came the Wagyu bourguignon with mashed potatoes which was quite good but would have needed more salt and perhaps some pepper and very tender (of course) followed by excellent udon noodles.
Rounding off we were treated with the best dessert I’ve had in Japan — Green tea coconut panna cotta. A thin top layer of bitter green tea jelly harmonizing perfectly with the sweet and creamy coconut panna cotta beneath it. I could easily eat a bucketload of it! :)