The Caffeine Buzz - 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers - page 390

7 Places to Eat in . . . Tokyo, Japan

For sheer urban energy, you can't beat Tokyo—densely populated, affluent, juiced
up with a thirst for whatever's new. Even if the cultural demand for corporate enter-
taining hadn't boosted the city's restaurant stock, one suspects that Tokyoers would
find other reasons to dine out constantly. When everyone lives in such tiny apart-
ments, what else can you do but live life intensely in public places?
In the West, we have one catch-all category for “Japanese food,” but in Japan,
there's a full gamut of cuisines, each satisfying a different hunger. Sushi, of course,
is Japan's signature food, and Tokyo's high-end sushi bars serve sushi that's a quan-
tum leap finer than what you'll get in other countries. One of the most esteemed is
Fukuzushi (5-7-8 Roppongi; & 81/3/3402-4116; www.roppongifukuzushi.com),
in bustling Roppongi, which was founded in Hokkaido in 1917 and moved here in
1968. Past its serene traditional courtyard, you'll enter a slick black-and-red interior
that makes you feel like you're inside a bento box. Set menus change seasonally to
make use of the freshest ingredients—highlights include sea urchin in spring, aba-
lone in summer, delicate hirame (brill) in autumn, and meltingly tender tuna belly
(otoro) in winter.
Hayashi (2-22-5 Kabuki-cho; & 81/3/3209-5672; also 2-14-1 Akasaka; & 81/3/
3582-4078 ) strikes a more rustic mood, with an interior imported intact from the

Tokyo-style sushi.