Azabu Kadowaki

As I mentioned in my Zurriola post, reservations during this most recent trip to Japan were hard to come by. I was lucky to get a couple of seats at Kadowaki, as none of the other 3 Michelin starred restaurants in Tokyo (that I hadn’t been to before) had any availability for the time we would be in Japan.

Similar to Ishikawa and others, Kadowaki is a small restaurant with 6-8 seats at the main counter and a couple of small private rooms. Timing and chance were on our side as we were the last party to be seated for the night, but somehow got the prime counter seats right in front of Chef Kadowaki himself.

Owner-chef Toshiya Kadowaki

Having had a disappointing experience earlier in the trip, we were anxious for how dinner at Kadowaki would turn out. We had high hopes given the restaurant has held 3 Michelin stars for a number of years. Here’s what we had for our dinner on April 4, 2023:

Squid, goma tofu, goma white sesame

Fish egg, snapper, bamboo shoot, mountain blossom, sansho salt

Monkfish liver, flatfish, Chinese cabbage, green onion, shiso, seaweed

Chawanmushi, crab roe, and winter hairy crab served in a 100 year old bowl made in Kyoto

Somen, Hokkaido uni, caviar, summer truffles

Japanese clam, broth, yuba, pepper

Chef Kadowaki’s signature truffle rice

Truffle rice served with assorted pickles and nori

Truffle honey, ricotta, mango, strawberry, melon

Thankfully our second Michelin meal of this trip did not disappoint. Kadowaki’s sensibility toward ingredient combinations while keeping things relatively minimalist really came through each course we enjoyed. The food was an enjoyable intersection between restrained Japanese cuisine and more modern/western techniques and ingredients (particularly the use of truffles in several dishes).

Watching Chef Kadowaki and his team in front of us was like observing a well oiled machine. Each course is perfectly paced, timed, and executed right in front of us. I don’t think there was so much as a 5 minute lag between any two courses. The meal didn’t feel rushed at all but we were still out in a respectable 2 hours (much appreciated by two sleep-deprived parents at the end of a long trip with their toddler).

If there was one minor complaint I would have it would be the lack of a heavier, more substantial course toward the end of the meal. I would normally expect some kind of heavier fish or steak type of presentation prior to the rice course. While this is something I would’ve enjoyed seeing, I didn’t feel particularly deprived or hungry at the time.

While I would still place Ryugin and Ishikawa ahead of Azabu Kadowaki, I found our experience to be worthy of the 3 star designation from the Michelin guide.

Azabu Kadowaki
2-7-2 Azabujuban
Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Ph: +81-3-5772-2553
http://azabukadowaki.com