Tateru Yoshino - Tokyo, Japan

One of the newly minted Michelin rated restaurants in Japan, Tateru Yoshino is a gem within the busy Shiodome area. Perched atop level 25, at the looby level of Park Hotel at the Shiodome Media Tower, this is a very small eatery - only 22 seats. Chef Yoshino prefers to keep his restaurants small to ensure high quality of cooking and service. The restaurant was brightly lit, with sunlight streaming in from the large windows.

This restaurant is one of two which were awarded the coveted Michelin 1 star belonging to gifted chef Yoshino. Co-incidentally, Shiodome Park Hotel also features another 1 star Michelin restaurant within the same premises.

As I usually stay at the Park Hotel, I took the opportunity to visit and have lunch with my wife on 21 April 2008. The set lunch was very reasonably priced at Y3675 for a 4 course meal comprising of Amuse-bouche, soup, main course, petite dessert, coffee/tea.

The Amuse-bouche was a breaded deep fried quail's egg, and tuna. Despite being deep fried, the egg had a light, crunchy crust, and the insides still soft.

The soup of the day was pumpkin soup. Very fine, subtle taste. As is typical of Michelin style restaurants, the soup featured a fine foam, with a sprinking of thinly sliced parma ham.

Kin had the duck breast, which was stuffed with foie gras. A magnificiently piece of duck was roasted, and then pan fried, and served with a stuffing of the some very good goose foie gras.

The skin was perfectly seared, crispy, and the thin layer of fat just below the skin would burst into a wonderful flavour in the mouth as one bites on the morsel. The foie gras was tender, creamy, and extremely rich. Tasty!

I had the veal, seasoned only with Japanese sea salt and pepper. The veal was done just right, with a hint of red within, and perfectly seared on the outside. The meat was tender, juicy with no hint of fat.

Dessert and petite fours was next. Dessert was a wonderful sorbet of raspberry, and a small slice of mango flavoured cake.

Petite Fours was a good selection of various sweets. We had one of each. The macarons are a speciality of Chef Yoshino...3 different types were offered.

Interesting meal. A typical one star Michelin meal in Europe would cost at least Euro80 per head, even for lunch, so Y3675 (which converts to approx US$36.75 at time of the meal, or S$49) is pretty good value for this very high level of cooking and very attentive service.

gastronomie francais tateru yoshino
Park Hotel
Shiodome Media Center
Tokyo

http://www.tateruyoshino.com/english/top.html