Maz

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎁 Innovative x 🇵🇪 Peruvian / 📍 Akasaka

📓 Visits: 1

Central is a proper destination restaurant.  #2 on the World's Best 50 2022, featured on Netflix's Chef's Table.  So the announcement that Virgilio Martínez would be opening a restaurant in Tokyo in 2022 was one of the more exciting bits of fine dining news in 2021.  We've been here before.  The similarly feted Massimo Bottura's debut in Tokyo in 2021 turned out to be more like a lukewarm bath rather than a hot new opening.  Despite the muted reception from foodies, perhaps inevitably, Michelin awarded it a Star in the 2023 Guide (Michelin loves a dynasty).  Michelin doesn't cover Peru so we don't know what its take on Central is.  We can see the direction of travel for Tokyo though: Michelin has pre-announced that Maz will be in the 2024 Tokyo Guide.  Now it's just a question of how many stars.  Maz is not Martínez's first foray outside of Peru.  He operates two restaurants in London (one of which held a Michelin Star from 2014 to 2018), a restaurant in Dubai (which has now closed) and one in Hong Kong.  But Maz is the closest of all of these to Central with head chef Santiago Fernandez having worked there for six years.

Of course, there's a concept behind the menu.  If you want to know what that is you can read about it in the press release Japan Times review but I can cut through the crap for you: it's (gasp) a tasting menu with starters, fish, meat and dessert.  Originally this was JPY 24,200 + service but increased to JPY 27,500 + service in December 2022.  A vegetarian menu is available at the same price.

I'm always skeptical about high-profile restaurants landing in Japan, especially experimental ones.  You're paying top dollar but expected to believe the chef has nailed down his sourcing and mastered highly seasonal Japanese ingredients overnight, front of house and all kitchen staff are in full swing and the chef is comfortable with a whole new life in a completely different country.  So I intentionally left it a few months before I made my visit.  It's hard to review a restaurant like Maz because the food is experimental and seasonal.  It's often a cliche to say "you can only eat this here" but at Maz it's really true.  The dishes are rooted in Peru but most of the ingredients are from Japan.  If you go in the same season as someone else the menu could be exactly the same or only marginally different.  Go in another season and while the ingredients will be drawn from the same period last year the menu could be quite different.  Unfamiliar food is also difficult to score because you've got nothing to compare it with.  An experiment might go too far and there might be fewer hits than misses from season to season.  A great way to review a restaurant like this how Eric Yu did it with his review of the Noma pop-up in Sydney.  He doesn't attempt to review the food, just provides a transcript of the description of each dish.  He also recommends you don't read reviews, and I agree: you're going to eat something you've never eaten before - don't let someone spoil the surprise for you.  For all these reasons I don't think it's worth giving detailed descriptions and opinions about each dish.  But I'll give my unbiased overall opinion of my winter 2022/2023 meal and despite all my negativity I actually really liked it.  I scored all the savoury dishes an average of 9-9.5/10.  The weakest savoury dishes were the Shadow Queen potatoes (8/10 - style over substance, much tastier varieties of potatoes available and much tastier ways of serving them) and the Deep Sea (8.5/10).  Also I didn't like the second dessert of cacao butter and lemongrass but the final dessert was better, though not amazing.  But most of the other dishes really were that good.  High quality ingredients served like you've never had them before, flavours and textures that really worked.  It's also quite a big meal so go hungry.

A food and pairing menu is provided at the end of the meal.  I've reproduced them below but some courses feature several dishes and the descriptions are scant.  You can order drinks by the glass but I'd recommend the non-alcohol pairing which was excellent.  There was only really one drink I didn't like, a vile corn concoction.

On paper, it's expensive.  The fact the vegetarian menu is the same as the non-vegetarian seems like gouging.  But I thought the food and the drinks pairing (which comprised 8 glasses) was value for money.

The restaurant is lacking a bit of atmosphere.  It's pretty much a box with tables and chairs.  You can see some of the chefs at work but the chef's counter is set back and raised so you can't see anything in detail and the real kitchen is hidden away.  The head chef presented one dish but that was the sum total of interaction with the kitchen.  I feel like they could have done a lot more here to transport you up the Andes.  Service from multilingual staff was very good.  Dishes were properly explained and questions answered.

The only two questions that matter with Maz are "how does it compare with Central?" and "should I go".  The first one I can't answer as I've never been.  To the second one I'd say "it depends".  If you're resident or travel to Tokyo frequently, are happy to spend 30-40k on a meal and want something a bit different from what you're used to but is still nonetheless excellent, I'd recommend Maz.  If you rarely travel to Tokyo then I'd have a long list of Japanese recommendations before I got to Maz.  Perhaps the ultimate question is "would I go back?" and I definitely would.  I'd love to go back in a couple of years time in summer for what would hopefully be quite a different menu but equally amazing.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1308/A130803/13270953/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.4

📱 Booking: 🟩  Easy.  Seats for lone diners are currently only available for Saturdays and Sundays at 17:15.  Book 2-3 weeks in advance.  For parties of 2 or more, a week in advance should be fine.  Likely to be busier after the publication of the Michelin Guide 2024 expected in November 2023.  Book via TableCheck.  Credit card required to book.  100% penalty for cancellations within 24h.  You can choose a pairing on the day or drinks by the glass so no need to pre-order.

📍 Location: 3F Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho.  3 mins from Akasaka-Mitsuke Station Exit 7 or directly connected to Nagatacho Station Exit 9a but depending on the line you take the platform is some distance from the exit and restaurant, so allow plenty of time.  3F multi-tenant building.

📅 Visit February 2023

Vertical World 27,500

Non-alcohol pairing 10,450

💴 Damage: 41,745 incl. service at 10%
⏱️ Time taken: 1h45m