Series the Sky

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🇨🇳 Chinese / 📍 Skytree Town

📓 Visits: 1

If you were to draw a Venn diagram characterising Chinese restaurants in Japan the vast majority of them would be in 'expensive', 'unauthentic' or both.  There are a few exceptions and Series is one of them.  Series offers a course menu of 26 items for the ludicrously low price of JPY 8,800 inclusive.  For dinner.  In Azabudai.  Just let that sink in.  Is it truly authentic?  No.  But name me a better and better value Chinese restaurant in Tokyo at that price.  It's long been on my list to re-visit so when a second restaurant opened I thought it would be fun to try.

Only course menus are on offer with lunch consisting of 16 items and dinner 24.  The basic lunch course is JPY 3,800 and is available on weekdays only.  The JPY 5,800 lunch replaces a chicken dish with the signature A5 Yamagata sirloin and the spring roll with the signature foie gras stuffed chicken wing.  The 8,800 course includes those signature dishes and upgrades the rice dish to sharks fin.  Dinner starts from JPY 8,800.  For JPY 13,800 the spring roll is swapped for Peiking duck (one assumes it's one of those skin-only-in-pancake swindles) and the rice dish is sharks fin.  For JPY 22,800 abalone is served as one of the fish dishes and you get a superior beef dish.  On my visit I had the JPY 5,800 lunch.

There were a few differences from the printed menu: the "steamed porcini dumpling" was replaced with a black truffle Xiao Long Bao, asagaona or kushinsai was replaced with mibuna and makomodake and dandan noodles were replaced with wonton noodles.  Some of those 14 or 26 items are literally one mouthful and some items are served together so the three dim sum served together count as three items.  So just be aware if you were expecting 14 or 26 plates of food that exactly match the menu.

The alcohol pairing was excellent at the Azabudai restaurant so I opted for the lunch alcohol pairing here too at JPY 5,200 for five glasses.  A glass of Champagne is included in the pairing.  Priced separately this would be JPY 2,500 and I'd hope for a better quality Champagne at that price but included in the pairing it's a good deal and I enjoyed all the drinks.  A non-alcohol pairing is also available (mainly tea).  It would have been nice if some Chinese tea could have been included in the course to finish the meal.

Service was excellent from the sommelier and waitress who could both speak English.  I particularly liked the way the sommelier told you how many dishes each drink was for.

The restaurant is located on the 31st floor of the building adjacent to Skytree rather than in Skytree itself and faces East so you've got a view (most tables are in the window) as far as the eye can see but not of very much.  If you actually want to dine in Skytree you'll need to visit Sky Restaurant Musashi.  (I haven't been, and I don't intend to go).

A copy of the Red Book is placed outside the restaurant.  Let's (pick your own aspersion) charitably call that slightly disingenuous.  Series the Sky, indeed does not have a Michelin Star but Series does, which it has retained since the year it opened.  That said, the dinner menus are identical and I have no complaint about the execution of any dish I was served during my lunch at "the Sky".  If Michelin judge on food alone and don't perceive any difference in cooking then Series the Sky should get a Star too.  But consistency isn't a word you can associate with Michelin and would this not be the first Michelin Starred restaurant in a shopping mall in Tokyo?

Casual, relaxed, quick, fun, cheap, delicious, nice staff, no bookings required.  I'll be back.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1312/A131203/13283128/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 (value: 5.0)

📱 Booking: 🟩 You can book online for 2-4 diners via Tabelog or TableCheck (apparently not for lunch) as late as a day in advance, otherwise same day by phone is fine but on my weekday lunch visit I just walked in and was seated immediately.  I would only ever expect them to be completely full on the busiest days of the year.

📍 Location: 31F Tokyo Solamachi.

📅 Visit July 2023

Lunch signature course 5,800
Lunch alcohol pairing 5,200

💴 Damage: 11,000
⏱️ Time taken: 1h10m