Kabi

⭐⭐⭐

🎁 Innovative / 📍 Meguro

📓 Visits: 2 (2023, 2019)

My first visit to Kabi was in 2019.  No notes from that other than that I remember being able to book by phone for lunch on the same day, there was no simultaneous start, my credit card statement says I paid JPY 4,320 and I know I thoroughly enjoyed it.  So it's long been on my list for a revisit.  But with lunch served on Saturdays only and the restaurant in an awkward location it would be four years before I returned.

Lunch (6 courses) is now priced at JPY 7,500 (8,000 from 1st October 2023) + tax.  A 12 course dinner is priced at JPY 16,000 (18,000 from 1st December 2023) + tax and 10% service.  There's a choice of house-made non-alcoholic drinks priced at JPY 1,200 a glass or you can have a 6-glass pairing for JPY 6,000 at lunch.  If you haven't already done the maths the pairing is better value once you order 5 glasses and as you're going to be sat here for a long time I'd recommend it.

First up unagi sumibiyaki with fruits.  Sounds delicious, and unagi always is, but the fruit just didn't work with it and I expected more.  7.5/10.  Next fresh short pasta with sweetcorn, kabocha, kyuri and butter.  I don't like thick, short pasta - it's like someone has fired some gluten bullets into your stomach.  7.5/10.  Next tachiou sumiyaki with green veg and asparagus dashi.  Nothing special.  7-7.5/10.  Main dish: shika and summer veg.  7.5/10.  Two bites of deer with some veg that added nothing.  Final savoury dish: 25 grain ojiya, butter, ginger, cuttlefish.  Sounds better than it tasted (strangely sweet).  7/10.  Dessert: lavender ice-cream, fruits, almond biscuit.  Small and dissonant, like every dish that preceded it.

The woe wasn't limited to just the food.  The meal took two hours.  Two hours for six plates of food.  That's one plate every 20 minutes.  (The TableCheck page says to allow 3½ hours for dinner!) The reason for this is because it's now a simultaneous start and the restaurant seats up to 24 diners (20 on my visit).  A restaurant that cared more about the experience of the diner rather than convenience of the kitchen would have two starts with this many diners.  If an average lunch is 22 covers with an estimated average spend of 12k each, that's JPY 264,000 yen in two hours with every plate of food the same.  Amazing.  A 6-seat 40k/head sushi restaurant wouldn't turn that over and the cost of ingredients would be far higher.

Staff can speak English and on both visits there were non-Japanese staff on working holiday visas.  The non-Japanese staff were nice but the chef doesn't talk to guests and no-one will see you to the door.

Overall, very disappointing from start to the two hour finish.  Perhaps on another day the menu would be different and the dishes better but I won't be spending another 2 hours plus travel time to find out.  Time to go back to AC House but before that, on to another Kabi offshoot, Ukiyo.  Expectations were for another slow meal but with hope the food was better.  In fact, it was brilliant.

Kabi was awarded a Michelin Star in the 2024 Tokyo Guide.  Seriously?

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1316/A131601/13215648/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0

📱 Booking: 🟩 2-4 weeks in advance for lunch.  TableCheck only (credit card required)

📍 Location: 

4-10-8 Meguro.  Take a bus to Moto Keibajo mae, 3 stops from Meguro station.
Map data ©2023 Google

📅 Visit August 2023

🕛 Lunch course 7,500

Unagi sumiyaki, papaya, mango, kuri, myoga, ponzu
Jikasei pasta, sweetcorn, kabocha, kuri, butter
Tachiou sumiyaki, edamame, okahijiki, green pepper, okra, asparagus dashi
Shika, summer veg
25 grain ojiya, butter, ginger, cuttlefish
Lavender ice, fruits, almond biscuit

🍷 Pairing 6,000

Elderflower
Cucumber, passion fruit, celeriac
Green tea
Beetroot, shiso, blueberry
Pineapple, whey
Hokumei roasted green tea

💴 Damage: 14,850 (7500 + 6000 + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 2h