Chiune

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🎁 Innovative / 📍 Akasaka

📓 Visits: 13 (2017-2024)

Chiune's third location in Tokyo.  Originally Restaurant Satoshi F in Gifu, moved to Shintomicho in 2016, Hiroo in 2021 and, following a dispute with the landlord, to Kiocho in April 2024.  The Hiroo premises were taken over by Hakunei (review here).

My first meal at Chiune was life-changing: I never knew that food could taste as good as this.  From that point on I became a regular until I stopped going in 2020.  From visit to visit there wasn't much difference in the menu and with a big increase in price in 2019 it became hard to justify more returns.  In 2023 I went back: there were some new dishes on the menu so I wanted to give it a shot.  After that meal, I went back to being a regular.

When I rate a dish 10/10 I mean perfect, cannot be improved and whenever I eat in expensive restaurants in Japan and score a dish I have Chiune in the back of my mind.  "It's good, but not as good as Chiune".  In other words, Chiune is my reference for the best food in Tokyo and more reason than any other I rarely rate a dish anywhere else 10/10.

I'll explain the food using the menu from my most recent visit.

Ayu veloute
Tsubagai capellini
Kamo nasu
Tempura aori ika, fruit tomato and kegani
🔒 Jikasei chorizo, raw mushroom, nasu sauce, olive oil
🔒 Consomme, truffle
Tempura suzuki, hamaguri and sudachi dashi
🔒 Shiitake, jagaimo puree, rannou
Kamo
🔒 Amagi kurobuta
Crab somen
🔒 Shaoxing wine ice-cream
🔒 White tea

The course consists of around 11-12 dishes.  The marked dishes are the same in every meal.  The second dish is always cold capellini or rice vermicelli with a seasonal ingredient.  Two meat dishes are always included and the final savoury dish is always somen or rice.  It's mainly Japanese ingredients but they're served in a unique way.  The influence of Furuta Senior, who runs the most expensive (and to many the best) Chinese restaurant in Japan is clearly present in the consomme, capellini and ice-cream.  From outside of Asia, French lamb has been on the menu in the past.  As I mentioned, the menu doesn't change much: you know for sure what half the dishes will be and can probably guess a couple of the others according to season.  But what Chiune might lack in variety it more than makes up for in depth of flavour, which is second to none.

Some of this may be due to personal preference but for me, not everything is perfect.  The rice dishes have lacked umami.  Reflecting on my most recent visit, the warm crab somen wasn't as good as the cold somen on the visit before (which was pretty much perfect).  I've had better duck.  The kamo nasu didn't work for me: it was unevenly seasoned and I think nasu works better when served cold with yuzu.  Both fish dishes were deep-fried.  While they were faultless, I enjoyed the fruit tomato and kegani sauce the ika sat on far more than the mollusc itself.  I can get great deep fried food in lots of places but I can't get a sauce like that anywhere else.  Tempura is possibly the most difficult of the Japanese genres of cooking to master so I really appreciate the skill of a first-class tempura chef.  But deep-frying is also the laziest form of cooking.  The fact that Satoshi-san hasn't relied on deep frying for his cooking in the past is one of the reasons I so highly rate him.  I hope the inclusion of deep fried items isn't a permanent change.

Reflecting on the signature dishes...  I appreciate the quality of the consomme but (with exceptions) Chinese consommes are not really my thing.  The beef consomme at Setsugekka and the chicken consomme at Saucer are much more to my liking.  It takes some cojones to serve meat with no sauce and no side in a so-called 'innovative' restaurant charging this much.  But when you're confident in the quality of the product and of the preparation then that's what you should do, and that's how the pork is served here.  'Simply' glazed, it's outstanding.  The chorizo didn't make its debut until 2020 but it's now a fixture, and rightly so.  It's one of the highlights of any meal at Chiune.  A dish so good that you'll want to eat it as slowly as possibly you can because once it's gone it's gone.  Shiitake have been served at Chiune at almost every service but the combination with potato puree and egg yolk wasn't a constant until 2018/2019.  Before that they were typically combined with the capellini dish.  Once you've eaten this you'll never enjoy shiitake anywhere else as much as here.  The cold capellini or bifun is mixed with a seasonal ingredient.  These have included aori ika, asparagus, matsutake, kobashira, kuruma ebi, hamo and tsubagai.  More umami than you ever thought possible and another dish that's never the same when you eat it anywhere else.  Dessert has always been Shaoxing wine ice-cream.  It's one of the best ice-creams you'll ever have.  The occasional fat globule means it's not objectively perfect, but flavour is and the texture very nearly.  Only Natsuko Takahashi's ice-creams are better.

The new premises are not as impressive as the Hiroo location.  At the end of the day it's just another counter in Tokyo but Satoshi-san has done as good a job as he could within the confines of a multi-purpose building and it's the most immaculate counter you'll ever sit at.  Photo bans have been on and off here and they're now off.  So if you need pictures they're all over Tabelog.  Depending on your perspective the food may look austere but no picture will tell you how anything tastes here.

As I mentioned I stopped going partly due to expense and partly due to lack of change and indeed I don't plan on going here three times a year like I did in the past (it will be no more than once a year now).  But prices are going up everywhere and the difference in cost between a meal here and elsewhere no longer looks as big, but the difference in quality of food is as big as ever.  It's also quite a large meal and you shouldn't leave hungry.  So yes, Chiune is expensive but it's worth it.  If you like wine (no obligation) that's expensive too, but I'm reliably informed that Satoshi-san and his ever present sommelier, Hiroteru Hatano, are consistently ahead of other sommeliers in Tokyo.

As always I've talked a lot about the faults and with prices so high, expectations always so high, reservations difficult, and the genius of the chef, not unreasonably so.  But these faults are small and some are due to personal preference.  In any another restaurant they either wouldn't bother you or you'd let them slide.  The simple fact is that there's nowhere serving more accomplished food in Tokyo than Chiune.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1308/A130801/13295095/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.92

📱 Booking: 🟥 No longer open for general reservations but Satoshi-san has, in the past, announced via his Instagram a short period for new customers to make reservations.  Cancellations are regularly released on Omakase.  An adjacent space for a-la-carte dining will open in Autumn 2024.  Satoshi-san speaks limited English.

📍 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.  Opposite Maz.

📶 Free WiFi? ✅ Yes

📅 Visit July 2024

Ayu veloute
Tsubagai capellini
Kamo nasu
Tempura aori ika, fruit tomato and kegani
Chorizo, mushroom, nasu sauce, olive oil
Consomme, truffle
Tempura suzuki, hamaguri and sudachi dashi
Shiitake, jagaimo puree, rannou
Kamo
Amagi kurobuta
Crab somen
Ice-cream
White tea

💴 Damage: 64,130 (55k + drinks @ 3300 + 10%)
⏱️ Time taken: 2h20m