Yd'or

⭐⭐⭐

🇫🇷 French / 📍 Daikanyama

📓 Visits: 1

12 course omakase dinner at JPY 22,000.  Since April 2025 they've started a 7 course omakase lunch on Sundays only at JPY 8,800.  I went for lunch.

First up quiche Lorraine topped with murasaki uni.  I mean it was okay but anyone can spoon uni onto something.  6/10.  Next boiled shin tama negi with a ceviche of aji.  The aji was good but the onion wasn't very sweet and warm onion and cold sashimi doesn't match.  Really strange.  5/10.  Next Fukushima (rather than Loire, per the menu) white asparagus with scrambled egg and hotaru ika.  The egg was delicious and it was a complete dish as opposed to a similar dish I had at joujouka (review to come) a few weeks ago but the choice of salad leaves was uninspired and the taste of squid guts is unpleasant.  7/10.  Daikon and rice potage, asari, barley and espelette was small and tasted exactly as the list of ingredients.  7/10.  The best savoury dish was the ishidai: one piece pan-fried and another sumiyaki.  The sauce was decent, though I wouldn't have been able to guess the plant (fuki).  The veg were quite ordinary.  7.5/10.  I knew straight away that rack of sangenton cooked in the oven would have no taste and be tough.  The cabbage was boring and I left most of the mustard sauce.  4/10.  The homemade campagne was moist and full of wheat flavour (8/10).  This (along with an excellent pre-meat palate cleanser) gave me high hopes for dessert.  There are two chefs in the kitchen and often the pastry chef is better than the head chef in Japan.  As it happened I scored these items higher than the others (though not by much).  Mugicha ice-cream was rich, sweet and indulgent like I never thought a mugicha ice-cream could be.  8/10 for the ice-cream on its own.  Dragged down slightly by the well-made but unsweetened cone and overall lack of complexity for the dessert.  7.5/10.  Tea or coffee is charged at 300 yen but that's cheaper than Starbucks so you might as well and I figured it wouldn't be unaccompanied.  It came with a chocolate terrine which I scored 8/10.  The couple next to me skipped the after-meal drink, were presented with forks but no chocolate (sad).

The chef (Daiki Kanagawa) was previously chef at l'intemporel, which held a Michelin Star until he left.  I mentioned then I wondered how a young chef could grow on his own.  Not sure what he's done since but my suggestion would be to spend a few more years as a section chef in some classic French restaurants and learn a bit more about what goes into making really great food.

Price wise I guess it's reasonable value for lunch in 2025 in a Daikanyama restaurant from an ex Michelin-starred chef but flavour wise it doesn't match what you'd expect from a place of this profile and where dinner is over 20k and it's a simultaneous start.

Could be completely wrong but my guess is some investor has taken a punt on the chef achieving another Star.  That's a risky plan without a PR machine behind you and especially now that Michelin have introduced the Selected category to Japan.  Well, not long to find out as the 2026 Guide will be announced on Thursday 25th September 2025.

Sigh, there are too many mediocre new restaurants in Tokyo and they drive up costs of dining out all round.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130303/13302268/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.4

📱 Booking: 🟩 An easy booking via Tabelog or TableCheck (not lunch?), at least a week in advance for lunch.  Menu in French and Japanese.  No real English spoken.

📍 Location: 

2F Avenue Side Daikanyama 1, 3-9 Sarugakucho.  7 mins from Daikanyama station.  Up the outside stairs, no lift.
Map data ©2025 Google

📶 Free WiFi? ✅ Yes

📅 Visit May 2025

🕛 Lunch 8,800

💧 Water charge: 880 (lunch)

🛎️ Service: ∅ (lunch)

Oignon nouveau braiser avec marinade chinchard
Quiche lorraine et oursin violet
Salade d'asperge blanche de Loire [sic] avec petit calmar
Potage de KUBODERA's daikon et palourde
ISHIDAI poêlé sauce pétasite
Enzyme à la fraise
Côtes de porc rôti sauce moutarde
Glace thé d'orge noir avec cassonade Japonaise
Thé ou café +300円

💴 Damage: 10,560 incl one drink @1210

⏱️ Time taken: 2h