Myoujyaku (ๆๅฏ)
๐ฏ๐ต Kaiseki / ๐ Nishi-Azabu
๐ Visits: 3 (2026, 2023, 2022)
The course consists of about 15-16 dishes with at least one sashimi dish, soup, several other fish dishes, a red meat dish, a soba dish, at least one rice dish and two desserts. The signature dishes are the first dish, which is a single vegetable boiled in salted water, and the "hand-rolled sushi" which is a seasonal fish, the head and bones deep-fried, the body grilled and served with rice in egg white crepe.
My most recent visit was after a three year gap. There was a price rise shortly after my second visit and I didn't feel like my second meal was consistently good enough to want to go back at the higher price. I timed my most recent visit before yet another price rise and after the award of that third star.
My scores for the food I've had at Myoujaku have been all over the place. I think some of that is due to varying quality of ingredients, inconsistency in seasoning, better exemplars at other restaurants and personal preference. The sashimi I did not like on my most recent visit. Served without wasabi and with "octopus salt", salt water and fish soy sauce, which are unfamiliar, making it easy to under- or over-season the fish. On the other hand, I rated the sashimi 10/10 on previous visits, noting the salt and soy sauce "moreish". The soup has been generally good. "First great dish", I noted on my most recent visit, scoring it 9/10, the same on visit #2. I slightly marked it down on visit #1 for being a little salty. Rice on my first visit I scored 10/10, but since then only 8. Slightly more consistent has been the soba. I've generally scored it 9/10. The red meat dish has been consistently excellent. I've scored these 9-10/10 on each visit. The kuma on my last visit was the best ever: deep flavour, not too much fat and that which there was didn't taint the dashi, super-vibrant sansai, a large portion and a second element in the form of a meatball. Desserts were best most recently. Jelly "best ever" I noted: two kinds of orange used, fresh segments and chips made from the skin for texture. The sakura jouyu-mushi I scored 10/10. On a prior visit, kaki lacked sweetness and I scored it just 7.5/10. As for the signature dishes. Again, mixed when it came to the opening vegetable in water. On visit #1 it was shiitake and I rated it 9/10. On subsequent visits it's been daikon. No "ooos" from other guests I noted on visit #2. I thought the daikon dish at Sassa (review to come) was better. The hand-rolled sushi I like, but it doesn't take my breath away.
So there are definitely more consistent kaiseki restaurants in Tokyo but there might not be many more interesting. Once you know the seasons you can have a pretty good guess at what you're going to be eating at a given type of restaurant in Japan. I ate at one other Tabelog Gold and one other Tabelog Silver kaiseki restaurant in the same week I ate my most recent meal at Myojaku. Myojaku was by far the most interesting. This meal was in the same month I dined here last time. The signature dishes were repeated but no other dish was the same and many of them are unique. To mention a few of these: the crab with a sauce made from fried nanohana and crab dashi; gobo tataki with egoma and kumquat and the fried karasumi mochi. It might be better to compare Myojaku with Yamazaki now, based on innovation (and I much prefer Myojaku).
Service has evolved as the restaurant has evolved. My first visit was quite strange with most dishes coming from a back kitchen and the chef not doing very much. They also had a fluent English speaker to assist with explanations. Now the chef is busier: more dishes are plated at the counter and there's more of a running commentary from the chef. Chef doesn't speak English and most recently there has been no-one in the dining room with fluent English. Instead, they give you a multi-page menu with a full explanation of each dish and these really help you appreciate the food. Incidentally, I don't think there's a massive difference in the cooking between Myojaku in 2022 and 2026 and I can't help think that this menu (which other places would do well to invest in) helped the restaurant with the third star.
As just one of five 3 Michelin Star Japanese restaurants in Tokyo, 33rd place (the only kaiseki restaurant in the top 50) in the Asia's Best 50 and a debut Tabelog Silver award in 2025 (held in 2026), it would not be unreasonable to expect the kaiseki meal of a lifetime. How does Myojaku compare to the other 3-Stars?
Azabu Kadowaki is the flashy kaiseki, using expensive and non-traditional ingredients like truffle and shark fin. Ishikawa is the traditional kaiseki - simple dishes with first-class execution. RyuGin was the modern kaiseki. The key word there was 'was'. It's now the overpriced kaiseki. Kanda I have not been to as it's expensive and has a relatively low Tabelog rating. As for Myojaku, it's the innovative kaiseki. I'd rank it somewhere in the top 10 kaiseki in Tokyo.
If you got this far it's clear my overall assessment of Myoujaku is contradicted. My most recent meal was the one I rated lowest overall. Prices went up again in April, taking the cost of a meal here to 55,000 JPY. There's also the fact that it's now a two-turn 5pm or 8pm start (great for the restaurant, bad for the diner). On the other hand, there more courses than the usual 10-12 for a kaiseki meal, so although you're paying more you get to eat more, a wider range of things, and portion sizes lean generous. Although it is expensive, price rises are sadly universal now and you can pay a lot more for kaiseki. While in the past I said a meal costing over 30K must be life changing, unfortunately that was a 2019 statement. So what sets Myojaku apart from everywhere else is the originality. And that's why I'll be back.
๐ https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13270958/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.35
๐ฑ Booking: ๐ง By phone in English or Japanese from the 1st of each month for the next 4 months. Less availability via Omakase.
๐ Location:
B1F Nishi-Azabu Hills, 3-2-34 Nishi-Azabu.
Map data ©2023 Google
๐ถ Free WiFi? ✅ Yes
๐ Visit March 2026
Daikon, salt, water
Anago, noresore, warabi
Hirame, taco
Shijimi, asahi, hamaguri dashi. Awabi, hamaguri.
Maguro warayaki
Momo gani, zuwaigani, nanohana sauce
Moroko hand-rolled sushi
Gobo tataki, egoma, kumquat
Karasumi mochi to-age
Juwari
Medai shiroyaki
Kuma, seri nabe
Tsuyahime
Sencha
Mikan jelly
Sakura jouyu-mushi
๐ Visit March 2023
White sweet sake
Daikon, salt, water
Taigarai, akagai, tsubagi, sweet miso *daidai
Tai, aori ika
Owan: hamaguri, tai dashi, goma dofu
Meiji maguro aburi, tama negi, sansho
Kegani, nagaimo surinagashi
Iwana hand-rolled sushi
Soramame, fugu shirako
Kuruma ebi, ebi imo age
Tai soba
Managatsuo
Saga hire gyu, 15 types sansai
Tsuyahire, shirao, ika, Meiji maguro, anago
Shirao TKG
Sencha
Strawberry soup, anko
Sakura jouyu-mushi
๐ Visit December 2022
Shiitake, salt, water
Seko gani, apple
Kuruma ebi, tai
Owan: suppon
Sawara, tama-negi
Kabu, yuba, ebi imo
Mehikari hand-rolled sushi
Goma tofu-age, jagaimo-age
Shine muscat, fig, goma, shredded nashi
Kue yakimono, miso yurine
Soba
Hire niku, seri, daikon, katsuoboshi hotate dashi
Gohan, hamo, ikura, shirasu
Anago tamago donburi
Sencha
Kaki, 30-year sake
Hoso-maki, shiro anko, aka sansho
Very interesting read as always. What do you think of kohaku? (Downgrades from 3 to 2 the same year this was upgraded to 3 stars)
ReplyDeleteThank you. It was hard to write because it's been so changeable. I went to Kohaku twice in the past and I thought Ishikawa was better, so never went back. I'd like to go again but it's very hard to book.
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