Abysse
๐ Fish / ๐ Daikanyama
๐ Visits: 1
Abysse is labeled as "French", and while there might be some French technique, it's very much a modern Tokyo restaurant, using mostly Japanese ingredients, and perhaps uniquely, with fish being the main component of every dish.
Once you've added on drinks and 10% service you're not gonna get much change (if any) from 30K for lunch, which feels like a lot 'just for fish' and for a restaurant that hasn't improved its standing since its move (a Tabelog rating below 4.0 and still 'only' a single Michelin Star) so I'd been somewhat hesitant to return. But your 2016 yen won't buy you the same quality of fish ten years on, and if you think of it as a 2.5 hour, 11-course, multi-component meal then it's not out of whack with other high-end restaurants - you can easily pay a lot more than 30K for 'just fish' at a sushi restaurant. So I went with moderate expectations and the hope (but not expectation) that, as per the Pocket Concierge page, Junichi Fujimoto's fish would be on the menu (that could well be worth the price rise). Dinner adds one extra course (a scallop dish, at time of writing) but otherwise the menus are identical. So lunch is clearly better value.
I enjoyed all the dishes rating all the savoury items 7.5-8/10 and the desserts 7-8/10. There was originality in everything, the flavour combinations really worked and nothing overpowered any of the fish. A few things stopped the savoury dishes scoring any higher. A couple of dishes contained vinegar, which I found a little jarring; the pasta in one of the courses was a little thick; two dishes were missing bread, which needed to be served earlier in the course; the octopus dish had that slightly rancid 'plancha oil' taste; the torafugu dish was crying out for some mashed potato.
Some of those points are due to personal preference. What's less subjective is the quality of the fish. All of it was good, but there was nothing next level like a piece of shinkei-jime sashimi. As I mentioned, the Pocket Concierge page states Junichi Fujimoto supplies the restaurant but when I read that I immediately thought ("* subject to availability"), and on this visit there was no fish from Fujimoto-san. Maybe on another visit there would be and maybe this would have been transformational, but if you want to eat the best fish that money can reliably buy, you're going to need to go to a Sasue Maeda-supplied restaurant in Shizuoka (or Tokyo).
One type of bread is served, a rye bread supplied by nearby Hillside Pantry. This is very good and it will be replaced if you run out. It should also be pointed out that not every table will necessarily get identical plates: my 'main' fish dish was torafugu, while the table next to me got kinmedai. Also note that while there are no meat dishes per se, the menu is not completely pescatarian: one dish contained chorizo and another chicken stock. If you don't eat meat you should enquire before you book but I'd be surprised if they couldn't accommodate you.
As for the desserts (created by a separate pastry chef), the first one was my lowest scoring dish overall at 7/10: the yomogi ice-cream needed to be more vibrant, the pistachio cream needed to be richer, and the matcha sable needed to be bolder. The second dessert was a much better effort, but as with every other dish, nothing knocked me for six. Other places use higher quality ingredients, other chefs are able extract more flavour from their produce and you might even find a couple of 10s in sushi restaurants at half the price.
With three slices of bread I left very full and ate little else all day. Wait staff can speak good English; the chef also brings out some dishes and can speak English. I would rate Abysse above Florilege but below Crony. Good, but not amazing and not cheap.
๐ https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130302/13232482/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.05
๐ฑ Booking: ๐ฉ Any easy same-day reservation by phone, TableCheck or Pocket Concierge for dinner. A day in advance for lunch. English menu. English-speaking staff.
๐ Location:
Ebisu-Hills, 1-30-12 Ebisu-Minami. 4 mins east from Daikanyama Station East Exit.
Map data ©2026 Google
๐ Visit March 2026
Kohada, Parmesan sable, Tonburi
Unagi, Morel soup, Bulgar wheat
Sayori, urui, cucumber, sorrel sauce
Cold hamaguri, sour cream, hamaguri sauce, peas, broad beans, snap end
Sauteed octopus, grilled nanohana and broccoli, nanohana sauce
Hotaru ika, Chorizo and firefly squid sauce , Blue cheese, potato ravioli
Tachiou deep fried. Tomato and salted pork sauce. Takenoko
Torafugu roasted.
Yomogi ice-cream, matcha sable, pistachio cream
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