Sezanne
๐ซ๐ท French / ๐ Marunouchi
๐ Visits: 1+
The meal begins, as it always has here, with 48-month aged Comtรฉ. But instead of a gougere, now it's liquid cheese in a Yebisu (beer) croustade with truffle. On paper, it's perhaps the perfect way to start - it represents continuity but also a chef making his own stamp on the food. A spoon of shiro ebi flavoured with tomato and cucumber follows. A perhaps slightly more familiar bite - reminiscent of the shiro ebi dish previously on the menu here and exactly the kind of dish you associate with Sezanne - top-quality Japanese ingredients re-imagined with French technique but left to shine. The next dish is the best savoury dish of the meal. Chicken liver parfait is dipped in Sauternes jelly and served in a pastry case flavoured with grape pulp. You want every chicken liver parfait you ever eat to have this ultra-smooth texture, this much impact and this much flavour. "Chawanmushi" is not really a chawanmushi. It's cold, there's no flavour of dashi or mirin and it's too thick. It's really a white corn royale. The royale is good, but not spectacular, and the alum in the uni mars the dish. After a take on a chicken wing a very small piece of shiro amadai with truffle, fermented carrot and a truffle and foie gras sauce. Unlike in the past, they don't leave the sauce behind. Is this the fish course? Yes it was, because 47 minutes in already the main course is announced. The pigeon is cooked beautifully but it's simply served with a Madeira sauce (which this time they leave, but this time I want no more of) a plum reduction and slices of plum underneath. A second serving of the pigeon is a take on ramen: potato noodles, pigeon and chicken broth, pigeon heart. It's okay, but it's not good enough to stand alone on its own. So maybe bring it out alongside the roasted pigeon? The excellent sourdough baked in the restaurant daily is no more and is instead replaced with a brioche which is served with Bordier butter, which seems like a waste, because brioche doesn't really need butter. There is just one dessert but it's the best dish of the entire meal. The sweet and salty mix from the caviar, buttermilk parfait and white chocolate is perfect. It's quite possibly the best dessert I've ever had at Sezanne. The meal ends with a fairly unmemorable chocolate sponge cake. There's no take-home gift.
Overall I rate the new Sezanne 4.1: there are some things that are not especially to my liking but there are no big errors, the cooking is of a very good standard. Easily one Michelin Star, maybe even two. So we could leave it there, but that's not why were here is it?
In case you haven't been following, chef Daniel Calvert left Sezanne at the end of March 2026. Daniel's sous chef left shortly after, as did the restaurant manager. The restaurant was stripped of its three stars pretty much immediately after Daniel left. That is typically what happens when the Executive Chef changes, but it doesn't always happen - the Ducasse's, Robuchon's, Darroze's and Sophie Pic's of this world seem to keep their stars with the head chef changes. Closer to home, there's been a chef change at 2-star Maz, the new chef says he intends to change the cooking, yet it retains its stars. It never really mattered to me how many stars Sezanne had - it was exceptional when it opened in 2021 and remained exceptional. But it certainly matters to the chef, and more importantly the business.
Comparisons with the old Sezanne are arguably unfair. Daniel Calvert is a generational talent, impossible to replace. But maybe the new chef is just as gifted behind the stove? He spent a month under Daniel and a bit longer under his sous, so perhaps he can just execute the old "playbook"? A meal at Sezanne cost 57k before Daniel moved on. I went for the re-introduced lunch menu at 28k. But the lunch menu started at Sezanne at 12k (and steadily went up) so reasonable to compare with the 28k lunch menu that was retired just after the restaurant got its third star, though bearing in mind that cost of doing business has risen all round since then. Also, dinner (which, as far I can tell, adds a extra snack, an extra starter and a couple of extra sweet items) is the same price as when Daniel was cooking.
For a number of reasons I never reviewed Sezanne under Daniel, but I went several times. For savoury dishes, I thought it was the best French restaurant in Japan and one of the best in the World. If I had rated, maybe 4.7. That's a long way from 4.1 today, and here's why.
It was always an enormous meal at Sezanne. The shortest menu I ever had was nine courses. Eleven was typical. Today's menu had just nine courses and I was out in 75 minutes, instead of the usual two hours plus. The generousity that was in every meal under Daniel was not here this time, and (rightly or wrongly) it felt like the restaurant was cost cutting. I felt a few of the dishes under the new chef were on the acidic side. I pay more attention to what's on the plate than the chef's "philosophy" but it was interesting to read that "fermentation" was mentioned in the introduction. I do like fermentation, just maybe wasn't expecting it here. I could not help but think that a couple of the dishes would have had more depth of flavour under Daniel. But more than anything, so good were they, that I can still remember many of the dishes I ate under Daniel. Of the best two dishes I ate under the new chef, I'll remember the dessert (but mainly because I always felt desserts were always an improvement area for Daniel) and I might remember the chicken liver. The menu was all new under the new chef and it just did not have the same impact as any meal I ate under Daniel.
One more thing to add. Sezanne is labeled as "French" but many would argue that it's not. There was always a heavy Japanese influence and in its later years a Chinese influence. Some people liked this, others didn't. There was no Chinese influence in this meal (unless maybe you want to count the ramen) and with the fermentation notes in the food it felt less classically French.
There are so many good restaurants in Japan now that I only have time for the new and only revisit the exceptional and exceptional value. Daniel will be cooking elsewhere later this year and I can't wait.
๐ https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1302/A130201/13256878/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.1
๐ฑ Booking: ๐ฉ All availability is listed on Omakase but a minimum of two diners is required to book via the platform. If you're dining alone you'll need to phone or email the restaurant. English menu. English spoken. Collared shirt or jacket required for men.
๐ Location: 
7F, Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi, 1-11-1 Marunouchi. The hotel doesn't have a grand entrance and is sandwiched between an underground car park next to Tokyo Station and an office building and you could easily walk past it. Tokyo Station on the Marunouchi line is not convenient. It's at least 12 mins walk from the gate to the hotel and that assumes you know your way around Tokyo station. If you're traveling by Metro, Kyobashi Exit 5 is closest - 6 mins walk West. If you're traveling by JR the Yaesu South exit is closest - 5 mins walk South. If you find yourself in the Four Seasons at Otemachi you're in the wrong hotel.
Map data ©2021 Google
๐ถ Free WiFi? ✅ Yes
๐ Visit June 2026
48 MONTH AGED COMTร, YEBISU, SHERRY VINEGAR
SHIRO EBI, CUCUMBER, ESPELETTE PEPPER
QUEEN ROUGE GRAPES FROM NAGANO PREFECTURE, CHICKEN PARFAIT, SAUTERNES
HOKKAIDO MURASAKI SEA URCHIN, WHITE CORN FROM AICHI PREFECTURE, SHISO
CHICKEN WING, KURUMA EBI, COURGETTE FROM CHIBA PREFECTURE
LAMINATED BRIOCHE WITH BORDIER BUTTER
SHIRO AMADAI FROM EHIME PREFECTURE, MANJIMUP BLACK TRUFFLE, ALBUFERA SAUCE
BRITTANY PIGEON, KIYOU PLUMS FROM YAMANASHI PREFECTURE, LONG PEPPER
OSCIETRA CAVIAR, BUTTERMILK, WHITE CHOCOLATE
MIGNARDISE
FYI — Daniel stripped the stars when he left, it was his decision to remove them
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