Eateries We Love - Yakumo Saryo in Tokyo

Yakumo Saryo is a private, members-only restaurant that’s heavenly. It’s in the most unexpected of locations in a quiet, suburban street with a high, concrete wall overflowing with established trees surrounding it. Through the small wooden gate one finds oneself in the most beautiful of gardens with a softly lit twisting path leading up to the beautiful house itself. It’s an old home that’s been transformed into a restaurant with just two private dining rooms, one of which has floor to ceiling windows looking into the wall of greenery that is the garden. The home retains the 30’s Japanese feel of the building while having the most gentle of modern, minimalist hands applied, cream and woody and rounded rather than formulaic and hard. I was treated to a 10 course degustation menu with matching wine and sake. Highlights were an entrée of fried lotusroots cake and a Monk’s Plate of charcoal grilled aubergine. What I loved most was that there were only 4 other diners, who you didn’t see anyway, and no music. The address and phone numbers aren’t meant to be public but and I daren’t give them out in case they ban me from visiting again but if you can find them it’s a must - without doubt, the best way to experience Japanese fine dining I’ve ever had.