We visited Azabu Kadowaki, a Kaiseki restaurant helmed by chef Toshima Kadowaki, a friendly chef with quite a bit of humour~
As they were preparing our seats at the counter we were sent to a private room and served some clean tasting, robust and warming Buckwheat Tea.
Once seated we were shown the live Matsuba crab by Chef Toshima before it’s prepared, Chef says ‘Bye Bye’ as he sends the crab to the pot.
Course started with a beautiful bowl filled with sesame tofu that has the consistency of a very light, soft, mildly sticky Mochi, very addictive texture in the mouth!
Flavour came in the form of the salty, deep miso sauce with hints of Sansho heat & fragrance, supported by toasty nuts, refreshing crunch of Negi, & robust yet delicately umami Matsusake mushroom. It’s an amazing dish if miso sauce is used moderately as it tends to get overly salty if the bowl is polished off.
Next came a trio of breaded fried items, Red Snapper which is flakey with a light sweetness, Taranome which is bitter, texture akin to cooked Artichoke, slight mush with some chew, & crunchy Bamboo Shoot that brims with beautiful earthy flavour. Batter is crisp & clean tasting whereas Sansho salt provided that much needed saltiness & tingling with citrus fragrance. Karasumi (fish eggs) is intensely umami but most of the time fails to adhere to the breaded surface, causing this dish to lose much of its flair.
Next came a dish that requires some work on our part. A Monk fish paste is to be smeared onto a flatfish wrapping chinese cabbages & negi, then blanketed with crisp nori. A seemingly simple dish that’s rather umami, with the main flavour coming from the salty, deeply umami monk fish, balanced by the lightly chewy, clean tasting flatfish, crunchy negi with a light spice kick, refreshing chinese cabbage & finally the nori brimming with intense flavour of the sea.
Now, Matsuba crab is ready! Tender, flakey flesh with a rich crab umami that’s delicate at the same time! Squeezing some lime brings about a fragrance akin to Yuzu but without the acidity (The lime is bitter & sour eaten on its own), so the delicate flavour of the crab is preserved!
Tomalley is intensely umami as expected, & dipping the crab into the ginger vinegar gives another dimension of light tang with a spicy kick! The dip however overshadows the natural flavour of the Matsuba crab.
The dish also felt a tad too much & could feel a tad tiring on the palate after a while despite the amazing natural flavours.
Next came a broth made from Skipjack Tuna, salt, Kombu & Sake. It’s heated on a pot & Hamaguri clams are cooked in it for our first bowl.
The broth brims with sweetness from the clam & fish while exuding hints of sake bitterness, melodious! Leeks absolutely elevated the broth, crunchy with that light charr flavour!
Clam was cooked perfectly tender but perhaps it’s the type of clam, it was a tad chewy & ended up playing 2nd fiddle to the elixir from the sea.
2nd serving came with silky bean curd skin which tasted ridiculously delicate, oozing the sweetness of tofu! This pairs perfectly with the soup!
The signature dish of Kadowaki is their truffle rice, this time served with generous slices of Perigord truffle. Truffle smells intensely fragrant but surprisingly doesn’t carry much intensity in flavour. It dances gracefully on the palate, melting into the bowl of steaming rice that’s lightly seasoned with possibly shoyu & sake, a brilliant combination where truffle is used to elevate a dish instead of overpowering it!
The addition of Nori brings about the 3rd dimension of texture & flavour, playing harmoniously with the truffle rice! This is a 3 Star worthy dish!
Pickles work to cut down on the richness.
Our course ended with a dessert that didn’t look like much but we were so dead wrong as this is probably the best dish of the night!
A combination of Ricotta Cheese, truffle honey with an assortment of fruits worked shockingly well with the sweet cheesiness of ricotta working alongside the honey truffle with also had a slight nuttiness possibly from caramelisation, & the fruits brought a burst of juiciness & individual flavours that sing to you! Never have we expected truffle honey, ricotta & fresh cut fruits to work so beautifully together, another 3 star worthy dish!
Our meal ended with some Smoked tea, a robust, borderline burnt smokiness, clean tasting tea with very mild astringency to wash all that sweetness down.
Chef Toshima sends each customer to the door as they left, a proof of amazing Japanese hospitality.
We had an amazing kaiseki experience for sure, but would also like to note that pacing of courses could sometimes feel a little rushed, as we ended our meal in 1.5 hours. Aside from that everything was enjoyable!
Parrotshake on
Man that all looks really good. I’m anti-shark fin but I might make an exception for their shark fin tempura I’ve seen on Instagram. Few extra bucks for the matsuba crab?
4 Comments
This looks great. How was the experience?
We visited Azabu Kadowaki, a Kaiseki restaurant helmed by chef Toshima Kadowaki, a friendly chef with quite a bit of humour~
As they were preparing our seats at the counter we were sent to a private room and served some clean tasting, robust and warming Buckwheat Tea.
Once seated we were shown the live Matsuba crab by Chef Toshima before it’s prepared, Chef says ‘Bye Bye’ as he sends the crab to the pot.
Course started with a beautiful bowl filled with sesame tofu that has the consistency of a very light, soft, mildly sticky Mochi, very addictive texture in the mouth!
Flavour came in the form of the salty, deep miso sauce with hints of Sansho heat & fragrance, supported by toasty nuts, refreshing crunch of Negi, & robust yet delicately umami Matsusake mushroom. It’s an amazing dish if miso sauce is used moderately as it tends to get overly salty if the bowl is polished off.
Next came a trio of breaded fried items, Red Snapper which is flakey with a light sweetness, Taranome which is bitter, texture akin to cooked Artichoke, slight mush with some chew, & crunchy Bamboo Shoot that brims with beautiful earthy flavour. Batter is crisp & clean tasting whereas Sansho salt provided that much needed saltiness & tingling with citrus fragrance. Karasumi (fish eggs) is intensely umami but most of the time fails to adhere to the breaded surface, causing this dish to lose much of its flair.
Next came a dish that requires some work on our part. A Monk fish paste is to be smeared onto a flatfish wrapping chinese cabbages & negi, then blanketed with crisp nori. A seemingly simple dish that’s rather umami, with the main flavour coming from the salty, deeply umami monk fish, balanced by the lightly chewy, clean tasting flatfish, crunchy negi with a light spice kick, refreshing chinese cabbage & finally the nori brimming with intense flavour of the sea.
Now, Matsuba crab is ready! Tender, flakey flesh with a rich crab umami that’s delicate at the same time! Squeezing some lime brings about a fragrance akin to Yuzu but without the acidity (The lime is bitter & sour eaten on its own), so the delicate flavour of the crab is preserved!
Tomalley is intensely umami as expected, & dipping the crab into the ginger vinegar gives another dimension of light tang with a spicy kick! The dip however overshadows the natural flavour of the Matsuba crab.
The dish also felt a tad too much & could feel a tad tiring on the palate after a while despite the amazing natural flavours.
Next came a broth made from Skipjack Tuna, salt, Kombu & Sake. It’s heated on a pot & Hamaguri clams are cooked in it for our first bowl.
The broth brims with sweetness from the clam & fish while exuding hints of sake bitterness, melodious! Leeks absolutely elevated the broth, crunchy with that light charr flavour!
Clam was cooked perfectly tender but perhaps it’s the type of clam, it was a tad chewy & ended up playing 2nd fiddle to the elixir from the sea.
2nd serving came with silky bean curd skin which tasted ridiculously delicate, oozing the sweetness of tofu! This pairs perfectly with the soup!
The signature dish of Kadowaki is their truffle rice, this time served with generous slices of Perigord truffle. Truffle smells intensely fragrant but surprisingly doesn’t carry much intensity in flavour. It dances gracefully on the palate, melting into the bowl of steaming rice that’s lightly seasoned with possibly shoyu & sake, a brilliant combination where truffle is used to elevate a dish instead of overpowering it!
The addition of Nori brings about the 3rd dimension of texture & flavour, playing harmoniously with the truffle rice! This is a 3 Star worthy dish!
Pickles work to cut down on the richness.
Our course ended with a dessert that didn’t look like much but we were so dead wrong as this is probably the best dish of the night!
A combination of Ricotta Cheese, truffle honey with an assortment of fruits worked shockingly well with the sweet cheesiness of ricotta working alongside the honey truffle with also had a slight nuttiness possibly from caramelisation, & the fruits brought a burst of juiciness & individual flavours that sing to you! Never have we expected truffle honey, ricotta & fresh cut fruits to work so beautifully together, another 3 star worthy dish!
Our meal ended with some Smoked tea, a robust, borderline burnt smokiness, clean tasting tea with very mild astringency to wash all that sweetness down.
Chef Toshima sends each customer to the door as they left, a proof of amazing Japanese hospitality.
We had an amazing kaiseki experience for sure, but would also like to note that pacing of courses could sometimes feel a little rushed, as we ended our meal in 1.5 hours. Aside from that everything was enjoyable!
Man that all looks really good. I’m anti-shark fin but I might make an exception for their shark fin tempura I’ve seen on Instagram. Few extra bucks for the matsuba crab?
We’re booked to eat here next month!