While visiting Tokyo with my wife Jun, I wanted to make sure to dine at a kaiseki restaurant. After looking at different options, I settled on Tanimoto located in the Kagurazaka neighborhood after a few glowing reviews on Reddit convinced me the restaurant is worth trying. It’s actually been a while since we had a proper kaiseki dinner even though Jun and I had always appreciated this traditional Japanese cuisine that originated from tea ceremony. Chef Seiji Tanimoto, who studied tea ceremony before eventually getting into food, worked at a traditional ryotei before heading the restaurant under his name. Overall, we were very pleased with the excellent cooking coming from the kitchen.
At this point in our culinary journey, it’s not a hyperbole to say we have been somewhat jaded and tired from all the fancy ingredients and techniques seen at Western-style fine dining restaurants. For that reason, what stood out in particular about the dishes from Tanimoto is how consistently clean and polished the flavor was without a ton of wow factors you might see from other expensive Japanese establishments. Nagaimo somen (Japanese yam noodle), which came with soft-boiled egg that we were asked to break and mix in with the noodle, instantly grabbed my attention, as did the steamed crab dumpling that came in a chrysanthemum-style broth. One dish that Jun is always nervous before eating at a Japanese restaurant is raw mackerel. I have only seen her love the mackerel a couple of times in our culinary journey together, and our dinner at Tanimoto was that one rare occasion, where Jun absolutely enjoyed the saba sushi with no fishy flavor at all. My favorite dish of the night was probably a bowl with hamo (congee eel) and maitake mushroom inside. It’s not like I have seen this type of dish before but the soothing aroma from the broth and the way the ingredients hit my palate was really outstanding.
Other dishes like hiryuzu (a dumpling made from tofu) with lily bulb, edamame and black fungus and expertly grilled amadai fish with white miso sauce were also memorable, while I could eat the somen noodle with sea urchin and grilled eggplant every day if I had to. Interestingly, Jun and I had our difference on a few dishes. In the middle of the course came a palate cleanser with fig and sesame sauce; I thought it was delightful whereas Jun wondered if the sauce overwhelmed the fresh fig a little too much and if another fruit like Korean melon might’ve been a better fit. While I thought the Japanese turtle meat dish was not bad (especially when pairing with an earthy Burgundy red wine; more on the beverage pairing below), Jun was not the biggest fan (she wanted to make sure this was in fact a turtle dish by showing a comics picture of Ninja Turtles!). Another dish that I liked a lot was the Japanese traditional dessert of kuzukiri, a bowl of jelly-like noodles with sweet syrup; the smooth, chewy texture of the noodles was lovely, especially with a cup of matcha prepared and served by the chef himself.
Getting a reservation at Tanimoto was not as difficult as other well-known kaiseki restaurants in the city but the counter (which serves around eight guests) was full so I still recommend booking in advance if possible. The service was overall warm and friendly even though the staff didn’t speak fluent English; I appreciated how the young female staff member who served us throughout diligently ran a Google translate to give more detailed descriptions of the dishes in English. One underrated aspect of dining at Tanimoto is the alcohol beverage pairing. We were offered both a sake and sake plus wine pairing option; the latter was a steal at less than $100 per person and included some really delicious sakes with distinct flavor and character as well as a few Burgundy red and white wines. I have now seen that two signs that show how much Jun really likes a restaurant we visit outside of our DC/NYC radius is when she asks to take a photo with the chef and also asks the chef if they would like to come visit the East Coast for a special dinner event. She has done both after dinner, making the chef blush when she told him she would really love to see him one day visiting the States. We both said at the end of the night how Tanimoto is the type of restaurant that may well cure our somewhat jaded view on fine dining with a focus on fresh ingredients and execution instead of showy presentation. I felt really good about myself discovering this gem in Tokyo.
KenScale: 8.5/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.5/10)
Address: 3-1 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku Ku, Tokyo, Japan
Website: https://tanimoto-kagurazaka.jp/
Reservation via Omakase (Japan’s online reservation app)
