MASA'S KITCHEN EBISU — Restaurant in Tokyo

I went here for lunch on my birthday. I didn't know it at the time but it has a Michelin star. After the first 3 courses, I could see why. It's actually a mixture of Chinese cuisines, and for the Szechuan inspired dishes, the spiciness is kept to a minimum such that you can actually taste the ingredients. Of special note was the steamed shrimp and fishcake, and the corn soup which had two pieces of corn on the cob and a chunk of melt in your mouth pork belly in a delicious broth--not the usual cream corn schlock. The food went really well with the Jean Rijckaert Viré Clessé Vieilles Vignes.

Two notes of caution which prevents me from giving a better review. 3 of the dishes contained black vinegar. The sweet and sour pork had way too much sauce and was too tart. Maybe the addition of orange blossom honey would improve it. I would have just drizzled a bit of sauce over the crispy chunks of pork. The tan tan mein also had vinegar instead of the customary chili bean paste.

Lastly, the service can be rushed. You are given 1.5 hours to eat 5 to 6 courses. This is because they want to have a 2nd seating for lunch. I can appreciate this from a profit standpoint, but if this is the case I would open at 11:00 and give guests up to 2 hours. This establishment won't be getting a higher Michelin...

Zero social distancing was very unfortunate... I needed to point out the fact to the waitress that the person, who sat next to me, her elbow was casually touching mine... It is almost too close even before the covid not to mention that there are 4000 cases in Tokyo everyday!! I immediately bought a test kit after coming home. Food was so so and the service was not too impressive compare the price we...

Very nice place. Had valentine dinner there and the course was really nice. One negative point would be that it was very hard to find the course prices on internet and I saw different things that were not available once there so the price was kind of a surprise once arriving at the place. But overall it deserves its 5 stars even if it was a bit expensive compared to...