Azabu Kadowaki

Chef Toshiya Kadowaki opened this Azabu-Juban restaurant in 2000, earned two Michelin stars in 2010, and was bumped to three in 2020 — and yet the room has stayed tiny on purpose, just six seats at the counter and a low-ceilinged private room built to feel like a tearoom. The cooking is kaiseki at heart but threaded with Western ingredients and technique, the kind of quiet East-meets-West that reveals itself course by course. The thing people travel for is the truffle rice: a clay pot of hot rice buried under generous shavings of black truffle, served near the end of the meal and spoken about long after. Three Michelin stars, in a space that seats fewer people than most kitchens employ. Book well ahead.