A hidden Kyobashi dining room woven from kappo and French cuisine

At Suzume Dining SAKE & CUISINE, the techniques of kappo cooking, which carry on the traditions of Japanese cuisine, are brought together with the bright sensibility that belongs to French cooking in original dishes.

At the helm is a chef with more than thirty years of experience across both Japanese and French cuisine. Working with carefully chosen ingredients — A5-grade Matsusaka beef, seasonal seafood, vegetables at their peak — he builds each plate with care to draw out the character of the ingredient to the fullest.

On weekdays after 21:00, the restaurant can also be used as a bar, an easy place to stop in without a reservation. Sake, wine, whisky and more can be enjoyed at leisure alongside a restaurant-quality otoshi (appetizer served with the first drink) plate, which is part of the appeal as well.

To take in everything the restaurant has to offer, the course menus built around seasonal ingredients are the ones to choose.

Three are available: the six-dish Shunsai Course, the seven-dish Tokusen Course, which adds a fish dish, and the Miyabi Course, with finer ingredients still. Running from sakizuke (opening appetizer) through hors d'oeuvres, a main dish, a closing plate and a sweet, each course gives you time to savor dishes that draw on the techniques of Japanese and French cooking alike.

Alongside a main dish of richly flavored Matsusaka beef, the seafood dishes carry seasonal touches of their own, so the flavors differ depending on when you visit. The meal closes with tai chazuke (sea bream over rice with hot broth), steeped in the umami of Rausu kombu (kelp). Western technique woven together with a Japanese spirit: a course to look forward to right down to the final sweet.

What you will want alongside the food is the carefully chosen sake and wine. The sake list gathers labels from every part of Japan, and you may well come across a flavor particular to the season or a rare bottle. More than ten wines are available as well, centered on French and Japanese producers. You can talk things over with the staff to find a glass you like, and there are also plans that add a sake or wine pairing to a course. Tasting a different drink with each dish widens the pleasure of the meal further still.

After dinner service, BAR TIME begins at 21:00. Sake, wine, whisky and more can be enjoyed with the chef's own otoshi (appetizer) plate made from ingredients at their seasonal best. It suits one more glass after a meal, and equally an evening of drinking quietly on your own.

About a three-minute walk from Kyobashi Station, and ten minutes from the Yaesu Exit of Tokyo Station. Step in through the glass entrance and the room opens out into a refined, modern Japanese space where a calm Japanese mood and a polished atmosphere sit in balance.

Along with counter and table seating there are fully enclosed private rooms where you can relax without minding anyone around you, making the restaurant suitable for anniversaries with someone important, dates, business entertaining, group dinners and more.

English menus are available, and English-speaking staff are on hand, so guests from overseas can enjoy their meal with ease.

This is a place to take your time over dishes where the delicate umami of Japanese dashi meets French technique, in a calm and quiet setting.