CHIUnE

Cooking is in Chef Furuta Satoshi's blood. Not far from where his father set up his Chinese restaurant in Ginza after a 30-plus year career — the famed Furuta — the younger Satoshi soon moved his restaurant from his native Gifu to Ginza as well in 2016, where it was listed in Tokyo's 50 Best Restaurants for a time. However, CHIUnE now finds itself a new home in the Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho, where it continues all the hallmarks that first shot it to prominence. A single counter seats just six guests, with a dramatic white backdrop that drives home the minimalism of the restaurant. It's the perfect stage for Chef Furuta to practice what he calls culinary minimalism; where other chefs might try and make spectacular, elaborate combinations of ingredients, Chef Furuta instead believes in the philosophy of subtraction. From appetizer to dessert, Chef Furuta lets natural flavors shine through. His cuisine cannot simply be categorised into a single type; but of course, with his emphasis of natural flavors, Chef Furuta is especially particular about his ingredients. He pays homage to his familial roots by including some Chinese inspirations in his menu, like Shaoxing wine gelato, as well as to his native Gifu Prefecture by sourcing wild fowl, game, shiitake mushrooms and ayu sweetfish from it, among others.