Ginza Hakobune Daiginjyo IRORI

It was a gamble that could have easily faltered. Yet, the ambitious Hakobune brand has reaffirmed Tokyo’s appetite for traditional Japanese sunken hearths, or "irori," just as the city witnesses their revival. The restaurant plucks one of the most lauded chefs, Maeba Tsuyoshi, who’s worked and staged in high-end restaurants in Tokyo, to lead its kitchen. The venue sits on the seventh floor of the 888 Building, peering over Ginza’s boutique-lined Chuo-dori Street. It's the only place in Ginza that offers private rooms with sunken hearths. And it’s mostly a tasting menu. But together, it all forms a winning combination. Chef Maeba’s menu centers around food cooked over binchotan charcoal in the irori and takes cues from the Hokuriku region. Most of the seafood is sourced directly from the Sea of Japan, with seasonal catches from Ishikawa, Toyama, Fukui and Niigata Prefectures: white shrimp and firefly squid in spring; rock oysters in the summer; Wakasa Guji tilefish in autumn; and yellowtail in winter. The restaurant’s charcoal-fueled firepower imparts exceptional finesse. It’s there in the grilled Iwana trout from Niigata, seasoned with “DENEN” salt harvested in the seawater-sprayed salt fields in Oku-Noto, or the Kuzuryu sweetfish from Fukui Prefecture. It’s also there in the whole-roasted nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) delivered fresh from Hokuriku’s fishing ports, and abalone and snow crab are cooked atop iron mesh. Flavors get robust from the help of Yamato Soy Sauce and miso sourced from Kanazawa's small port town of Ono. The sake collection is equally impressive, stored in a cellar that can hold 500 bottles of nihonshu. Popular brands to rare finds from Hokuriku and Shin-etsu — area consisting of Nagano and Niigata Prefectures — are served in special tinware, reputed to "absorb impurities and purify water.”