Kani Kato Asakusa

For over 50 years, Kato Suisan has been spreading the gospel of Hokkaido crab throughout the country. Originally a seafood supplier based in eastern Hokkaido, its country-wide outreach effort began in earnest in 1998, when it started selling and distribution of Hokkaido crab through e-commerce channels. Not content with simply supplying seafood, Kato Suisan’s head Toshiaki Kato later founded two sushi restaurants in the skiing town of Niseko — Sushi Kato Hinzan Niseko and Sushi Kato Setsu Niseko INORI — to critical acclaim and commercial success. Just like the inexorable migration of the crab that he supplies, the influence of Hokkaido’s King of Crab — as Kato has since been dubbed by the Japanese media — has now reached the island of Honshu. The Asakusa district, one of the foremost cultural centers of Tokyo, finds itself the site of his latest restaurant venture, Kani Kato Asakusa. The crabs served in the restaurant are carefully selected from Japan’s most prolific crab production regions, such as Hokkaido, Fukui and Ishikawa. Shipped live from each port, the crabs are then kept in the restaurant’s tanks for maximum freshness before serving to the customer. But while the crabs may come from all over, the produce is decidedly local. Kani Kato Asakusa uses an abundance of Edo Tokyo vegetables; rare vegetables grown in the historic Edo locality, using agricultural methods dating back to the Edo period. Such quality of ingredients demands a chef of equal stature, and Kani Kato Asakusa’s chef de cuisine, Jun Okada fits the bill perfectly. A veteran of the Tokyo restaurant circuit, he is best-known for becoming the head chef of the vaunted Shibuya kappo ryotei Sancho at just 28 years of age, and regularly represents Japan as a culinary and cultural ambassador. Under Chef Okada’s direction, the chefs at Kani Kato Asakusa make use of the resources at their disposal to produce not just tried-and-true favorites like crab shabu-shabu hotpot, but rather entire course menus that allow diners to fully appreciate the seasons, colors and tastes of Japanese food culture through the lens of seafood. And leave it to the King of Crab to make his guests likewise feel like royalty. Guests stepping into the restaurant’s white corridor are whisked away to another world by the traditional Echizen washi decorations that call to mind the rushing waters of the Sumida River outside. There, they are gently deposited either at the counter for a front-row seat of the chefs at work, or in a private room to enjoy their meal in seclusion.