Kyorin

Kyorin is a restaurant born of tragedy, but serves as a beautiful monument of a son’s love for his father. After completing his training at his relative’s soba restaurant Muho, Chef Inoue Tomokazu left to become the soba-making supervisor at his father’s kappo restaurant, Kappo Inoue — the fulfillment of a long-held dream by both father and son. But just a month and a half after opening, his father tragically passed away from an illness, leaving him with little choice but to shutter the restaurant. Nonetheless, after continuing to work at other restaurants and izakayas, Chef Inoue found his thoughts returning to the abandoned Kappo Inoue. “I thought that if I were to start my own business, I would want to do it in a place that still had memories of my father,” he recalls. As such, he enlisted the help of a local lumber supplier to renovate Kappo Inoue, making it into what it is today — Kyorin. Depending on the season, Chef Inoue sources his buckwheat either from Hokkaido or Ibaraki Prefecture, and mills the buckwheat flour by hand in the kitchen. And true to the original spirit of Kappo Inoue, the side dishes are of a quality that his father would have been proud of, ranging from fluffy layered atsuyaki-tamago rolled omelet, to pickled katsuo (skipjack tuna) entrails. In spite of being in the notoriously expensive district of Shirokane-Takanawa, Kyorin is notable for being a relatively economical dinner option, which makes it popular among both families on a night out, as well as groups of salarymen looking for a late dinner. The Michelin Bib Gourmand award it holds is testament to that. Michelin Guide: 2023 - Bib Gourmand