Renge

The recommendations of friends and reviewers can be useful, but the people who should really be trusted to search out top-quality restaurants are the chefs themselves. It can only be a good sign then, that this Ginza Chinese restaurant can count some of the capital’s best chefs among its regulars. They come for perfectly cooked classics like Szechuan style chicken, drizzled with a delicious spicy sauce, the Chinese soft-shell turtle jelly, or the Jinhua ham consommé signature soup. The head chef has experience in Japanese, Italian, and Spanish cuisine too, as well as in pastry baking. He takes the best tips and tricks from each of these cuisines to add interesting dimensions to his Chinese cuisine, editing the Shanghai classics. The idea of cultural hybridity is also present in the decor — a wooden interior with low counter seats and private tables, which suggests elements of Chinese, Japanese, and Western dining cultures. Even those who feel they’ve seen all that Chinese food has to offer are bound to be surprised by the menu at Renge.