Makimura - Tokyo
There are only six seats at the communal counter
Rating: 17/20
Where: Tokyo, Japan
When: Dinner for 2 on 16 May 2023
Cost: Tasting menu 30000 Yen
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, Tabelog Silver Award (2023)
Why: Often delicious Japanese cuisine with clever twists on classical dishes; cozy atmosphere like a mom-and-pop shop
Makimura is a Japanese restaurant located in Shinagawa, towards the southern end of Tokyo. It can be found on a nondescript side-street, but the restaurant's name is displayed so subtly that it's easy to miss. Better to look for a building with windows that resemble a barcode.
Among Tokyo's three-starred restaurants, Makimura doesn't seem to have a particularly high profile, especially among foreign travelers. Part of the reason is that in recent years it has been almost impossible to secure a reservation. For all practical purposes, Makimura is always fully reserved by regulars who fill up its six counter seats and two small private dining rooms. In fact, judging by comments on Instagram, most first-time diners visit as guests of such regulars. So what is a less-well-connected diner to do? The usually helpful concierge at our Tokyo hotel told me to “consider eating somewhere else”, which would be very sensible advice, unless for some reason one was on a quixotic quest to visit all the three-starred restaurants in the city...
Well, as evidenced by this review, it is indeed possible to get a reservation at Makimura, so Michelin probably won’t ban the restaurant as it did for others (such as Sushi Saito and Sukiyabashi Jiro) that have stopped taking reservations from the general public. But it was a highly frustrating process, since at most a handful of seats were available every month. On the first of every month, we tried calling at 9am sharp, just to listen repeatedly to the frustrating sound of a busy signal. On online reservation sites, we saw seats disappear within fractions of a second. But persistence paid off. I had written a computer program to monitor several online reservation sites and notify me as soon as an opening popped up. And after a couple months, I was indeed able to get a reservation for seven days later, presumably thanks to a cancellation. As luck would have it, I was already in Japan to visit some restaurants in Kyoto, so after some last-minute flight rescheduling, here we were.
Makimura serves just a single tasting menu, but reasonable food restrictions are taken into account as long as they are mentioned at reservation time. Beverage-wise, we opted to go with wine. Two wines (one white, one red) were available by the glass, and about five options each by the bottle. Our white Burgundy was pretty good, and the red by the glass was an excellent match for the beef course near the end of the meal. The other customers at the counter went with the more traditional route of sake for their dinner.
There was no printed menu, and the staff spoke little English, but they were happy to tell us about the ingredients via a combination of hand-written notes (see picture below), the Google Translate app and Wikipedia. Our hosts (in particular the chef's wife) were especially warm and welcoming; they were willing to go the extra mile to answer our questions and making us feel welcome. The overall impression was more of a mom-and-pop establishment than of a three star restaurant - a most welcome change of pace. Makimura's tiny size probably makes it easier to spend more time on each customer. This is one of the examples where the owners could have made more money by increasing the size of the restaurant or offering more seatings (for example by opening for lunch) or simply doubling the price of the meal, but chose to do none of the above since it would mean losing something that makes Makimura special - its warm atmosphere.
We were welcomed with a shot of iced, salted plum wine - a lovely combination of sourness, saltiness and, well, liquor. Very nice 19.
Next, a cold vegetable salad dressed with a sesame sauce. The salad contained pieces of white and green asparagus, green beans, mountain potatoes, red peppers, fava beans, mushrooms, in addition to some dashi gelee and almond slivers on top. The sesame sauce was very good, and would be followed by several more uses of sesame throughout the menu. The vegetables were perfectly cooked and full of flavor, the almonds added some crunchy texture 18.
Two whole juvenile ayu (sweetfish) had been roasted and were served with salt and a green sauce made from vinegar and the leaf of a local flower. In addition, we received a ball of corn tempura. The latter was easily the best thing on the plate, warm and bursting with sweet corn flavor (20 by itself). The green sauce was mostly sour and without too much other flavors; the salt was a better condiment for the fried items. The fish was unfortunately not to my liking: salty and crunchy but quite bitter due to its innards. An acquired taste perhaps. Mostly due to the excellent corn tempura, a 17.
Another cold salad followed, this time made from seafood. Shrimp, scallops and seaweed were dressed with a vinegar gelee. Compared to the earlier vegetable salad, it was a bit of a letdown. The seafood was well prepared (blanched?), but not as flavorful as the vegetables had been. Most of the taste here came from the vinegar gelee, which was admittedly so good that I could have eaten it by itself. The seaweed provided an interesting texture contrast to the otherwise quite similar shrimp and scallops 16.
A staple of Kaiseki cuisine, the clear soup, came next. In its center was a ball of hairy crab meat, topped with melon rings, drops of umeboshi and a yuzu flower that was meant for decoration only. The soup was served very hot, and had a light, but noticeable flavor - more of seafood than of meat. Compared to other soups of this kind, it was a medium strength clear broth - but obviously a far cry from Western soup bases. Unfortunately, the solid ingredients didn't impart too much flavor on their own. The crab meat was pretty light, and the melon was crunchy but also not a great contributor to overall taste. The most interesting part of the dish was the crab roe that was hidden inside the crab meat ball. It added a nice creaminess to the soup, an unusual and interesting choice 17.
Sashimi of makogerai (marbled flounder) was up next. It was served with ponzu and soy sauce for dipping. Also available for seasoning were salted kelp, some fish liver, wasabi and sudachi, a Japanese citrus fruit. I wasn’t a great fan of the chewiness of this fish, but had by now accepted that this was a conscious choice for Kaiseki sashimi, probably due to its distinctive texture and relatively neutral taste, which allows the condiments to shine. And in fact, the soy sauce and the strong wasabi went wonderfully with the fish; as did the salted kelp and sudachi - what a great combination: the kelp was salty, chewy and tasty even by itself. The ponzu was fine as well, but I think the fish needed a bit more salt to fully shine, so this was not an ideal pairing. The almost tasteless and mealy fish liver was the worst part of the dish for me 18.
More fish and condiments: torched skipjack melted in one's mouth - the opposite end of the texture spectrum from the marbled flounder. It was served with sliced myoga (Japanese ginger), perilla, and grated ginger. These condiments made for a wonderful combination when eaten all together with the provided soy sauce and the fatty fish. Oddly, we were asked to leave the seaweed alone - a test that we promptly failed - it was actually pretty good, slightly salty and full of sea flavor. Overall a delicious course 19.
A turban clam was served in its own shell, but thankfully cut into bitesize pieces. It was served very, very hot, and was topped with a generous helping of uni (sea urchin). Both the clam and uni left me a bit disappointed. The clam was very crunchy and quite chewy, but didn't taste of much. The uni was better, but not that flavorful either - just an “ok” version of this seafood. The broth inside the shell was actually the best part: it was bursting with flavor, but we were sadly (and belatedly) informed that it was not meant to be consumed. Oops 14.
Tempura came next. Two pieces of anago (conger eel) were paired with a shishito pepper. Daikon, salt and tempura dipping sauce played their roles as usual suspects for condiments. The pepper was done perfectly and was full of flavor (19 by itself). The breading was a bit too generous for the eel, meaning that the anago actually tasted more of tempura batter than anything else. With some salt, it was still delicious, but I don't know if this dish had the intended effect 18.
Our next course consisted of very hot simmered vegetables in a broth. Kamo eggplant didn't taste of much, mainspring (the brown vegetables in the picture) were decent, and the squash was also ok. But overall, there was just not that much flavor in this dish - I didn't really get what it was trying to achieve, maybe it was meant as a palate cleanser? 13
The only meat course brought us the return of sesame. Three slices of Miyazaki beef had been cooked shabu shabu style by the kitchen, and were meant to be dipped into either a sesame sauce or ponzu. Cooked lettuce leaves were present to lighten the otherwise heavy dish. Both sauces were excellent matches for the delicious fatty beef that melted in one's mouth. The tasty sesame sauce added a strong nutty note, and the ponzu sauce added some welcome sourness. While the sesame sauce paralleled the fattiness of the beef, the sour ponzu was its exact opposite. Very nice 18.
All good things come in threes, and so did the sesame sauces. Our last savory course started out as yet another sashimi presentation. Raw slices of sea bream were served with wasabi. But unusually, the fish sat on a plate filled with sesame sauce. Some nori flakes and pickles were served on the side. Within seconds, however, it was revealed that this was actually a rice pot course: hot plain white rice was ladled into a bowl, and we were told to combine the fish, sauce, nori and rice in a single bite. The combination was lovely, with the rice adding just a little bit of warmth and texture to the raw parts of the dish. As with our first sashimi course, I was ready to nitpick the chewy texture of the fish. But I did not expect what happened next. Our server poured broth into the rice bowl, and told us to add the fish and sesame sauce to it. This created an entirely different dish: the sesame sauce added the flavor that the fish, broth and rice had been missing. And, amazingly, the fish, once cooked, was completely tender and melted in one's mouth - delicious. I loved this double use of ingredients to create two radically different dishes in front of use - very clever. Yes, the pickles were a bit too light and not very sour. And taste-wise, this was more an 18, but for creativity alone 19.
A single, simple dessert concluded our meal. Pieces of musk melon were served over almond tofu. This was a good combination of fruity melon and creamy tofu 17. 18 from my wife.
Overall: A very relaxed dinner of Kaiseki-inspired Japanese cuisine with warm, friendly service. Among the closest to a mom-and-pop shop that I've seen among three-Michelin-star restaurants, which tend to run towards a more detached professional atmosphere. Several dishes were very good, and quite creative as well (the rice course in particular). But they were unfortunately balanced by a few less impressive courses that were lacking in flavor. Blame my Western palate, if you must 17.