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Grilled sweetfish with water pepper, pike conger sushi wrapped in bamboo leaf, oil-simmered abalone, wakame, lotus root simmered with saffron, braised pork belly

This is the grilled hassun course. For the oil-simmered abalone, we vacuum-seal it in sesame oil alone and cook it in a water bath at about 75°C for…

Tilefish deep-fried in a straw-bundle shape, conger eel and white melon mustard pickle, small freshwater fish in white vinegar dressing, icicle-style sea urchin and mountain yam, asparagus and salmon in crystal jelly, sweetfish grilled on bamboo leaf, new-season sweet potato with matcha dressing

These are the appetizers. For the gori dressed in shiro-zu (a white tofu-sesame-vinegar dressing), sesame makes it tasty but dulls the flavor so the…

Abalone tororo, pike conger roe and white melon kaminari-boshi, green plum sliced into candied rings, and more

This is an appetizer course. For the abalone tororo: fresh black abalone is cleaned, firmed up thoroughly with salt, then grated. It's combined with…

Sweetfish and taro-stem roll, somen noodle soup

I aimed to let guests enjoy the aromas of summer, especially July's seasonal ingredients, through a variety of soup courses. This soup course is Ayu…

• Serves 1 · ¥300

• Cook time 40 min

Abalone simmered with soybeans, small clam adductor egg-yolk sushi, kamasu rikyū-yaki, roe-bearing ayu kombu roll, ita-uni momiji, kuwai castella, river shrimp arima-ni, clam hatsushimo-ae, lotus root achara-zuke, ginkgo nut mizore-age

This is the appetizer course. For the tokobushi ōbune-ni, we wash the small abalone and simmer it together with raw soybeans. For the small clam…

Niukawa Ayu Ochazuke

This is the rice course from Yamagata's local cuisine. For the Niukawa Ayu Ochazuke, ayu swim upstream in the rivers of the prefecture, so fishing…

• Serves 4 · ¥2,017

• Cook time 2 hr

Young ayu egg-yolk sushi, eel and pressed dried soybean salad, glazed small river crab, young burdock bundled raft-style, tozan-style grilled abalone, watermelon radish wrapped paper-fold-style, summer octopus rice cracker, long-armed shrimp fried in matcha

The first hassun course. For the young ayu yolk sushi, thin sheet kombu is wiped with sake, folded, and laid in a pan. Simmering it with equal parts…

Grilled sweetfish with bitter uruka

Under the theme "Relief from the Fierce Summer Heat," I wanted to offer a moment during the summer season where guests could forget the heat. There…

• Serves 1 · ¥260

• Cook time 40 min

Beltfish with fragrant vinegar, orange-flavored sweetfish nanban-zuke

This is the vinegared dish course. For the beltfish with fragrant vinegar, a white balsamic vinegar jelly serves as the fragrant vinegar. A…

Sweetfish grilled with a rice-starch glaze

For the ayu oneba-yaki, we grill the reverse side until crisp.

Kinmedai Sushi, Eel Hakata-Style, Ise Spiny Lobster with Roe Dressing, Fresh-Green Salad

This is the appetizers course. For the splendid alfonsino sushi, the fish is filleted into three, butterflied open, salted, and cured in vinegar…

Tomato Tofu, Ayu Sebagoshi-age with White Cheese, Udo Tokusa-ae, Hakata-Style Striped Horse Mackerel and Eggplant, Simmered Beef Tongue

As for the tomato tofu in the appetizer course, when combining pearl agar in the pot, stop the heat at 80°C so that air bubbles don't form, and wring…

Roe-bearing sweetfish, sweet soy-simmered

Grilled Autumn Sweetfish, Marinated in Vinegar

This is the su-zakana (vinegared course). For the grilled ochiayu marinated in vinegar, I plain-grill the ayu, remove the dorsal fin, pectoral fins…

• ¥400

• Cook time 15 min

Sweetfish and Kamo eggplant, Dutch-style fried

This is the aiko course, an additional dish inserted into the menu. For ayu and Kamo eggplant, Oranda-style, since I wanted to include a fried dish…

• ¥1,240

• Cook time 50 min

Scallop and paprika agar-set preparation, deep-fried wood ear mushroom dumpling, sweetfish simmered and steeped in dashi, Manganji pepper stuffed with sea urchin, taro stem and abalone with egg-yolk vinegar sauce

Since this is for August, I've built the whole presentation around a green motif to convey a sense of coolness. Let's start with the appetizer. For…

Rice-flour-fried sweetfish, Japanese halfbeak paprika roll, eel sushi, Chinese bayberry, water shield and mountain yam, ground tofu skin and salmon roe

And the Japanese halfbeak (sayori) paprika roll is meant to add a touch of yellow color. The paprika is grilled whole, then peeled of its thin skin…

Young sweetfish with okara, conger eel sleeve-shaped sushi, stuffed grilled bamboo shoot, fava bean and sea urchin fritter, lily-bulb petals

Sakura-chaya was founded in Showa 8 — 1933 — and is the third-oldest established ryotei, a traditional Japanese restaurant, in Mukojima, a district…

Deep-fried sweetfish with corn

This is a fried dish from the summer course menu. For the deep-fried sweetfish with corn, we butterfly open the sweetfish, dry it lightly, stuff it…

• Serves 1 · ¥330

• Cook time 40 min

Seared sweetfish sushi

As a fresh exploration of aroma, I set out to express ayu's refreshing fragrance and umami by using the whole fish without waste. I thought of ayu as…

• Serves 4 · ¥1,600

• Cook time 20 min

Tade-grilled sweetfish, wasabi-grilled beef, Kamo eggplant with foie gras

This is a grilled course. This time I used ayu from Lake Biwa to make the tade-grilled ayu. For the wasabi-grilled beef, I grill it over a net with a…

• ¥1,200

• Cook time 30 min

Grilled Ayu and Summer Vegetable Salad

For the vinegared dish, the grilled ayu and summer vegetable salad takes gazpacho as its reference point. It pairs well with ayu too, and was…

Aromatic deep-fried ayu

This is an accompanying course. For the aromatic deep-fried ayu, salt-grilling is good too, but here small ones are cut open in the suzume style (a…

Simmered Roe-Bearing Ayu, Conger Eel Tofu, and Simmered Tawara Daikon

For the simmered dish, the roe-bearing sweetfish is prepared by lining the pot with daikon peel, laying the grilled sweetfish on top, adding more…