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Salt-grilled fat greenling

The shinzakana course, an extra dish offered partway through the meal, is where we played around a bit — tried a lot of things, took on a bit of a…

Sea bream, Japanese halfbeak, squid, and spiny lobster

For the sashimi, we staged a theme around Kyokusui no En — the 'winding water banquet,' a Heian-era poetry party where wine cups floated down a…

Lily bulb and Hakata-style smoked salmon

Horse Meat Kombu Roll

For the simmered dish, horse-meat kombu roll uses the most prized part of the horse — the cheek meat. It has a fair amount of fat, is toro-like, and…

Cherry-scented grilled tilefish

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

Small bowl: snow peas and new burdock, tofu-dressed

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

Bracken fern with walnut dressing

As for the bracken fern (warabi) with walnut dressing: my sister back home in Yamagata sends me large quantities of salt-pickled warabi, so I…

Cloth-wrung bundle of bottarga rice

The bottarga rice cloth-wrung bundle, one of the five sake accompaniments: mix trimmings of mullet roe — the roe used for karasumi — into plain…

New sprout, sandwiched and deep-fried

For the new-sprout hasami-age, I use okimebaru. This fish is often landed in the Tohoku region, and its standard Japanese name is usumebaru (goldeye…

Uchimame Multigrain Rice

Dried ingredients inevitably take extra effort, but I wanted to deliberately think about a time-saving dish. Normally, cooking rice takes time…

• Serves 6 · ¥920

• Cook time 15 min

Wagyu with celeriac

This is the grilled course. There are many ways to season beef — salt, ponzu, wasabi soy sauce, a chili-and-yuzu-peel paste, and so on — but I feel…

Fat greenling quickly seared over an open flame, bluefin tuna, pen shell cured in fermented mash, halfbeak, and small clam adductor oil-seared and kombu-cured

This is the sashimi course. Sashimi can easily become monotonous, so I put thought into it — using seasonal wild greens such as flowering rape-bud…

Mixed Shellfish Medley

This is a vinegared dish. Spring is the season when shellfish are at their best, so I steeped hon-mirugai, a large clam similar to geoduck, together…

Salted fish-innards rolled omelette

This is a grilled dish. Underneath the shuto tamagoyaki is an egg batter made by combining a shuto (salted fermented fish-innard) base, milk, fresh…

Whiting Kowameshi

The stock used as a base for the rice — written with a character usually read 'tane' but read 'kusa' here — is made by roasting the bones left over…

Tuna cut lengthwise along the grain into long strips, winter yellowtail sliced on the diagonal

This is the sashimi course. Tuna and yellowtail are served in a snow-style namasu, with plenty of grated daikon. The tuna is cut nagate-zukuri style…

Snowmelt-style clear soup

This is the snowmelt-style soup course. I am often asked the difference between two bases: shinjo, a fish-paste dumpling, and hanpen, a steamed fish…

Red shrimp Shōnai-style pickle

This is the tōshi-zakana course. The irizake, a traditional plum-and-sake seasoning, used for the Shōnai-style pickled red shrimp is made by slowly…

Kuruma-prawn-and-asparagus stuffed deep-fry, lotus-root and shrimp-shinjo sandwich deep-fry, bundled icefish in egg-yolk batter, koshiabura in light batter

For the kuruma-prawn-and-asparagus stuffed deep-fry, one of the fried dishes, I remove the shell from the kuruma prawn and make a cut down the…

Shiitake Mushroom and Urui

The appetizer is a lightly marinated dish of shiitake mushroom and urui. The soaking liquid is shio-koji (salt-fermented rice malt) thinned with…

Bamboo-leaf-wrapped sushi

Chimaki sushi is served from the latter half of April onward, with an eye toward the Tango no Sekku festival (Boys' Day, May 5). We make it small so…

Salt-grilled live moroko / basted-grilled bamboo shoot

For the grilled course's salt-grilled live moroko, we used moroko farmed in Chiba Prefecture. They're arranged in a small charcoal hand-brazier to…

First course: seared sea cucumber, grated daikon dressing

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

Small kuruma prawn, fan-shaped deep-fry

Saimaki prawn hakusen-age is meant to evoke a spring haze. I think saimaki prawns are best without much knife work, deep-fried quickly in high-heat…