Restaurant Quintessence is one of the French restaurants in Tokyo with three Michelin stars. With L’Osier in Ginza recently closing its doors for a while, the three-star French places are now down to just two: Joël Robuchon and Quintessence. It isn’t that expensive for a three-star, so I’d always wanted to go at least once, but it’s so popular that getting a reservation was tough (actually, “close to impossible” is probably more accurate…), and after a lot of twists and turns I finally managed to get in. Many thanks to inky, the man with godlike powers, for helping with the booking.
It’s tucked away in a corner off Platinum Street in Shirokanedai. It’s so far back that unless you go looking for it on purpose, you’d never even know a place like this existed in Tokyo. Photography isn’t allowed, and I’m not the type to sneak shots, so I didn’t take any food photos this time. If you book a private room you might be able to take pictures, but then you’d need a big group to come along.
If you’re curious about what the food looks like, check out the photo list on Tabelog… They’re not great shots, but almost every dish is up there.
First they hand you a menu, and when you open it, it’s completely blank (carte blanc). To serve the food in the best possible condition, they only offer a 15,000-yen omakase course (10% service charge not included). It’s a bit of a performance. I’d already heard about it before going, but it was still pretty exciting. And at the end, if you ask for the day’s menu on your way out, they give you a printed copy. Without that, this blog post wouldn’t have been possible.
The course has 13 dishes in total, starting with six starters. Since there are so many courses, each dish is fairly small.
Sable Champignons – biscuit with log-grown shiitake and cep
The first dish was a biscuit topped with log-grown shiitake. Apparently regular shiitake are grown on sawdust, but maybe because these were grown on real logs, the mushroom aroma was really intense. A perfect welcome dish to go with the bubbles. For reference, wine by the glass was about 2,000 yen a glass.
Gaspacho Petillant – chilled sparkling gazpacho
A refreshing cold soup with something like champagne in it. Great as a starter.
Around this point, bread and unsalted butter came out. Nothing special either way.
Assaisonement – salt and olive oil take center stage: goat’s milk bavarois
The third dish was Quintessence’s signature: the goat’s milk bavarois. Guérande salt sits on top of the olive oil with the goat’s milk underneath, so you’re told not to eat just the top but to dig straight down vertically. They use olive oil that isn’t pressed but gets pressed naturally by its own weight (made by Mille et Une Huiles), and there was no bitterness from the pits or any oxidized off-flavor at all, so it was incredibly smooth. They say it’s pressed at a low temperature and isn’t easy to transport either; the dedication is amazing. The goat’s milk is flown in from the farm every morning, too. Freshness, aroma, flavor: nothing was lacking, and the use of salt in particular reached the level of art. This was the first time I realized that simply arranging ingredients like this could produce a perfectly structured dish. That three-star reputation is well deserved.
Gnocchi de “Tsubugai” – tsubugai gnocchi
Tsubugai isn’t a clam but a sea snail (or maybe a kind of whelk?), and they turned it brilliantly into gnocchi (whether that counts as French, who knows…). It was chewier than anything made from wheat could ever be, so good that it made me gasp when I took a bite.
Kuruma-Ebi et Tartare de Botan Ebi – botan shrimp tartare on kuruma prawn
A dish using two kinds of shrimp, kuruma prawn and botan shrimp. Small botan shrimp are piled on top of a large kuruma prawn, which brings out the rich shrimp flavor even more. The idea of using two similar ingredients is great, and the skill in cooking it just right was impressive too. The shrimp I had at Kyubey for lunch was wonderful as well, but eating it the French way was fantastic.
Courgettes Gratinees – zucchini gratinée
Zucchini topped with a foie gras dumpling. It looks ordinary at a glance, but once again the salt and the char from the fire really come through, so it’s not a dish to underestimate.
That wrapped up the gorgeous starters, and next came two mains.
“Amadai” – tilefish with vin jaune and sea urchin sauce
First up was the fish main: amadai (tilefish) from Hagi in Yamaguchi. Just one outer layer of the skin was lightly scorched at high heat, so it was crisp like a cracker (bream-type fish always have tasty skin), while the inside was cooked perfectly tender. I found myself thinking this might be the ultimate evolution of grilled fish. With the sea urchin sauce on top, it took on a slightly more Japanese feel.
Porc d’Iberico Roti – Iberico pork roasted for three hours
The second was the meat main: Iberico pork roasted at a low temperature for three hours, in about 30 separate rounds. An unbelievably labor-intensive main dish. The meat was a vivid pink and the fat still had its color too. When I cut into it and took a bite, it just melted away.
After the mains, five desserts were waiting. I think this is the most enjoyable moment of fine dining.
Fromages – Testun cheese
The cheese comes first. Cheese served after the mains is meant to let you finish off your remaining wine before moving on to dessert. It was a cheese from the Barolo area, with a really deep flavor.
Sorbet Cake aux Fruit – fruitcake sorbet
Ice cream to cleanse the palate. It tasted pretty good too.
Creme au Coco – coconut cream with pistachio oil and espresso
A dessert built like the goat’s milk bavarois, and you eat it the same way. Espresso is on the top layer, pistachio oil in the second, and coconut cream in the third. At first I hesitated because it had coffee in it, but after one bite I realized all that worrying was pointless. When the sweetness of the coconut cream meets the bitterness of the espresso over the pistachio oil, the sweetness becomes several times more complex and amplified. It was a blissful experience. A dessert that uses the bitterness of espresso! I strongly insist that any dessert lover has to try this at least once.
Soupe de Mascarpone – mascarpone soup with Delaware grapes
A soup with Delaware grapes in it. I was spooning it up so eagerly that it was gone before I knew it.
Glace Meringue – meringue ice cream
Apparently the meringue is frozen, crushed finely, and made into ice cream with a seawater sauce from the Noto Peninsula. Simple, but so delicious. The saltiness in particular was amazing.
A flower made of pulled sugar, served with the meringue ice cream
It was one of our group’s birthday, so we asked for something special, and they made this. It was the only thing from the meal we could take home, so it was the only one I could photograph. The photo didn’t come out well, but they really brought out a work of art. This must be one of the hidden pleasures of a three-star restaurant.
And finally tea and petits fours came out, and the four-hour meal was over. Wow!
Chef Kishida
He’s the owner-chef. Honestly, since he’s a young chef I didn’t expect too much, but the food was so wonderful that I was blown away. When I asked, he said they don’t have a separate pastry chef. Someone like this deserves to be called a genius.
The front of the restaurant, shot on the way out
It really lives up to its reputation. Reservations are so hard that I doubt I’ll be back, but it’s a place I’d love to go to two or three times over.