Kadowaki

60%
Good overall Japanese kaiseki restaurant, although I find the cooking to be less accessible and challenging to understand. Prices are higher.
***
Came here for dinner, Oct ’14 with another diner who recommended the place.
Kadowaki is a Japanese fine dining restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. As far as my understanding goes, it serves Kaiseki, or Japanese style fine dining dinners. The cooking appears to be more traditional than contemporary. The menu seems to be more seasonal and ingredient driven.
Prices are closer to the moderate end of expensive. As of exchange rates in late 2014, our dinner here cost around 32,000 Yen or US$ 270 per person for the kaiseki alone. Apologies if the cost is slightly off.
Some diners may be interested to know that this place had 2 michelin stars as of 2014, although I am uncertain about 2015. The environment is more traditional, intimate, and solemn. There is an available chef’s counter where you are able to observe the chef cook for you throughout the entire dinner.
I liked Kadowaki overall, although I found that I often struggled to appreciate the cooking. It wasn’t my among my absolute favorites in fine dining this year. It wasn’t one of the more memorable meals within my three day trip in Japan, of which many were michelin star rated restaurants. I found the flavors to often be inconsistent. Some items had more subtle flavors. Others were quite harsh. Some items were quite delicious and others not so much. At more than one instance I was puzzled with some of the ideas and execution choices. I did find the price to be higher than the vast majority of my meals, yet it seemed that the premium was often difficult to justify other than the use of more premium ingredients at times like black and white truffle or blowfish.
With the this review, instead of going through a detailed course by course description, I’ll just note some of the more intriguing moments, whether they were highlights or not. I don’t feel confident enough to fairly comment in the details of this style of cuisine, that I’m not very used to, but I think its fair to mention some details that I enjoyed or not so much. I also won’t rate each course like I usually do.
There were some strong courses here. I recall the starter plate with a small serving of hot rice with ginko nuts, sweet fish roe, and red bean was an effective blending of sweet and savory elements. It had a nice presence of bright, refreshing flavors that was very stimulating to the palate, yet also delicious and comfortable. It was one of my favorites.
The fried blowfish with a batter and flavor profile similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken was quite clever in that the texture of the fish had a very similar texture of juicy chicken thighs, with the most subtle delicious flavor of fishiness.
The ayu fish cooked with a matsutake mushroom gravy, made use the pairing of both ingredients nicely, with the mushrooms earthy bright notes complementing the fragrant binchotan charcoal notes from the fish nicely. Nonetheless, I was not sure I understood the appeal of such a fish. I was also perplexed how the fish head was cooked to the extent where it tasted harshly bitter to the extent that it was almost like biting into charcoal. I was puzzled if this was deliberate or a mishap in cooking.
Some pleasant but not great dishes included the pairing of a snapper sashimi with shaved white truffles. The shavings, not unlike what i had at other meals in Japan and the US this year seemed to be less fragrant and noticeable. The fish as I understand it also isn’t the most vibrant, so it didn’t seem remarkable. The same could be said for the black truffle over baked rice.
Some other courses were okay, like the eel shabu shabu. While the bouncy soft texture was interesting and fun, I didn’t find it to be that delicious. I also didn’t care for the fact that a good deal of bones were still on the eel, leading my toungue to get painfully punctured every few other bites. I’m skeptical it was meant to be served in such a way.
Overall the food seemed to be a bit hit and miss to me. While there were great courses, it was too few and far between. There seemed to be an equal amount of items I found myself not enjoying as much or found mildly enjoying but not impressed. Nonetheless, I’m not ruling out that the cuisine here may not be accessible for everyone. I don’t think it was for me in the same regard an American, European, or a more traditional Sushi Omakase might be. I review this place with a degree of reluctance.
Service seemed quite formal and very organized. I found it to be a bit stiff for my preferences, but perhaps this is a style of hospitality that I’m not sufficiently familiar enough to fairly comment on.
I think Kadowaki might be a good place to look into if you’re familiar with kaiseki. I’m not confident to recommend it if you aren’t so familiar with this style of cooking.