Tateru Yoshino

Was at Tateru Yoshino a couple of weeks ago. As always an excellent meal. Tateru Yoshino is a fine chef who holds stars in both his Tokyo restaurant and Stella Maris in France. He actually jets from country to country on a biweekly basis to cook at his places. I respect that. Most people, like Gordon Ramsey are never at his restaurants. I find that kind of off.

Gordon says its like Armani, where Armani doesn't stitch each article of clothing at his boutiques, but I say it is not the same. You can return a suit if it does not please you and is not up to snuff. You can't reverse peristalsis a meal and request a refund. You can compare suits and see if the one you bought is the same quality as something else. How do you do that with food? Can you go up to another customer and say- dude how's your linguini? is it soft and mushy like mine or does it actually taste good. Let me try some to compare.

Tateru Yoshino is there often enough that I am comfortable going. Also Wakanobayashi-san (the head sommelier) is there and if he is there I can be rest assured that the service will be top-notch and the food always under proper supervision.

If you go, get the goat carpacchio- excellent!

Every dish was very good and memorable, like a fine Michelin star restaurant should be. WE drank too much though. The Tokaji Ascenzcia was over the top. Excellent but unnecessary as we were all pretty toasted by that time. The Billecart Salmon non-vintage to start was and is always an excellent choice. The 1982 Ducru-Beaucailleu was excellent and cheap on the wine list.

The lamb there is the best in Tokyo.