Taichi, run by Taichi Sato, opened on 12 June in the same building as Sato-san’s previous restaurant, Ichita, in Minami Aoyama.
Ichita was a modern Japanese Kappou restaurant that garnered a Michelin Star and Tabelog Bronze for several years prior to closing. It offered a set course with some allowable variation to include additional seasonal items at the customer’s request. There was counter seating as well as a few private rooms.
Taichi is Sato-san’s reimagining of a new restaurant rather than just an upgrade or renewal to his format at Ichita. The course at Taichi is 5 small dishes plus a soba dish at the end. After the first five courses, he offers to take a la carte orders that include some traditional, staple dishes as well as some seasonal options. He has one assistant that shuffles between the back kitchen and the counter. There are two seatings per evening with seven counter seats. However, he targets only 4-5 customers per seating to provide a more intimate experience.
The five dishes offered this day were:
1. Hokkigai and Grilled Eggplant
2. Tsuchihozeri with Okra (Owan)
3. Katsuo and Makogarei (Otsukuri)
4. Grilled Kinki with Corn Tempura
5. Unagi (Saitama – Wild) Chawanmushi
My add-on and soba orders were:
1. Grilled Eggplant
2. Grilled Shiitake Mushroom
3. Ayu Tempura
4. Fried Aji (Donchichi from Hamada in Shimane-ken)
5. Soba Dish – Ume Oroshi
I didn’t get a picture of the add-on menu, but there were around a dozen options. I did get a picture of the soba menu though (10 options).
There was no drink menu, but on offer were beer (Ebisu), Whiskey, Nihonshu (6-8 different options), and a decent inventory of champagne and mostly white and red Burgundies. The wine is stored in two separate refrigerators adjacent to the counter seating, and customers can freely look through and choose what they’d like to have. Prices were mostly right around retail and are labeled (tax inclusive) on the top of the bottles.
We enjoyed the new set course plus okonomi format. The experience was interactive and engaging with Sato-san providing detailed explanations of each dish’s ingredients and preparation and recommending add-on’s based on our preferences and prior Ichita dishes we enjoyed. Sato-san felt at ease and was really enjoying himself. At the time I visited, he had only been open a few weeks, but I didn’t feel there were any hiccups in service as one might expect. If you liked Ichita, you will probably like Taichi even more. Highly recommended for a casual but refined Kappou experience.
Standard course is 20,000 JPY and with add-on’s it came to roughly 30,000 JPY per person.
by m046186