Florilège – Fantastic lunch deal but not sure why it’s 2 stars.

I visited Florilège last week during my visit to Tokyo. Per their reservation rules I had booked exactly one month ahead of my desired date, and only had an opening for lunch. Being such a “tough booking” I was quite keen to taste what was in store. I think my key takeaway was that it was good, but not really sure how it got 2 stars.

The restaurant’s layout isn’t that great and inferior to its previous location. It’s now a very long table rather than a U shaped in the past, so being at the end of the table it’s not easy seeing what the chef was cooking up. The service was also quite hectic as well simply because they seem short staffed; the chefs doubled as servers and the bartender/sommelier had to make drinks and clean up tables, and it definitely dragged the lunch service to well past 2.5 hours.

As for the dishes? I think they’re pretty good. I honestly do not remember a particular dish that was really mind-blowing, they’re all….fine. I thought the protein dish (summer deer) was probably the best. Desert was decent as well. Again when it got to dessert and coffee the chefs were crowded in the little coffee room feverishly making matcha and coffee, and simply didn’t have enough hands on deck to serve everyone promptly. I guess there’s a reason why they didn’t invest in more staff.The reason? The price. The lunch menu was only $11000 yen ($77USD), which is a ridiculously good deal for a Michelin restaurant. Where I’m from (Hong Kong), a random pedestrian dinner will cost me that and more, so I found it mind-blowing that they can charge this price. Even with the non-alcoholic pairing $6.6K yen ($46 USD), it’s still a great deal.

So to conclude, I did enjoy my lunch here, I wished I got to try their dinner service, I can only assume it’s even better.