Azzurri
I heard that a renovated 80-year-old traditional Japanese house, which opened this June, is located just a few minutes' walk from the Kagurazaka-shita intersection. The chef here is Michihisa Sato, a former chef from the Imperial Hotel's renowned restaurant "Nadaman." I was excited to try the grilled vegetables and meat cooked over a traditional irori (hearth), so I decided to go.
This time, I sat at the counter right in front of the irori. There are a few tables on the first floor, and several private rooms on the second floor, like the one in the picture, making it suitable for business dinners as well.
The course started with a meat appetizer featuring four types of dishes using premium black wagyu and Kobe beef: warm yuba with caviar, Kobe beef prosciutto paired with Shizuoka-grown musk melon, cream cheese pickled in miso, and roasted black wagyu beef sushi along with uuni sushi. The uuni sushi includes sea urchin from Hokkaido, all wrapped in a specially crafted sushi rice that uses an original blend from Sumida-ya in Azabudai Hills, mixed with ancient black rice.
One of the specialties is the Kobe beef menchikatsu, which, when cut in half, releases a fragrant steam. I enjoyed it on its own at first, then later with homemade tartar sauce, and finally wrapped in lettuce for a delightful bite.
Next came the irori BBQ selections: skewers of beef, Miyazaki Hyuga chicken, homemade tsukune (chicken meatball), chicken chashu, and Kalbi pork skewers from Yamayuri. Seasonal vegetables were also nicely arranged. There were plenty of condiments and sauces for the grilled items, including lemon, rock salt, wasabi, as well as garlic chili sauce and salt lemon ponzu, along with the black and red pepper from Genryoku.
One item that looked like toast was Tochio-age (a type of fried tofu), and the grilled zucchini, dipped in lemon ponzu, was refreshing. I forgot to take a photo of the Apios, small potato-like tubers that were sweet and pleasantly fluffy.
The Hyuga chicken skewers included both tsukune and chashu varieties, and the chashu had a rich sweetness from the fat, which combined nicely with the black pepper and chili pepper.
With all that meat, we needed some red wine. They offer wines served in ANA and KLM's business class, including a Malbec from a winery in Argentina with a 120-year history. The Kalbi from Kanagawa's Yamayuri pork was incredibly delicious and the fat was sweet and bursting with flavor—perfectly complemented with the garlic chili sauce. Choosing red wine was a great idea.
The beef skewers were made from black wagyu sirloin, cooked to medium-rare, juicy and tender. We enjoyed the meat with garlic soy sauce and a blend of wasabi and Jabara pepper.
We added grilled sweetfish to our order, and it was a plump fish that looked delicious even while cooking, and the salty flavor was just right.
Irori grilling is quite rare, so I think it would impress overseas visitors. There are also various course options named after famous places in Kyoto, like Kamogawa, Kiyomizu, Arashiyama, and Gion.
Thank you for the wonderful meal!