What It’s Like to Eat at Florilege in Tokyo

Chef Hiroyasu Kawate is serving French-inspired food at Florilège, an exciting French-inspired restaurant in Tokyo.

It would be a mistake to assume that the Japanese culture is entirely about impersonation. Japan’s world-class French cuisine is still uniquely Japanese – exhibiting flavors, colors and presentations that could only come from the land of the rising sun.

Many of the best Japanese chefs have trained with the greatest French chefs including Pascal Barbot, Michel Bras and Joel Robuchon. Bras and Robuchon have restaurants in Japan.

And, unlike in France, top Tokyo restaurants incorporate local ingredients such as fish just caught in the Sea of Japan and fresh bamboo shoots. Following in the sushi tradition, dishes may be cooked rare to less than rare.

These are the reasons why we wanted to try a high-end French restaurant during our first trip to Tokyo. Our first choice was Florilège.

We made the reservation at Florilège Tokyo two months in advance since Florilege’s original restaurant only seated 20 people. We were curious enough to try this small, relatively new restaurant that we made the expensive phone call from Philadelphia to make the coveted reservation.

Update
Florilege is no longer relatively new and has moved to a new location.

Nestled in the Aoyama neighborhood, the original Florilège location was just a short walk from the Gaien-mae train station. The chef, Hiroyasu Kawate, previously cooked at three-star Michelin restaurant Quintessence, but before he opened his own restaurant where his creativity and precision can truly shine.

We arrived promptly for our 9:00 reservation to find Kawate and manager Toshiyuki Kondo waiting for us at the door. They warmly greeted us and seated us in the intimate restaurant. We each ordered a glass of Meursault and toasted the start to our dinner.

Tasting Meal at Florilège in Tokyo

We started the meal with two perfectly seasoned snap peas served atop decorative snap peas.

The amuse bouche had the texture of soufflé and the taste of an actual olive.

We love foie gras, and Florilège’s version rocked all of our senses. Each plate had a small slice of French foie gras, three hazelnut meringues and one apple-vinegar flavored hazelnut.

As we ate the Spanish mackerel with kumquat and shungiku (seasonal vegetables), we learned that Chef Kawate had thoughtfully included the shungiku to give us exposure to local Tokyo vegetables. The fish was specially sourced, not from the now-closed Tsukiji market, but from western waters in the Sea of Japan.

The guinea hen was served with spinach in a red wine sauce with sesame. For this dish, the spinach was prepared two ways – pureed and pan-seared.

Since the restaurant didn’t want to waste any precious parts of the guinea hen, we were the lucky recipients of a bonus course featuring ravioli with guinea hen gravy.

Dessert at Florilège in Tokyo

The first dessert course was a passion fruit mousse served in the shell with a hard sugar glaze on top and sorbet on the side – another example of local ingredients prepared with French precision rivaling the best pâtisseries in Paris. We can attest that this dessert tasted as good as it looked.

We couldn’t resist the second dessert course. With chocolate nibs inside and both foam and cream on the side, the dessert was both interesting and delicious. Thankfully, Kondo was joking when he apologized for serving us burnt omelets. There was nothing burnt tasting about this dessert.

If two desserts weren’t enough, we ended the epic meal with glazed strawberries and coffee.

Original Publication Date: May 26, 2013