How to book Nihonryori RyuGin

Nihonryori RyuGin is the restaurant of owner-chef Seiji Yamamoto, who was born in 1970 in Kagawa Prefecture². It opened on 23 December 2003 on a side street in Roppongi and moved on 21 August 2018 to Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, where it became the main RyuGin restaurant¹. Its name comes from the Zen phrase "Ryugin Unki"¹.

The 50 Best guide describes the cooking as kaiseki tradition joined with contemporary styles⁶. The restaurant itself puts the focus on seasonal ingredients, with seafood at its centre, and says it uses no chemical seasonings^3,4. Dinner is one set course: two appetizers, a seasonal soup bowl, sashimi, charcoal-grilled fish, a simmered dish, a meat course, rice, sweets and thin matcha³. The menu page lists it at 77,000 yen including tax, plus a service charge³. From January to March the kitchen serves only a fugu course⁵. Guests who cannot eat fish are not seated⁴.

The dining room is seven floors up, with views over Tokyo⁶. It has 40 seats at tables, two private rooms and a semi-private room, and no counter⁴. Photographs of the food and perfume are not allowed⁶. The Michelin Guide gives it three stars, and The World's 50 Best lists it at No. 35 in Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2021, after giving Yamamoto the Icon Award in 2019^5,6.