If I Could Only go to One Restaurant in Tokyo, THIS Would be It

Apr 03, 2025

Quirky cooks in Tokyo nailed it when they decided about a hundred years ago to open a restaurant serving mostly tofu.

The venue is Tofu Ukai, an extremely large restaurant about the size of a modest hotel, filled, on different levels, with private dining rooms for groups of four or more.

The setting is magical — the gardens surrounding the restaurant are breathtaking, even in the pouring rain.

The cuisine is Kaiseki-style — and at our set lunch, about half the dishes contained a form of tofu.

What makes the food here so memorable is that EVERY dish, EVERY ingredient, shmecks big time. Even a simple, pickled daikon radish carries an immense flavor hit that makes you smile.

Of all the meals we’ve had so far in nine days in Japan, THIS is the showstopper by default.

We started with a stunning amuse-bouche of seared wagyu beef, served with addictive, small new potatoes….

Next course on the tofu highway was the single best dish I have eaten so far in Japan — flat, square, deep-fried tofu cakes that are finished by being lightly grilled, then smeared with a miso paste that is set with the flame of a small blowtorch; the diner takes finely chopped onions, drops them on top of the tofu square, then the construction is folded in half and eaten as one might a taco.

The taste of this deep-fried construction is so addictive, you’d swear they must add fentanyl to the miso. How else to explain the immediacy of pleasure? I wrote WOW! WOW! WOW! so many times in the edges of my notebook next to this entry, that I’d have to award it MVP status even though there are still nine days left in our Japanese journey — Most Valuable Plate.

This was followed by Yakihassun, a course within a course as there were a number of dishes here; grilled trout served with gently simmered and seasoned bamboo shoot. A tempura of wild, seasonal vegetables, and a passel of pickled spring vegetables served with crunchy, deep-fried baby shrimp no bigger than a pencil eraser.

Next course — a velveteen square of silken tofu, floating in a bath of seasoned soy milk. And for extra pleasure, one adds a few snippets of kelp, which adds an urgency of umami to the pudding. It’s like eating the best panacotta you’ve ever had, but being surprised that it’s a savory pudding, not a sweet confection.

Then a course of bamboo shoots napping atop a portion of gently flavored steamed rice.

Finish your meal with a cup of green tea, then stroll in the gardens surrounding the restaurant. You'll feel like you’re in… well, Japan! Everything is so beautifully manicured and miniaturized.