Sézanne - Tokyo
The main dining room
Rating: 18/20
Where: Tokyo, Japan
When: Lunch for 2 on 13 November 2024
Cost: Tasting menu 40000-80000 JPY, Wine Pairing 30000-70000 JPY
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #15 on World's 50 Best Restaurants list (2024)
Why: Delicious French food with Chinese influences
“Sézanne” is a French restaurant in Tokyo, situated in the Four Seasons hotel at Marunouchi, right next to bustling Tokyo Station. Note that there are two Four Seasons hotels near that station - our taxi driver actually took us to the wrong one at first. A quick elevator ride to the 7th floor deposited us in a small lounge that led to a dining room overlooking the train tracks entering the train station. One could spend hours just watching the trains coming and going, but thankfully the food at newly three-starred Sézanne offered plenty to hold one's attention instead.
On this visit, we had lunch in the private dining room which is adjacent to the kitchen. The kitchen can be seen through a window, but unfortunately, the dining room is a few steps below the kitchen and the window is relatively high on the wall. That means that when seated, one merely saw the upper halves of the chefs, but not what they were doing with their hands. For what it's worth, the kitchen staff probably had a better view of us. Still, we enjoyed the privacy of the dining room, and the excellent service that was welcoming and unpretentious. The chef himself stopped by a few times during our meal.
In full disclosure, during most of our lunch we were chatting with Gerhard Huber, a fellow world-traveling diner who has eaten at all of the world's three-Michelin-starred restaurants. He and his wife, who arrived later, are good friends with Sézanne’s chef. While I don't think that their presence changed the quality of what was being served, it's fair to say that we were not there anonymously.
Sézanne offered two tasting menus (the same for lunch and dinner), one a regular “omakase” (or carte blanche, as one would say in other French restaurants) for 40,000 Yen, the other a seasonal menu featuring Shanghai hairy crab and white truffles from Alba for twice the price. Three wine pairings were offered, at 30K, 65K and 70K Yen, where the priciest one consisted solely of champagnes (which must be a new trend, given how often I've seen this recently). When I asked about the difference between the two regular wine pairings, our server recommended the cheaper pairing, since it went better with the food, whereas the more expensive pairing just had more “big names”. It's nice to not be upsold for once. The pairing’s exclusively French wines not only went well with the food, they were also generally really good by themselves. Definitely worth a consideration.
Foodwise, we had originally planned to order the regular tasting menu, but eventually ended up with a mix of the two menus. Here is how that came to pass. My wife is a pescatarian, and Sézanne's policy is to serve the same dishes to all parties at the table, meaning that we both would have to get the pescatarian version of the tasting menu. I've seen other restaurants in Asia doing the same, for example, three-starred Robuchon au Dôme in Macau. Sézanne's kitchen is also pretty small, so this restriction is not unusual from that perspective. However, just after we had settled in, the chef came out to discuss other options. He was worried that the pescatarian menu would exclude some of the restaurant's signature dishes. So instead, we went for a different compromise: I'd order the regular menu, and my wife would just “sit out” the (thankfully few) meat courses. And to reduce the difference, a few dishes were swapped in from the crab and truffle menu. So in the end, we wound up with a menu that nicely showed the kitchen's ability, but probably hadn't been served like this before (or after).
Speaking of the chef, Daniel Calvert looked younger than his 35 years - already a astonishingly early age for receiving three Michelin stars. Hailing originally from the UK, he had worked at Per Se in New York and Epicure in Paris before opening his own restaurant in Hong Kong, which went on to earn one Michelin star. His current venture Sézanne has been ranked #1 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list. While pretending that there is an objective linear ranking of restaurants is a bit silly, Sézanne’s placement still shows that it has many fans. Time for us to find out why.
With a glass of champagne in hand, we were ready for the appetizers, of which there were four, all served at the same time. A warm gougère had been made with four-year-aged Comté cheese. It was creamy from the lovely cheese, but still had enough texture from the bread. Very nice 18. Next was a little “tarte” topped with sanma, a seasonal blueback fish that is vaguely similar to mackerels. This bite was quite nice with a touch of fishiness (but not too much), and a very light crunch to the tarte. I suppose you could call this a French cuisine version of nigiri 17. Another little tarte was filled with caviar, avocado and a dashi jelly, and topped with a slice of avocado and sudachi zest. The tarte had a good crunch and the caviar was lovely, making this a great salty and citrusy bite 18. Finally, a half-circle-shaped foie gras tarte was topped with a Chinese soy sauce jelly. This bite was noticeably sweet from the jelly, and had some umami notes from both ingredients. It was lightly creamy from the foie gras, and thankfully not too heavy. A nice combination of French and Chinese cuisines 17.
It's always dangerous to be served bread, especially good bread, early on in a tasting menu. Sézanne's warm sourdough bread had been made with white miso and brown rice flour. Together with a butter from Brittany, it was delicious. Very crusty and crunchy with a moist and creamy interior that reminded me a bit of canelés. It took all of our self-control not to fill up just on the bread alone. In hindsight, I wish we’d asked for another one to take home 18.
Another appetizer-sized dish was a bowl of soup. Mine was a soft-shell turtle (suppon) broth filled with Japanese arrowroot, suppon meat, tarragon, Italian parsley and a foam made from suppon stock and crème fraîche. There was a lot of that crème fraîche, making the soup very creamy with a light herbal note. I'm not sure that the turtle contributed much to the overall taste, it was there mostly for texture. Quite nice regardless 18. One could debate whether turtles fit into a pescatarian diet, but in this case we decided that they didn't, so we received a replacement dish from the seasonal menu. That soup featured Shanghai hairy crab, crab butter, bread crumbs and a foam made of crème fraîche and crab roe. Again a creamy soup, but a bit less so that the turtle version. It was also noticeably sweeter, but had a good crab flavor. The crumbs added some soft texture 17. In both soups, Japanese ingredients met a French preparation, and in particular the crème fraîche made the results seem considerably more French than Japanese.
The next dish veered a bit more towards Japanese cuisine. Slices of raw baby snapper (kasugodai) were served with caviar, sea urchin (uni), Japanese parsley, preserved lemons and a sauce made from uni, olive brine and a touch of dashi. Kind of like sashimi with a sauce. The fish was creamy in texture, the caviar lovely, the sauce a bit sweet, but overall the flavors were pretty light in this dish, presumably in order to not overwhelm the delicate fish 18.
Jellyfish is an ingredient quite common in Chinese cuisine. The following dish was a jellyfish “salad”, where the crunchy jellyfish took the role of salad leaves in a play on a salade niçoise. The jellyfish was dressed in a tuna sauce (similar to the one seen in vitello tonnato) and sat on top of tomatoes, anchovies and green beans. The tomatoes were fruity and the dish had a hint of bitterness. An interesting combination of French and Chinese cuisines, but I wasn't totally blown away. Tastewise, this dish was a bit duller than a “real” Niçoise salad would have been 17.
A filet of charcoal grilled blowfish (fugu) came with two sauces: an orange one was made with hairy crab and fugu bones, and a green one was made from carrot leaves. Also on the plate were a carrot from Kyoto and a Chinese cabbage stuffed with fugu head meat and a scallop mousse. The fugu filet was firm and very light in flavor, which made it a good foil for the rest of the dish. The cabbage felt a bit like a savory omelet with a nice scallop taste, and the carrot and the sauces were quite good as well 17.
In Chinese cooking, a “drunken crab” refers to a crab that has been marinated in yellow wine. For this dish, a drunken crab’s meat and roe were mixed with koshihikari rice and served cold as a small tartlet. The result has a great crab flavor and a nice texture from the rice - lovely 17.
This was followed by another hairy crab and rice dish, but this time warm, and as a porridge (think: a saucy risotto). It also contained crab roe, and was finished with shaved white truffles from Alba. This creamy dish was even better than the previous one - more crab flavor, a rice with a little bite, and truffles that added some nuttiness and texture 18.
Monkfish liver (ankimo) was served over some pasta, peanuts, mushrooms and spinach. It was surrounded by a sauce made from Sauternes wine and a chicken consommé. A thin layer of foie gras on top of the ankimo enhanced the illusion that one was actually eating fatty duck liver, and not fatty fish liver. The ankimo was lovely and managed to feel not too heavy, and its sauce hit the perfect balance between having a hint of sweetness and still being mostly savory. The peanuts were soft, mainly there for texture, and the only weak point of the dish was the pasta at the bottom that didn't seem to contribute much 18.
A palate cleanser before the main course contained cucumber jelly and potatoes (I think?) that were topped with salmon roe and seasoned with Meyer lemon, a lemon dashi, horseradish and Meyer lemon zest. Lovely - creamy, with some crunch thanks to the cucumber, a popping texture from the salmon roe and a bit of spice from the horseradish. Overall a light dish, but that's exactly what you’d want from a good palate cleanser 18.
The main course came in two parts. First, a duck breast with crispy skin, served with a meurette sauce, a sweet potato and a sliver of crispy duck skin sitting on top of the potato. The duck was lean with barely any fat and a very crunchy skin. I'm not the biggest duck fan, but this one was very good. The sauce was lightly sweet, and the sweet potato had a creamy, soft texture 17. The pescatarian alternative replaced the duck with two stalks of celtuce. I appreciate the effort of serving a replacement dish, but the result was not very exciting. Where the duck had strong flavors, this one had barely any 15.
The second part of the main course was a soup using the leg meat of the duck, some spätzle pasta and a green onion leek oil. Most of the flavor of the dish came from the broth, which was a bit herbal and light. Fine, but a step down from the more intensively flavored duck breast 16.
The next palate cleanser provided a bridge to the desserts. Meyer lemon granite was served with Meyer lemon curd. Creamy with some lemony acidity - simple but lovely 18.
A tartlet was filled with a warm chestnut cream, and topped with shaved chestnuts and white truffles. This bite was very good as well. Sweet, and with a nuttiness coming from both the chestnuts and the truffles - a combination that worked surprisingly well 18.
To conclude, we got to sample two different cakes. First, a gateau basque that was filled with almond cream and cherry jam. It was lovely - crumbly and a bit sweet 18. A carrot cake made with Shanghai hairy crab roe was less of a crowd pleaser. It had too much seafood flavor for my taste 15. Next to the cakes, we also received a chocolate brownie bite, made with both dark and white chocolates. Light and pleasant 17.
Overall: A wonderful lunch, with a series of consistently great dishes and excellent service. Style-wise, this was primarily French cuisine with (surprisingly) some Chinese influences. There was no doubt that we were in Japan thanks to the seasonal and local ingredients, but there wasn't really any dish that used Japanese cooking techniques. French restaurants in Paris frequently have dishes that feel more Japanese. A conscious choice, no doubt, creating a distinctive menu. If I had to nitpick, I would have preferred the flavors to be a bit bolder overall, but that's more of a personal preference than anything. A meal that was definitely at a three-star level 18.
