Our last meal in Japan was at two Michelin starred restaurant Florilège in Tokyo.

Florilège, currently #7 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, is a small restaurant with only counter seating wrapping around the open kitchen where guests can watch the chefs in action. Chef Hiroyasu Kawate’s modern Japanese multi-course menu highlights Japanese seasonal ingredients with French influences.

What an adorable presentation of little tender sweet potatoes buried in “dirt”. These potatoes were deliciously sweet with a great earthy flavor. 

Tender pieces of squid lay on top of creamy Fromage Blanc and tangy yogurt. Underneath the squid was some caviar and thinly sliced turnips were garnished on top.

This airy, fluffy, and warm bao was like a cloud. The sake lees flavor wasn’t too prominent so I wouldn’t have guessed that to be the flavor.

A unique combination of flavors with pungent mackerel and blue cheese with earthy black truffle, thin delicate strands of yuba (tofu skin), and mild potato. 

Tiny firefly squid were stuffed inside these colorful raviolis. I wanted a little more filling inside the raviolis as it didn’t have the textural integrity that I wanted.

This signature dish of chef Kawate’s was one of the highlights of the meal. The beautifully marbled beef carpaccio was draped on top of luscious potato cream. The accompanying various oils only enhanced the complex flavors of the beef letting its flavors shine. 

This was another tasty dish with scallop mousse and bamboo shoot. Flavors of seaweed and clam were also integrated into the seafood focused dish.

They presented the guinea hen which would later become our last savory dish of the night.

Full view of the open kitchen.

Perfectly cooked flatfish was supple and delicious served simply with pickled turnip. So good.

The guinea hen had golden brown crispy skin and tender moist meat. Beautiful cookery. 

Various presentation of tart kumquat were highlighted in this palate cleanser. 

This dessert might look unassuming but the flavors were spot on. It reminded me of everything you wanted from an apple pie with its depth of apple flavors and warm spices. 

Almost like a chocolate pudding shaped in a cacao fruit, this was a nice way to end the desserts. 

Japanese love to finish off their meals with a refreshing piece of fruit and these strawberries coated in a strawberry jelly were superb.

Florilège was a great dinner to finish off our Japan trip. I liked the contemporary approach while still having some familiar ingredients integrated into dishes. While the food was creative and fun, some of the flavors just didn’t work for me personally. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed my experience there especially with the open kitchen and watching all the chefs plate up the food. Therefore my rating is an 8/10.