Ginza Kuki, a Japanese restaurant owned by Hikari Miso Co., Ltd., launched a “Vegan Kaiseki-style” Vegan Menu in May 2019. In October 2018, Hikari Miso, the leading authentic Japanese Miso manufacturer in Nagano with 80 years of history, opened the Japanese restaurant Ginza Kuki in Tokyo’s posh Ginza shopping and entertainment district. The dishes, originating from the elegance of Kaiseki cuisine, delicately present in a modern way the art of traditional Japanese food fermentation and aging.
In a seasonal regular course meal, which changes every month, the restaurant serves chilled “Chawanmushi,” or steamed egg custard, with the enhancement of “umami” tastiness coming from sweet Saikyo Miso, sirloin steak of Oumi A5 beef marinated with three-year aged miso, and many other dishes making best use of nature’s gift of four seasons from the field and surrounding seas, all of which incorporate the art of fermentation and aging.
In addition to the regular seasonal course, Ginza Kuki now serves a vegan course meal to allow those who are interested in but cannot enjoy Japanese cuisine because of their taste preference and dietary habit to experience the attractive dishes.
The restaurant is confident that guests will experience traditional Japanese cuisine as well as fermentation and aging through the vegan course, and discover new allures of Japanese food. Dashi (soup stock) extracted from dried bonito is not used. Alternatively, dashi from the “shiitake” mushroom, kelp, and other vegetable-based seasoning ingredients are cleverly used. Eggs and dairy products are never used in this course, let alone meat and fish.
Vegan course: 12,000 yen (not including 10% service charge and 8% consumption tax) *Reservations needed
The course consists of nine items, including a set of early summer vegetables and sun-dried foods in a Kudzu sauce, deep-fried homemade Goma Tofu in Sawani style, steam-roasted spring cabbage Kenchin style, and malted salt Tofu with Hanaho.
Ginza Kuki People
The story of the Kuki restaurant starts back in 2010 when Yoshihiro Hayashi, president of Hikari Miso Co., came across Chisako Hori, a Japanese culinary specialist with great experience and achievement at a Michelin three-star restaurant in Kyoto. Since then, Hayashi eagerly sought her professional advice on miso recipe development featuring functional and healthy benefit of miso and of all other Japanese ingredients, reaching an idea of sharing the asset of cuisine thus developed with every customer by offering tasty eating experience through real, serious and professional cooking. This idea finally materialized as Kuki when Hori and Hayashi established partnership with young but passionate chef Shota Sato, with 13 years of experience as the owner of a highly respected restaurant in Ginza, and as an extreme enthusiast seeking to polish up Japanese culinary art with the hint of a concept of fermentation and aging in a modern way.
Address: GINZA-A5 4th floor, 5-9-16 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Reservation: [email protected]
Business hours: OPEN 18:00-23:30 (last order at 23:00)
CLOSED Sundays, public holidays and summer holidays
SOURCE Hikari Miso Co., Ltd.