Quintessential

What I was counting down to...

Hmmm, we got a private room. Wonder why...

The famished look. No breakfast.

Menu carte blanche literally translates to "blank card". True to its word, besides the chef's cooking philosophy, nothing else was written, not even prices

Always game for some bubbly

Gazpacho

Goat milk bavaroise

Brioche

Isaki

Aged beef

Feeling sorry that I forgot to snap dessert #1

Meringue ice cream

My affogato creation

Toilet with stitched leather handle

Not scrimping on the toiletries either

Very happy picture taken with the obliging young chef

This may sound silly and when put in writing, even sillier. Been trying to secure reservations at Quintessence the last few years and it was close to impossible. Their phone lines are always jammed and calls are only entertained for a measly 3 hours per day with reservations only open up to 2 months in advance. Oh, and don't even think you can outsmart their very anal reservation system by going down to the restaurant. They will not budge. How do I know? Been there, done that.

So, was super lucky to score a lunch spot today. Otherwise, the next available slot will be some time in July. As my fellow countrymen would say, die die must go!

What we ate:

• Gazpacho - Using only organic tomatoes, classic gazpacho ingredients like garlic and paprika were omitted as they were deemed to have too strong a taste and hence, masked the sweetness from the tomatoes. Because it was carbonated, it was very refreshing.
  
• Goat milk bavaroise - The milk was delivered fresh from Kyoto only this morning. Churned into cream, it was seasoned with mineral salt from Brittany, olive oil and macadamia nuts. It was rich with melt in the mouth goodness.
• Brioche with parmigiano, zucchini and foie gras croquette - What can I say, the description alone speaks for itself. Clearly my favourite.
• Isaki or Grunt fish - Placed in a 320 centigrade oven for a brief 1 minute, the fish came out crisp yet tender. The heavy sauce of comte cheese, sherry and sea urchin was a beguiling mix when paired with the delicate flesh of this white fish.
• Aged beef - Aged for 2 months, the beef was complemented with an au jus sauce that included chopped walnuts and chamomile. The beef was said to be broiled over a duration of 3 hours. It was firm yet not over done as over that 3 hours, the meat was taken in and out of the oven no less than 25 times. Fancy that! What a remarkable effort!
  
• Coconut cream with pistachio oil and espresso cream - Creamy and silky, the use of coconut cream in any dessert always gets the thumbs up.
• Meringue ice cream - Very cutting edge as a spray of concentrated seawater was applied to the ice cream. As like all meringues, this was a tad sweet for me so I dumped half of it into my single espresso, ala affogato. Perfect contrast to the bitterness of the coffee.

To conclude, Quintessence is not big on showmanship but it thrives on its 3 big values: Produit (Product), Cuisson (Process) and Assaisonné(Seasoning)

Quintessence

Address: 5-4-7 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, 108-0071 Tokyo, Japan
Telephone: 03-5791-3715 (Reservations only from 9.30am～11am, 3.30pm～5pm)
Michelin: ***