Naruya

At Naruya, dinner centres on a chef’s-choice menu that brings seasonal ingredients to the fore, one dish at a time. One diner’s detailed account of an evening began with steamed egg custard topped with a sauce made from soft-shell turtle stock, followed by a dish served with dried sea cucumber and arrowhead crisps with yuzu miso. The diner remarked that the flavours seemed to unfold gradually, making for an opening that drew attention to the ingredients and how they were paired.

A dish layered over a thin bed of vinegared rice brought together tuna, yaito bonito, pike conger, meita flounder, sea urchin, salmon roe and kurokawa mushrooms—a colourful combination of seafood and other seasonal ingredients. Next came dobin-mushi, a clear broth served in a small teapot, with pike conger, kintoki grass and wild shimeji mushrooms. The same meal also included grilled Spanish mackerel, thick Kumamoto shiitake mushrooms, and grilled cod milt with taro. Wild boar in white miso was served with ginkgo nuts and maitake mushrooms.

The meal ended with rice cooked with ayu, red miso soup and a monaka wafer filled with cream and adzuki beans. The account describes the wafer’s crisp bite, followed by a chestnut dessert finished with cream piped in front of the diner. It also included a rich chestnut pudding and a large chestnut. These dishes are part of one diner’s account of a particular evening, so the same items may not always be available; still, the attention to dessert makes the meal’s finale worth noting.

Another diner wrote that the chef’s-choice meal included house-made dishes through to the final course, and that conversation added to the evening. One account also mentions enjoying sake; beer and wine are listed too, giving diners a choice of drinks to accompany the meal.

Dinner is listed from Tuesday to Sunday, 18:00–22:00. Reservations are accepted and recommended for dinner, so it is worth booking ahead for your chosen date.