Melinda Joe's 12 favourite wine bars and wine restaurants in Tokyo 2025
If you’re in Tokyo looking for somewhere to eat, but which also has a wonderful wine list, where do you start? There is just too much on offer. Melinda Joe, a Star Wine List Tokyo Ambassador, is here to help. In this guide, she opens the door to her favourite places.
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Phone: +81 03-5766-9500
Address: 2-chōme-26-4 Nishiazabu, Minato City
L’effervescence is the culmination of chef Shinobu Namae’s vision for sustainable gastronomy. In addition to its three Michelin stars, the restaurant also boasts a Green Star for its efforts to promote eco-conscious practices in the dining room as well as the kitchen. One of the pioneers behind the farm-to-table movement in Japan, Namae was among the first to display the names of the farmers, fishers, and purveyors that supply the restaurant with ingredients on the menu. The kitchen’s thoughtful and meticulous cooking highlights the best of the seasons. In winter, duck breast is roasted over a...
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Phone: +81 03-5357-1921
Address: Gems Ichigaya, 1階, 4−３ Rokubanchō, Chiyoda City
By the Glass List of the Year Japan 2025
Tinc Gana, the sophisticated sister restaurant to the popular Spanish gastrobar Gracia, offers a refined take on Catalan cuisine in a stylish setting. The restaurant's centrepiece is a striking two-toned counter, with mint green interiors. The garrulous owner-chef Jérôme Quilbeuf, formerly of the Tokyo outpost of three-Michelin-starred Sant Pau, brings his expertise and conviviality to the open kitchen. Quilbeuf's creativity shines through in dishes like the creamy salmorejo studded with plump tiger prawns, watermelon, and basil seed. The delectably tender grilled pluma, accompanied by mille-...
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Phone: +81 03-5843-1982
Address: 3-chōme-1-25 Jingūmae, Shibuya City
Restaurant Julia, helmed by chef-sommelier duo Nao and Kenichiro Motohashi, balances the warmth of a neighbourhood gem with ambitious culinary artistry. The Motohashis, partners in both business and life, have created an intimate space that showcases Japan’s terroir. Chef Nao's refined sensibilities and love for her home country shine through in the plant-forward tasting menu. Locally sourced fruits and vegetables take centre stage in delicate, inventive preparations: cucumber adorned with melon marbles and herbs; caviar-crowned potato cubes; chilled surf clam atop bavarois with fermented pine...
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Phone: +81 050-1809-4801
Address: アーバンレックス 地下1階, 3-chōme-3−２９ Roppongi, Minato City
In the heart of Tokyo's vibrant Roppongi district, Kobayashi opened its doors in June 2024, helmed by chef Takeshi Kobayashi. The restaurant's 'Ultra K' tasting menu, served exclusively at the eight-seat counter, showcases refined Chinese cuisine with a personal touch. Standouts include the umami-dense superior stock, made with Jinhua ham and dried scallop, and freshly prepared spiny lobster and clams, lightly cooked in housemade XO sauce and finished with sizzling-hot sesame oil. This seemingly simple preparation belies the painstaking effort behind it, exemplifying Kobayashi's commitment to...
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Phone: +81 03-5537-5580
Address: 5-chōme-4-6 Ginza, Chuo City
At two-Michelin-starred Esquisse, chef Lionel Beccat weaves together French techniques with Japanese ingredients and sensibilities. His dishes are a study in subtle contrasts and harmonies, where textures and flavours interplay in unexpected ways. For example, kelp-marinated spiny lobster is paired with bitter greens from Kyūshū, fermented raspberry paste, and wild anise foam in an intense wild fennel dashi. Equally intriguing is Beccat's interpretation of turnip and cuttlefish, where each element is carefully prepared to enhance its essence – the turnip poached in its own liquor, the cu...
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Phone: 03-6274-6611
Address: Floor 11, TORAYA GINZA Building, 7-chōme-8−１７ Ginza, Chuo City
Newcomer List of the Year Japan 2025
Esprit C. Kei Ginza, part of three-Michelin-starred chef Kei Kobayashi's expanding culinary empire in Japan, offers a striking 11th-floor vantage over Ginza's glittering cityscape. Wooden blocks drip from the ceiling like modern stalactites, setting the stage for a unique dining experience. The restaurant's relaxed ambiance is reflected in its unusual à la carte menu – a rarity for dining at this level. Esprit C. Kei Ginza bills itself as a "gastronomic laboratory," where the chef applies French fine dining techniques – and the precision Chef Kobayashi is renowned for – to a dive...
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Phone: +81 03-6712-5085
Address: 1-chōme-20-3 Higashiazabu, Minato City
Nestled within a renovated townhouse, the inviting, houseplant-adorned interior of two-Michelin-starred Crony eschews the typical minimalist of high-end Japanese restaurants. Chef Michihiro Haruta, drawing from his experiences in acclaimed kitchens across France and the United States, crafts creative tasting menus that showcase Japanese ingredients through a global lens. Dishes like delicate Hokkaido scallop tartare nestled in crisp cucumber-lined tartlets, and magochi flathead adorned with custom caviar and edible blossoms in a chilled kombu dashi, exemplify his delicate approach. A perfect...
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Phone: +81 03-6803-8436
Address: アットホームスクエア 2F, 4-chōme-24−８ Minamiaoyama, Minato City
There’s no place in Tokyo quite like Sushi m, a 12-seat hidden gem where French cuisine meets edomae sushi, and inventive beverage pairings bridge the cultural divide. The “m” in the restaurant’s name stands for mariage, and the concept is based on the idea that the right food-and-drink matches can result in a meal whose sum is greater than its parts. Together with sushi chef Junya Hashimoto, executive chef Shunsuke Matsuzawa, who worked with Thierry Marx, crafts finely balanced tasting menus: delicate morsels of sushi are interspersed with Japanese-inflected modern French dishes such as roast...
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Phone: +81 03-6810-0655
Address: 1-chōme-2-1 Ōtemachi, Chiyoda City
Located on the 39th floor of Tokyo’s Four Seasons Otemachi hotel, Michelin-starred Est examines French cuisine through the lens of Japanese terroir. Ever since executive chef Guillaume Bracaval launched the restaurant in 2020, the two have taken a sustainability-driven, locavore approach in the kitchen, with 90 percent of the ingredients sourced domestically. Creamy soybean hummus is served instead of French butter, and Japanese honey and wasanbon are used to sweeten pastry chef Michele Abbatemarco’s artful desserts. Signatures such as soy milk flan, flavored with a broth made from vegetable t...
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Phone: +81 03-6721-0510
Address: SEIZAN 外苑 前 1F, ２丁目-５-4 神宮前, 渋谷区
Walking by no.501 in the Gaienmae district, you might be forgiven for mistaking it, as I had, for a storage closet. Situated on the street level beside Michelin-starred restaurant Florilege, the shop is marked by a small sign that reads, “kakuuchi,” the Japanese word for a hybrid bar and liquor store. Inside, brightly coloured grid-shaped shelves give the impression of being inside a wine-themed game of Tetris. Natural wine is the main event here, and you’ll find an impressive array of bottles from all over the world. Behind a sliding door at the back of the retail space is a tiny boite with 1...
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Phone: +81 03-6272-8513
Address: 東京ガーデンテラス 3F, 1番3号 Kioichō, Chiyoda City
By the Glass List of the Year Japan 2025
With the opening of Maz, the younger sibling of acclaimed restaurant Central in Lima, Peruvian star chef Virgilio Martinez has added an entirely new category of cuisine to Tokyo’s food scene. Led by the talented and charismatic chef Santiago Fernandez, the 25-seat restaurant offers a deep dive into Peru’s diverse food culture and traditions. Organised by altitudes, the seasonal tasting menu explores the country’s topography and microclimates in nine inventive courses. “Desert coast,” for example, features sweet king crab layered atop a spiced pumpkin stew, served alongside a beignet crowned wi...
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Phone: +81 03-5222-5810
Address: PACIFIC CENTURY PLACE MARUNOUCHI, ７階, 1-chōme-11-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda City
By the Glass List of the Year Japan 2025
One of Tokyo’s buzziest restaurants, Sézanne bagged its first Michelin star within months of opening in 2021 and has since gained more. British-born executive chef Daniel Calvert aims to merge the “timeless elegance” of a Parisian grand maison with the “open-minded lack of preciousness” that characterises the American approach to French cuisine he encountered during his tenure as sous chef at Per Se in New York. The seasonal menu is polished, precise, and technically astonishing: Riesling-poached foie gras with apricot and verbena sauce has the perfect buttery texture, while drunken Shanghai c...
