Azabu Asai’s head chef Taichi Asai values personal connections above all. Every morning, he visits the Toyosu Fish Market to chat with his inner circle of seafood suppliers, who give him the best of the day’s catch. The top-grade kuroge wagyu he serves comes from a butcher in his hometown of Kyoto.   

Though he now owns his own restaurant in one of the most glamorous parts of the nation’s capital, the Kyoto farmers who supply his vegetables still fondly recall him from junior high school days.  

These human connections, patiently built and established over years of trust and care, underlie every dish at Azabu Asai. Though Chef Asai has refined his skills in some of Kyoto’s most famous restaurants, like the famed kappo restaurant Maruyama in Gion, or the Ginza branch of Restaurant Yonemura, it is these irreplaceable connections that make all the difference in his cuisine.