It’s Raining Michelin Stars in Tokyo: Din Tai Fung, Fureika and Lugdunum Bouchon Lyonnais

They say that Tokyo city has the most number of restaurants with Michelin stars so I guess it’s about time we start checking them out. We have already written about Robuchon when we visited around middle of 2015. This time around we’ll give you a special rundown of three restaurants we tried last December.

Din Tai Fung has recently opened a branch in Manila but we doubt we’ll stop going to their overseas branches especially the one in Takashimaya in Shinjuku. It has been tradition to shop away at the next door Uniqlo before ordering dozens of Xiao Long Bao, on top of whatever rice and soup we felt like eating. Somehow there’s always a line but if you plan your day well, finish shopping just around before the meal peak hours, you might be able to find yourself with a ready table right away.

As much as we wanted to try a Michelin Japanese place, it’s quite a challenge to get a table with only a very short lead time so instead we tried another Chinese restaurant, this time one that combines cuisines from Guangdong and Shanghai. Fureika is very accessible by public transport. It’s a stone’s throw away from one of the exits of the Azabu-juban stop. It’s very relaxing, despite the lunch crowd chatting away, to savor each item on our set menu while live Chinese instrumental music is playing softly in the background. We are definitely coming back to eat more dimsum.

We saved the best for last. We’re not big fans of French food but one meal at Lugdunum Bouchon Lyonnais changed all of that. We pretended we were rating the place and we couldn’t find any fault at all. We’re no food critics but for us it’s definitely a 10/10. The servers were very attentive, great at anticipating what you need. Everything was clean and spotless. And the food was excellent. In particular, the hot chocolate tart was perfect and heavenly. It was the best way to end a lovely dinner.