The Four Seasons Marunouchi is centrally located and has beautifully spacious rooms despite being one of the older luxury hotels in Tokyo
I was up in Tokyo for a couple of days working on project Motif, the not so new restaurant that Hong Kong wunderkind architect Andre Fu designed, and whose works I know well having come from the Swire Hotels family and he designed The Upper House in Hong Kong that is still talked about these days. His other beautiful projects include Lily Bloom in Hong Kong and St Betty’s and Motif in downtown Tokyo reflects all the sensibilities and style of Fu, alongside the art choices of Alison Pickett who was art consultant on the project – someone I also know well from my time at Swire Hotels and this was the last video we shot together when I was social media lead.
Well back to Motif – the permanent art selection thoughtfully curated, my two favourite pieces are the ceramics wall installation at the entrance by Lok Ming Fung and one is greeted at once upon arrival by a two-metre high bronze feather sculpture by Yasemen Hussein inspired by the cranes in Japanese art.
The food – well following the philosophy and principles of three michelin starred chef consultant chef Nakamichi of farm to table, foraging the best produce in Japan – something the country has long done for centuries – celebrating their own locally grown and sourced produce – distilled into simple, fine French cuisine. Chef Asano at the helm is an avid surfer and grew up on homegrown vegetation in his own backyard combines the best of land and sea under the culinary direction of chef Nakamichi.
I dined here for lunch and dinner and was in for a treat at lunch with the tomatoes at the salad bar – probably the last of the season as we were deep into autumn. I had the degustation menu for dinner and had some interesting Japanese winery wines from California – and the sommelier has some interesting line ups following the same vein, Japanese wine makers and winery owners making wines in France – looking forward to come back and do a pairing.
My favourites of the night was the foie gras with persimmons the fruit being in full season with a dallop of lemon cream. Wonderfully done – acidicity, balance and flavour. Then there was the monk fish perfectly executed bubbling in a bath of butter, served table side. The menu is heavy on the dairy side with lots of cream and butter – I am guessing homage to Hokkaido where the chef consultant Nakamichi is from.
chocolate and matcha – I was skeptical about putting these two together on a bed of soy crackers, it was a pleasant surprise and I’d gladly order another.
Four Seasons Marunouchi Tokyo
1-11-1 Pacific Century Place
Marunouchi
Chioyda-ku
Tokyo 100-627
Tel:+81-3-5222-5305
Are you on Instagram? Follow along for real time updates of latest Macau discoveries this month! I am finally done with work travels and getting back to wandering Macau.
