With delicious, authentic Japanese cuisine and the highest caliber wines, this is an offering not seen before, even in the culinary mecca of Tokyo. The dinner-only restaurant offers seats starting at 6pm or 7pm for an omakase course of around ten dishes showcasing the wonderful produce of Kyushu. Apart from the addition of a meat dish to complement Nakasu Matsu's wine selection, the kaiseki course composition follows closely that of the chef’s master at Honkogetsu, and in turn his master at famed restaurant Kyoto Kitcho. Begin with a sakizuke appetizer before meandering through a course of soup, sashimi, and a hassun platter of assorted seasonal delicacies. You will next be treated to a special dish from the chef, a dish bringing together a selection of slow-cooked foods, and a rice dish accompanied by soup and pickles. Following the sweets, you can enjoy a moment of meditation as Chef Aoki performs tea ceremony, presenting you with a warm cup of frothy matcha green tea.

Of all the courses, Aoki emphasizes the importance of the soup, emulating his master who described it as the main dish. But he also loves the place of hassun in traditional Japanese cuisine for the chance to delight guests with a brilliant, appealing display of, for example, the creamy full flesh of a king-size abalone from the Genkai Sea.

The tableware collection, all selected personally by Aoki, contains both antiques and modern items by potters in Karatsu and other regions. A celadon porcelain bowl by second-generation Suwa Sozan (born 1890) is the vessel for Kumamoto venison prepared sukiyaki style. Soup stays warm served in stunning Wajima lacquer by artisan Shiro Okuda, and summertime guests are cooled by the sight of an ice bowl holding charbroiled pike conger sashimi. Guests visiting during the July Tanabata Star Festival will enjoy a hassun dish shaped like a lotus flower canopy. Whatever the time of year, you will be treated to a rich sense of the seasons through the dishes and the vessels they are presented on.

INGREDIENTS
Kyushu is the source of the bulk of ingredients at Nakasu Matsu. Fresh seafood from the Nagahama Market, described as Hakata’s Kitchen, vegetables farmed seaside in Itoshima, and underground water drawn from the mountain regions by Chef Aoki himself. He considered opening his own restaurant in Osaka where he had trained, but the homecoming to Kyushu has been a poignant reminder of the wonder and abundance of Kyushu produce. The only things missing, he says, are ikura salmon roe and matsubagani snow crab.

The ingredients Aoki is fussiest about are the bonito flakes and kombu that flavor his dashi. Both have a distinctive sweetness not found in other varieties. The former comes from a producer in Ibusuki, Kagoshima who Aoki has paid a personal visit to, and the latter is wild makombu Japanese kelp from the waters of Shirokuchihama in the southern region of Hokkaido. This particular kelp variety is almost impossible to come by, especially in recent years with a spate of poor harvests, but Aoki has finally succeeded in his pursuit of this premium ingredient.