You want to find a good sake bar? Just ask your friend who owns a sake brewery!

When we were in Tokyo last month, we hoped to hook up with our friend Sakurai-san from Dassai Sake, who was down on business from Yamaguchi-ken. As we were both pretty busy, he suggested we meet up after dinner one night for drinks with a few friends at one of his favorite sake bars, UKYO, in the Azabu-Juban area. As I trust him implicitly in matters such as these, I instantly agreed! And was happy I did…

As we had all just eaten, we pretty much just drank from Ukyo’s vast list of top-notch sakes, which features over 200 bottles from around Japan, personally curated by the owner, Okada-san…

However, watching us drain cup after cup, Okada-san, felt we needed a little something to pair with our drinks, so he brought out a wheel of camambert cheese, that he then proceeded to cover in liquor and set on fire…

He then shaved fresh summer truffles all over it…

It tasted simply incredible and the umami paired so well with the sake!!

Okada-san explained that truffles always pair well with sake and now that they were in season, the Ukyo menu was full of seasonal truffle dishes he had recently added. We looked over these new menu items and vowed to return to Ukyo when we were hungrier. And sober.

Which is exactly what we did the next evening…

However, we didn’t realize Ukyo was such a popular place, and they were fully booked that night. However, as we got there early and they remembered us from the night before, we were able to get a small table out on the patio if we agreed to only stay for an hour before the couple who reserved it arrived. No arguments from us. We sat and the amuse bouche were immediately delivered.

Sea grapes with ponzu…

A “salad’ of okra, mozuku seaweed and picked enoki mushrooms…

Then it was truffle time…

We started with raw tuna and raw chicken sasami with truffle…

I felt the texture and flavor of the chicken went better with the truffle.

Then it was on to the natto with raw egg and truffle…

Lovely, isn’t it?

The natto was homemade, with larger soy beans, which I love, that you can see poking put at the bottom here. I just wish I had taken a pic once we mixed it all up, but it looked so good we dug right in, forgetting about our cameras.

We left our sake pairings to the knowledgeable staff…

Lastly, there was this ingenuous dish…

As uni, caviar and salmon roe all also pair quite well with sake, Okada-san wanted to offer an affordable sampler that features all three, so he came up with this Sake Glass Donburi Trio. Shot glasses filled with actual rice instead of rice wine, that give you a taste of each ocean egg without filling you up…

Brilliant and beautiful!

I owe Sakurai-san a debt of gratitude for introducing me to the innovative Ukyo, and you will too once you visit the next time you’re in Tokyo!

UKYO

2-6-3 Azabu-Jyuban

Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0045

Japan

+81-3-6804-6646