5 best new restaurants at Toranomon Hills Station Tower

Chef Masahiro Kan began his culinary career by cooking Thai curries before he transitioned to making sushi a few years ago. He primarily served traditional Edomae-style sushi to his diners, until one of his patrons made a joke about mixing sushi with Thai food. Kan ran with this idea, and decided to offer Thai-inspired sushi at his Kawasaki restaurant for a limited time. What began as a gimmick proved to be surprisingly popular, leading Kan to fully delve into a menu that encompassed his international culinary background. 

Kan closed his Kawasaki restaurant, Sushi Sugahisa, last September but is now back with a new sushi shop in the Toranomon Hills Station Tower, where Thai-inspired sushi is a mainstay. For lunch, he offers 'Ethnic Chirashi Sushi' for ¥1,650 – a dish of fresh seafood marinated in fish sauce and lime over rice, complemented by eggs seasoned with fish sauce and mirin.

Dinner, available exclusively by reservation, features a comprehensive omakase sushi course for ¥23,000. The course includes four appetisers, 11 or 12 nigiri pieces, and a soup dish. Notable dishes include the shime saba spring roll and kurumaebi nigiri, both infused with the distinctive, zesty flavours of tom yum soup.

With wisps of smoke gently wafting from the charcoal grill of its open kitchen, Nonotory presents itself as an upscale yet traditional yakitori restaurant. Once you’re seated at the counter, however, you’ll notice that the menu of chicken gizzard skewers and tsukune meatballs also includes words like ‘financier’, while the chefs cooking by the grill sprinkle their produce with Guérande salt. This creative blending of Japanese street food with French flavours is courtesy of Chef Atsushi Noami, who opened his first yakitori restaurant in Osaka in 1988.

Noami's 'no waste' philosophy shines through in his yakitori preparation, where every part of the chicken is used, transforming even the humblest cuts like seseri (neck) into morsels elevated with premium condiments like Tasmanian mustard. Even the skin of the chicken, which is sometimes discarded for being too fatty, is baked in the oven for an hour and a half until it becomes an utterly addictive, crispy golden brown cracker.

Everything is worth tasting, and thankfully, Nonotory has two omakase courses that showcase Noami’s talent. The standard course, priced at ¥5,940, includes two types of tataki (thinly sliced, rare chicken), eight skewers of chicken and vegetables, clay-pot rice with chicken soup, and dessert. For ¥7,480, the premium omakase adds an extra appetiser and chicken sukiyaki. Additionally, for ¥3,850, guests can indulge in a drink pairing with five glasses of assorted red, white, orange and sparkling wines.

Lucky – also stylised as ‘Rakki’ –  is the latest outpost from restaurant group 2 Taps, which runs a series of successful modern izakayas in Sangenjaya, including Sangenjaya Marco and Comaru. These eateries blend traditional Japanese pub elements, like an exquisite selection of nihonshu (sake) and shareable seasonal dishes, with beautifully presented, high-quality delicacies. Welcoming to both newcomers and international visitors, Lucky elevates this concept further by featuring sushi platters crafted by an in-house sushi master.

The restaurant's inviting, doorless entryway immediately draws the eye of passersby with its elegant and warmly lit interior. Inside, bottles of regional sake and handmade Japanese ceramics adorn the sleek, natural wood countertops.

The menu varies with the seasons, but the Moriawase platter at ¥2,800, an assortment of appetisers including roast pork belly and namafu (glutinous rice cake) with yuzu miso, is a consistent highlight. The Salmon Ranran – a bowl of white rice topped with grilled salmon, a generous scoop of ikura and a cured egg yolk (¥2,800), is another crowd-pleaser that pairs excellently with an ochawari teatail (¥650). 

A sister establishment of Gakugeidaigaku’s coffee shop WR and Sangenjaya’s modern bistro Nupuri, Croisee caters to both early birds and night owls as an all-day café and music bar. An eclectic soundtrack streams through this airy space flooded with natural light, making it equally suitable for a quick mid-morning pick-me-up and leisurely evening drinks. 

Recommended items include the signature katsu sando (¥1,150), where deep-fried pork cutlet is slathered with homemade Worcestershire sauce and topped with crisp shredded cabbage, homemade mayonnaise and Tasmanian mustard. Come for lunch and you can get this sandwich as a set, with a drink like single-origin coffee or a flat white and a side of soup, for just ¥1,300. 

If you’re ordering outside of lunch hours, you can just get a cup of single-origin coffee on its own for ¥550, or a latte for ¥650. The booze selection includes gin, rum, shochu and whisky that you can sip on while enjoying the café’s regular line-up of DJs.

The latest project by Kyohei Nishi, known for his Nihonbashi bistro Neki and wood-fired dishes at Songbook, is a collaboration with renowned bartender Sorato Nomura, who’ve joined up to create a modern Japanese dining experience.

The menu at Uké skillfully merges modern cooking expertise with essential elements of traditional izakaya culture. Guests can enjoy a wide array of dishes, from sashimi to specialities like potato salad (¥700) and simmered daikon (¥1,300), each designed to complement the drink offerings.

These classic dishes, however, are all given a revamp with Nishi's signature flair. The potato salad, for instance, is enhanced with shishito Genovese and topped with Yamashirazu whitebait, while the simmered daikon is topped with the meaty richness of seared mackerel. The drinks here are given the same treatment, with reimagined izakaya beverages like the 'Noppy' (¥1,100) – a Nomura Shoten beer drink mixed with gin shochu or rum.