By Keiko FukudaIt was right after their 2016 opening when the restaurant became the talk of the town as a “Japanese restaurant in downtown, to which people pay a lot of attention”. They won second place in the “101 Best Restaurants 2016” by Jonathan Gold. It is “Shibumi”. David Schlosser is the owne...

By Keiko FukudaThe ranking contest, “Los Angeles ramen top-10” in the LA Weekly magazine in 2013 awarded Umenoya in Torrance as No. 3. The article read, “You don’t hear the typical loud vibrant greeting as many ramen restaurants here, but you can taste all their efforts in making a bowl of ramen”. I...

By Aya OtaIn NoHo district of Manhattan, there is a restaurant that stands hidden like a hideout. Once you step into the place, a nostalgic and warm space opens out in front of you. “We would like all kinds of people to relax and enjoy in a nostalgic ambience,” the owner, Maiko Kyogoku explains abou...

Kappo Omakase-style California fusion restaurantBy Elli Sekine　In the past few years, the food culture of the Auckland area has been changing dramatically. Along with the rising popularity of the farmer’s market in Jack London Square, the awareness of local production for local consumption is growin...

By Elli Sekine"Kemuri Japanese Baru”, a smoked dish specialty store opened in Silicon Valley. “Kemuri” means smoke in English.The restaurant specializes in charcoal grilled dishes cooked with Binchotan charcoals, and smoked plates that are smoked sashimi and chicken and umami brought out by adding f...

By Aya Ota “Takumi Taco”, a fast food eatery in New York which serves unified dishes of Japanese and Mexican, the two trendiest cuisines, has become the talk of the town. The tacos in which various Japanese ingredients are used as an accent are getting a lot of attention from New Yorkers who are fle...

By Keiko FukudaLately, more and more restaurants are adopting a popular concept called “Farm to Table”. As it says literally, “Farm to Table” is a method of cooking knowing exactly which farms the ingredients are from. “necco”, a Japanese restaurant near Westwood is one of those restaurants which us...

Unique ramen you can taste in a sophisticated modern Venetian-style restaurantBy Aya Ota“All’onda” is the name of the restaurant which some New Yorkers are glued to due to its unique concept of the modern Venetian cuisine. It is located in a sophisticated looking two-story building in the Union Squa...