Recte: Michelin French fine-dining in Tokyo

There are so many Michelin-star restaurants in Japan and I wanted to experience one during our honeymoon trip 🤩. I spent a long time looking through the list of Michelin guide to select a restaurant that was in the Shinjuku or Shibuya area, within our price range, and was easy to book as a foreigner with no Japanese phone number. After doing all that research, we booked and dined at Recte, a French fine-dining restaurant in the Daikanyama area of Tokyo.

As I write this review, I actually am pretty confused as to whether Recte still has their Michelin-star status 😵. Before my trip this September, I found Recte via the Michelin website and made the reservation online through tabelog. Now that I am writing this post, I no longer find Recte on the Michelin website under the distinction filter so I am not sure if perhaps they have lost the star within 2024 😥. Nevertheless, Recte had received a 1 star in the Tokyo Michelin Guide for 6 consecutive years.

We dined at Recte on a Monday night and tried their Kamado course set meal (there is no al le carte dining available). Kamado cuisine is cooked over charcoal or wood in a traditional stone oven. Here is everything we ate!

Recte
Japan, 〒150-0021 Tokyo, Shibuya City, Ebisunishi, 2 Chome−17−5 サンビレッジ代官山 2F

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The vibe

Recte was hidden inside this apartment-looking building and the inside is a pretty small space. There is a small private dining room, and 3 other tables in the main dining room area.

One thing that was funny to me was that for the entire night, there were only 3 tables of 2 people each, and we were one of those tables. So their operations for the night was to feed 6 customers total and that was it 🤨. Also, our dining experience took slightly over 2 hours.

We were spaced out from other tables but overall, the atmosphere was quite posh and quiet.

Upon arrival, there was a letter from the chef talking about how is food is supported from amazing producers from Japan. His dedication is to respect the ingredients and create a piece of vitality. To achieve this, he places importance on the aroma, the way salt is added, and the cooking methods used.

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Food review

As mentioned, we experienced their set Kamado meal, which has around 10 courses. The menu they gave us was all in Japanese and Google Translate really butchered the translation so you will see some of those translations in this review as I wasn’t sure exactly what I was eating, but I got the gist of it.

They have a wine pairing option for $$$ but I am not that into wine pairings for set courses. Since this was a French restaurant though, they had a wide selection of wines. We opted for 1 glass each and got a red Syrah.

First course: Takara Farm’s tokel galette pied peau

Sorry for the heading but these is what Google Translate says 😂.

The first course is more like a one-biter. Our server tries his best to speak to us in English, but we are not able to fully understand all the elements in this dish. What I got out of this is that it is basically a little toasty with cheese and some sort of pork (maybe rind?).

I mean sometimes I am fancy and do fine-dining, but I will also love myself a nice little cheese toasty.

Second course: Shimokita Shioya’s nerve-tight grilling

I can’t with these translations. 😂😂

The next course features a piece of fish but the real stars are the veggies. There are carrots, peppers, green beans and artichoke. The flavours here are very light to pair with the fish and also quite refreshing. I also feel like they put a lot of care into prepping these vegetables.

Third course: Chitose Umemura farm beets

This course wasn’t as confusing – beets! I like beets and I feel like I see them often in fine-dining.

Here we have beets cooked 2 ways – one paired with some proscuitto/meat and another with cheese. The flavours here are quite sophisticated – they don’t even taste like vegetables. They taste like chocolate and decadent beings.

Fourth course: Tokachi Harukirari spelt wheat

Who would’ve thought the next course is bread? The bread was given to us in a nice little cloth bag and it was warm and freshly baked. The butter also looked quite cute.

I don’t know what else to say except that it was pretty good bread. We actually had 2 bags of bread as we waited for our next course.

Fifth course: Funka Bay hairy crab

Next course was one that my husband was looking forward to because he loves crab. What came was probably the smallest portion of crab risotto I have seen. Yes, it was small indeed but packed big flavour.

First of all, it smelled really good – strong smell of crab too. The risotto was cooked well and had that crab sauce all over it. Really good – just wish there was more!

Sixth course: Shioya’s nerve-killing sea bream

The next course was one I really liked – a sea bream dish in broth. The sea bream was delicious and with the broth, felt so comforting and hearty. I also ate all the vegetables they paired it with – they were cooked into soft and savoury flavours.

Seventh course: Ibaraki Tsukahara Farm umeyama pork

Next we have our first entree/main dish. It actually took a long time for this dish to come.

Here we have around 2 pieces of umeyama pork. Apparently, this is a rare and highly valued pork produced on Awaji Island with only around 100 original breeds in Japan 🤯! It is served with veggies that resemble collared greens and had this really savoury and fatty sauce.

Eighth course: Tokachi elezo aged pasture beef holstein x Japanese black

Basically, it’s beef time!

The last main entree is this beef/steak dish. Here we have like maybe 1.5 pieces of a really good steak. I don’t usually like steak too much (I prefer seafood), but this cooked perfectly to my preference of medium rare and was seasoned well also. The meat was not tough at all and the potato was of course delish.

Ninth course: Fukushima Takahashi orchard marguerite mariela

Lastly, we have dessert, which features poached pear and a melty chocolate cake. This was decadent and luxurious but not as sweet as it looks – I think the pear flavours balance that out. I enjoyed cracking that thin layer of chocolate and slathering that smooth chocolate all over the dessert.

Tenth course: After-meal snacks

Finally our last “snacks” of the night – a chocolate canele and a coconut financier. Both were baked deliciously and had great texture.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In total, we spent around $450 for 2 people (there is to tipping culture in Japan). This includes the 2 set meals and 2 glasses of wine + tax.

Food-wise, everything was delicious and I think they stayed true to respecting the ingredients and trying to enhance those natural flavours. I do consider our meal to be fine-dining and therefore, justifiable for that $200 price tag. But, I don’t think the meal was particularly special when I compare it to some of my other fine-dining experiences that do not have a Michelin star.

Service was ok – I mean there were only 3 tables to serve so there was a decent amount of care and attention to our meals. They also tried their best to communicate to us in English, but there was a really long gap of time between the fifth and sixth course so I wasn’t a big fan of that.

Overall, it was a nice dining experience but I think this is more of a one-time thing and I wouldn’t be a return customer to Recte given the price tag.

Sincerely, Loewe