Masia, Tokyo

Very impressive first visit to @masia_tokyo Masia in Ginza, a new, modern Spanish restaurant.

Chef @mateuvillaret is from Catalonia, and has family roots in other parts of the country as well. This shows up in the cooking, where he’s mixing influences from around Spain into a single dish.

The Catalan idea of “Mar I Muntanya”, or “sea and mountains” is really well executed here. Working with both Spanish and Japanese products, chef is delivering tastes that are less common in Tokyo. The “gallo rustido”, here using Bomba rice, shamo chicken, and Sakura shrimp was a particular favorite.

An short but well considered all-Spanish wine list and thoughtful pairings rounded out the meal nicely.

Tokyo - don’t sleep on this one. The guests next to me had come in for lunch the day before, and enjoyed it so much they returned for an entirely different dinner menu. When you do go, make sure to ask chef for some of the smoked olive oil - it’s remarkably good. Less