NéMo
Tokyo, Japan
1 Star
The Experience
From Michelin Guide
As a boy, Chef Kenichi Nemoto was an enthusiastic angler, and seafood is the focus of the prix fixe menus he arranges. To ensure variety, Nemoto varies his preparation styles: frites, soups, butter roasting, and so on. In gratitude to the natural world of sea and mountain where he encounters his ingredients, he wastes nothing. The chef is earnest in his relations with producers, such as building bonds of trust with the fishermen of Shimoda.
From Visitor Experiences
- The chef’s background as an enthusiastic angler shows up in the seafood-first structure and the insistence on variety of technique.
- Prep shifts constantly, frites, soups, butter-roasting, to keep the set menu changing with the catch.
- Strong producer relationships are part of the identity, with named ties to fishermen in Shimoda and an explicit waste-nothing stance.
From Visitor Experiences
- Seafood, the focus of the prix fixe menus, chosen to reflect the season.
- Daily catch from trusted producers, including fishermen in Shimoda, a key sourcing relationship.
- Butter, used as a cooking medium in techniques like butter-roasting.
- Whole-ingredient use, a waste-nothing approach tied to respect for sea and mountain produce.
From Visitor Reviews
A seafood-forward, prix fixe French menu in Minamiaoyama, shaped by an angler-chef’s instinct for what is running in season. The courses are built to vary, with the kitchen shifting techniques, frying, soups, butter-roasting, to keep each catch from feeling repetitive. It is a set-menu restaurant, lunch and dinner, with a strong emphasis on using the whole ingredient.