Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan

SÉZANNEA French dining room on the seventh floor of a Marunouchi office tower

Guests come in through a champagne salon and move through to the dining room, where the whole row of seats faces the open kitchen.

The restaurant is the dining room of Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi, at 1-11-1 Marunouchi in Chiyoda-ku, inside the Pacific Century Place building.

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PlaceMarunouchi, Tokyo

StyleModern French, fixed menu

KitchenStephen Lancaster

InteriorsAndré Fu

A French base, a Japanese season

Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan — Classically rooted modern French cooking, built on Japanese seasonality.

Stephen Lancaster runs the kitchen as executive chef. He came through Midsummer House in Cambridge and Oaxen Krog in Stockholm, then went to Singapore for Poise, and now brings that line of work to Marunouchi. The produce is Japanese and in season, the technique is refined French, and fermentation is used to give flavour depth rather than weight.

Hong Kong architect André Fu designed the interiors. Guests come in through a salon built around champagne, and the dining room beyond keeps its whole row of seats facing the kitchen, so the pass is part of the room rather than a stage behind it.

Lunch and dinner both close early, and the cut-off is arrival rather than departure: last seating is 13:00 and 19:30. A table here leaves the afternoon, or the rest of the evening, intact.

A row of camel upholstered banquettes and small tables along sheer curtains, with two amber lamps on a sideboard — The row of banquettes along the window

A hand holding a silver spoon, pouring pale sauce over a cut slice of layered vegetables — Sauce spooned over a cut slice

A deep white plate with a standing cylinder of orange and pointed rim, a purple-brown cluster beside it and pale green sauce

The sauce pooled at the base of the plate

A deep white plate, a standing cylinder with an orange base and a pointed rim folded outwards, and a purple-brown cluster with tendrils beside it. The sauce lies flat at the bottom, pale green.

A private dining room in pink-brown marble, with a long white-clothed table, matching chairs and two small lamps

The private room in pink-brown marble

Marble walls with the veining running horizontally, a long table under a white cloth, matching chairs around it, a small lamp at each corner and a bowl of green flowers on the side.

A dark glazed sphere on a perforated white plate over fine powder, with a small dish of round baked bread

Pastry, then bread

A perforated plate holds a sphere under a dark glaze, set on a ring of fine powder; a small dish beside it carries a round bread, baked dark and still warm.

A pale marble alcove holding white flowers and green spherical plants, with a long white table and camel chairs

Route

Where this meal sits in a Tokyo day

Dinner's last seating is 19:30, which leaves the rest of the evening free; lunch ends early enough to carry on with the afternoon. Both are worth planning backwards from the seating time rather than from the closing time.

The room is a sequence, not a single space

Guests come in at the salon: a long marble counter, a mirrored niche behind it, layered wall lights on both sides, and a floor of tables already laid. The champagnes are the reason this half of the room exists.

Past the salon, the dining room turns towards the kitchen. Camel banquettes run along sheer curtains, an oversized plant stands at one end, two amber-shaded lamps sit on the sideboard, and the seats on the kitchen side look straight into service.

Also worth knowing

Four details that decide whether this is the right table for a given evening.

The chef's table is a room, not a counter

The official site calls it the Chef's Table, the location page calls it the Chef's Room. It is a private space looking into the kitchen's movement, booked by email and charged separately from the menu.

Pastry is a department of its own

Nicolas Maugard holds the executive pastry chef title, with close to thirty years in starred kitchens and hotels across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The dessert comes from that section, not from the end of the savoury menu.

Thirteen is the floor

Children are welcome from thirteen, and there is no children's menu. Anyone travelling with younger children should settle this before booking.

Lunch and dinner are not the same booking

Lunch carries both menus, one of them available only from Wednesday to Saturday. Dinner carries the main menu. Which one you sit down to depends on the sitting, not on preference.

Putting a meal here into the trip

Two fixed menus, one room, and a set of conditions that are better known before booking than on the night.

Cuisine

Classically rooted modern French cooking on Japanese produce of the season. Two fixed menus, no à la carte, and the dishes change with the season.

Booking

By phone on 03-5222-5810 or through the reservation page on the official site. The chef's table and the private room are arranged by email.

Hours

Lunch Wednesday to Saturday, last seating 13:00. Dinner Wednesday to Sunday, last seating 19:30.

Dress and diet

Smart casual, with a jacket or long-sleeved collared shirt for men. Broad dietary restrictions, including vegan and vegetarian, cannot be accommodated.

Plan this into a journey

Tell us the dates and who is travelling, and we can talk through how a table here fits a Tokyo itinerary.

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