Motto Azabu

There's a particular kind of restaurant that doesn't announce itself loudly – it simply pulls you in, and keeps you there. Motto Azabu, the new Japanese address from restaurateur Denis Ivanov, is exactly that kind of place. Set inside the iconic Metropol Hotel Moscow, Motto Azabu is not just a classic Japanese restaurant – it’s a contemporary reading of Tokyo’s food culture as it exists today: fluid, cosmopolitan, and quietly experimental.

Ivanov spends most of his life in Japan alongside his wife Chizuko Shirahama, a Tokyo native, and it is she who is the quiet force behind this project – its muse, its compass, its co-architect. The name nods to Azabu, one of Tokyo's most quietly prestigious neighbourhoods, where centuries of tradition have long made peace with Western influence.

The room itself rewards slow looking. Antique porcelain sits alongside a bas-relief by artist Tetsuya Nagata, sculpted from rice flour. Vintage linen napkins, sourced by the founders on their travels, are folded onto tables with quiet intention. Charcoal drawings in the Japanese manner – made specially for the space by artist Sergey Kuznetsov – line the walls. Japanese jazz drifts through it all. Nothing here was chosen quickly.

The menu is where things get genuinely interesting. Alongside sushi and sashimi done with obvious precision, the kitchen ventures into the food of contemporary Tokyo – a city that has always absorbed the world on its own terms. Order the ankimo, a silky Japanese delicacy made from monkfish liver. The potato salad with crayfish tails is a sleeper hit. Mentaiko pasta speaks directly to Tokyo's long, unironic love affair with Italian food. For dessert, an airy miso chocolate, or the Japanese pudding – both understated, both memorable.

Two dishes deserve special mention for the raised eyebrows they will provoke. The Shalyapin steak – yes, named after the opera singer – has been on Tokyo menus since 1936, a piece of culinary history hiding in plain sight. And the borsch with wagyu, improbable as it sounds, is apparently a neighbourhood staple in Azabu itself. Order it without hesitation.

Beyond the main dining room, Motto Azabu unfolds in layers: a hidden bar for more intimate drinks, and a lower level dedicated to rotating omakase dinners with guest chefs.

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