EAST ASIA: Asia's Expensive Restaurants

In Pictures: Asia's Expensive Restaurants

04.15.10, 6:00 PM ET

Phillippa Stewart, HONG KONG

Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than Paris. Kyoto has more Michelin stars per resident than the rest of the world. Bangkok's Mezzaluna sold a 10-course meal for over $30,000 in 2007. Expensive restaurants in Asia are thriving.

"The Asian food and beverage industry continues to go from strength to strength," says Grant Thatcher, publishing editor of the LUXE city guides. "As chairman of the Hong Kong voting panel for the World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards, I'm gladdened by the marked surge of interest we've seen from around the world in the last couple of years."

London-based food critic Andy Hayler, author of the London Transport Restaurant Guide, says, "I have been traveling to Asia regularly for over two decades, and it has been striking to observe the rise of luxury restaurants--Japan clearly has the highest number."

Aragawa, in Tokyo, is perhaps the most famous--both for its rare Kobe beef and high prices. The beef comes from the black Tajima-ushi breed of Wagyu cattle. Many countries have tried to imitate the "Kobe style" by crossing Wagyu cows with Angus cattle, but Kobe beef remains a unique delicacy--its tenderness is attributed in part to the daily massage each cow receives. The meat sells for nearly $800 a pound.

"In Japan, there are several restaurants that require an introduction to even garner a reservation," says Aun Koh, co-founder of The Miele Guide and director of Ate Media.

Mibu, in the Ginza district on Tokyo, which is featured in the current edition of The Miele Guide, is an example, as is Kitcho, which has branches in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo and has outlets that are only open to members and their friends.

"These places are super-exclusive as well as very expensive," says Koh.

Other standout restaurants in Asia include the Krug Room at Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Mezzaluna in Thailand. Mezzaluna served one of the most expensive meals ever in any restaurant, costing over $30,000 per person during the Epicurean Masters Of The World II Gala Dinner in 2007. Six three-star Michelin chefs were brought together in this charity culinary extravaganza. It also has one of the most expensive dessert menus in the world. A dessert selection consisting of Louis Roderer Cristal Brut 2000 champagne sherbet and "Madagascar" chocolate cake with Moët très fine Champagne No. 7 is $625.

Dinner at the Krug Room, in Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental costs $256 per person.

"The Krug Room really is unique in Hong Kong" says Katherine Anthony, spokeswoman for the Mandarin Oriental. "There really isn't anywhere else like it."

The Krug Room seats 12 and is located in the heart of the restaurant's kitchens. Guests are guided through the back door of another restaurant to get in. Head chef Uwe Opocensky is renowned for his "progressive gastronomy." Opocensky has worked at El Bulli under the direction of its famous head chef Ferran Adria. El Bulli has topped Restaurant Magazine's S. Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants list a record five times.

There is no set menu at the Krug Room--diners are at the whim of the chef and can be served anything between a 10- and 15-course meal. A regular item served in late 2009 was his "Forgotten Beef"--a dish designed to look like it had been severely overcooked.

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"The dish was triggered by childhood memories of a dinner that was accidentally left in the oven," Anthony says. Miyazaki beef "beautifully cooked to perfection was then covered with a 'burnt' layer of powdered smoked eggplant skin and served with edible charcoal," she says.

Restaurants in Asia are certainly beginning to compete with their European and American counterparts in terms of price. However, before you rush out to burn a hole in your wallet, Luxe's Thatcher offers a word of caution about all luxury restaurants:

"I think it very important to remember that expensive and exclusive don't necessarily mean great," he says.

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