In a restaurant lined with local sakes from every part of Japan, owner-chef Hiroki Iwatsuki pursues a concept he calls ‘cooking that makes you want to have a drink’. Potato salad with octopus, braised burdock root with squid, finely minced fish with takuan: this is reworked home cooking to tickle the palate of tipplers. The fish is simmered in the sake of the diner’s choice to enhance its umami. To close, the gentleness of congee steamed in grated daikon soothes the stomach.