The private room at Sazenka

Why it is on the list

Sazenka holds three stars in the 2026 Michelin Guide; it first won the third in the Tokyo 2021 guide, with Tomoya Kawada as executive chef.¹² Kawada trained in both Chinese and Japanese cooking, and the kitchen cooks Chinese dishes around Japanese ingredients.³² The restaurant fills a detached house in Minami-Azabu, once an embassy residence, near Arisugawa Park.⁴ Beside the 14-seat main dining room on the first floor, at street level, there are three private rooms: one for four on the same floor, and one for four and one for six on the second floor, one above the street.⁴

It is the wrong room for more than six: take the Versailles salon at Joël Robuchon (up to 12) or the private salon at L'Osier (up to 10) instead. From mid-October to mid-January the kitchen serves only Shanghai crab courses and does not cook around a crab allergy or a dislike of crab, so in that season it is the wrong table for a guest who does not eat crab.⁵⁶

How to get it

The private rooms book on their own page, OMAKASE, separate from the dining room's, linked from the restaurant's web booking page.⁷ It needs an account, charges JPY 390 a seat when you book and takes one booking per account each quarter.⁶ Or call the reservations line, +81 50 3188 8819, between 10:00 and 16:00 on days the restaurant is open.⁴ Ask for the six-seat room on the second floor. The book opens on the first of each month for every date to the end of the month after next; today the private-room page takes dates to 2026-11-30 and opens its next dates on 2026-11-01 at 05:00.⁸⁶ About a week ahead staff call to confirm; a booking they cannot reach by four days out may be cancelled.⁸ Children from 12 are welcome if they eat the course, and a booking that includes children is taken by phone only; the restaurant's home page says the private rooms also take younger children, with dishes made for them, so ask when you call.⁶³ Give allergies and dislikes when you book: the course is set, a guest with wide allergies cannot be booked, and requests made at the table may not be met or may cost extra.⁵⁶

The private-room page charges half the price for cancelling from seven days out and all of it from two days. The web booking page gives the same split for five or more guests at seven days and 48 hours, the reservation page at 12 days and 48 hours: confirm which applies when you book.⁶⁷⁸

From mid-October to mid-January only the Shanghai crab courses are served, this season from 13 October 2026: JPY 71,500 a guest, JPY 104,500 with dried abalone, or JPY 132,000 with the chef's special dishes, tax included, each a starting price that moves with the market, plus a 15% service charge in the private rooms.⁵⁶ The site's course page still prints JPY 20,000 to JPY 23,000 for the crab course; the food page and the booking page give the prices above.⁹ Outside the crab season the dining room's booking page lists the seasonal tasting course of about 15 dishes from JPY 55,000, the dried-abalone course from JPY 88,000 and the chef's special course from JPY 110,000, tax included, service extra.¹⁰ Dinner opens at 16:00, with the last arrival at 19:30; closing days vary, mostly Sundays and Mondays.⁴⁶ Smart casual; no shorts or sandals for men, and no perfume or cologne.⁴

Discretion

The six-seat room is one of two private rooms on the second floor; the 14-seat main dining room and a third private room for four are on the floor below.⁴ The booking stands in the name of the guest who comes: the restaurant refuses bookings made on someone else's behalf, and the person who booked must attend.⁶ No fee or terms for taking the house whole are published: write to info@sazenka.com to ask whether it can be taken whole, for how many guests, at what cost and how far ahead.⁴