Enveloped in the Abyss Created by the Cold | Medetashi [Midwinter] Menu

"Medetashi" in Ohashi, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, is a restaurant that expresses the beauty of the changing seasons through a course menu. We offer sake or non-alcoholic pairings, with drinks served to complement your meal.

Sweet and deep. A winter delicacy brimming with rich umami.

In winter, the air clears, colors become more vivid, and the light sparkles brilliantly. To endure the cold, living things store fat, and vegetables intensify their sweetness and umami. Warmth and kindness soak into the body and soul.

In our "Midwinter Course" starting from mid-December 2025, we will depict the unique beauty of winter through rich winter delicacies.

Kangyo (Cold Dawn) | Japanese Blue Crab, Strawberry, Garland Chrysanthemum, Lemon

Kangyo refers to a cold winter morning. It is a poetic time of day that Sei Shonagon praised a thousand years ago as "the very early morning in winter." In the crisp, cold air, the sky lightens, and the cold makes one feel braced.

The theme of the first dish is the freshness of winter.
We open the course with a design as gorgeous as camellias or sasanquas covered in snow and frost.

The red that catches the eye first is a sauce made from strawberries and Sasanishiki rice.
We have balanced the gorgeous sweet aroma of strawberries with the thickness, umami, and saltiness of Sasanishiki rice to create a refreshing flavor.

At the center of the plate is fresh Japanese blue crab hidden within a shira-ae (dressed dish) of Hokkaido cream cheese, tofu, and domestic lemon juice.
The gentle sweetness of the beans, milk, and lemon in the melt-in-your-mouth shira-ae overlaps with the texture, sweetness, and umami of the crab, and as you chew, its fresh flavor spreads.

By adding garland chrysanthemum, which has the scent and slight bitterness of an evergreen tree that remains green even in winter, to the vivid red and white contrast, the colors become more vibrant and the flavor gains depth.
To finish, we grate and sprinkle pale yellow lemon zest over the top.

First, the awakening scent of lemon, followed immediately by the sweet and sour aroma of strawberries. As you continue to eat, various scents, from milk to garland chrysanthemum, tickle your nasal cavity.
Please enjoy the intersection of gentle sweetness, slight bitterness, and refreshing acidity—a premonition that something wonderful is about to begin.

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Sea Forest | Oyster, Seaweed

Hidden behind seaweed growing like a forest in the cold winter sea is a winter treasure: the oyster. This "Sea Forest" is a signature dish of Medetashi's winter.

We depicted the rich winter sea using red mustard greens and seaweed to represent the forest. The soy sauce used to spread the umami of the red mustard greens is "Tatsumihikari," a wooden-barrel-aged soy sauce from Kajita Shoten in Ehime Prefecture. The seaweed is scented with rosemary oil, giving it a forest-like freshness.

The oyster paste hidden under the seaweed has no salt or other seasonings added. By carefully and slowly cooking it to remove the moisture from the oysters, we created a paste using only a small amount of rice oil. You can taste the entirety of the oyster and the "taste of the sea" in which it grew.

Supporting this rich flavor is a mashed potato made with potatoes, spinach, and "Suji-Aonori" (green laver) from Sea Vegetable. The combination of the sweetness and minerality of the vegetables with the minerality and aroma of the seaweed completes this dish.

Please spend a moment drowning in culinary bliss with the Sea Forest, which can only be tasted at Medetashi in winter.

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Sleeping Mountain | White Tilefish, Japanese Chestnut

Trees shed their leaves, many grasses and flowers disappear, and the winter mountain falls into a deep silence.
Titled "Sleeping Mountain," derived from the phrase "the winter mountain is desolate and seems to sleep" found in the treatise "Linquan Gaozhi" by the Northern Song dynasty painter Guo Xi, we have created a dish that evokes a tranquil winter mountain.

We have taken what will likely be the last Japanese chestnuts of the year, turned them into a paste, and gently, tenderly enveloped the white tilefish with it.

The Japanese chestnuts are simmered in junmai sake, and by using rice koji amazake instead of sugar, we have finished the paste with a modest, gentle sweetness, acidity, umami, and a calm aroma.

The white tilefish from Tokushima Prefecture gains elegant fat and umami from autumn through winter. We grill the flesh until moist and the skin until crispy, then generously cover it with the Japanese chestnut paste.
Finally, we sprinkle on organic hojicha powder, which adds a fragrant aroma and umami.

The fragrant, sweet, and subtly yet gorgeously scented aromas of hojicha and chestnut intersect. The moist Japanese chestnut paste and soft white tilefish are complemented by the light, rhythmic crunch of the scales.

A simple gradation of only brown and white, with an appearance like a winter mountain covered in snow. A gentle and peaceful time flows slowly by.

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Winter Glow | Fuyu Akane ~ Snow Crab, Spanish Mackerel, Napa Cabbage

A beautiful yet fleeting sunset sky, vividly dyed red in the clear winter air.
"Winter Glow" is a dish packed with the vivid and deep flavors of winter, like a reward for a hard day's work.

The vivid sunset-colored sauce is an arrangement of the classic French sauce Americaine, using snow crab, a representative winter ingredient.

We roast the snow crab shells in a wok until fragrant, add onions, tomatoes, garlic, and junmai sake, simmer until the liquid has evaporated, and finish it with heavy cream.
The sweetness and umami of the vegetables and the gentle aroma and umami of the junmai sake melt into the umami and aroma of the crab. We include all of the inner roe (crab miso) and outer roe (eggs) of the female snow crab (seiko-gani/kobako-gani).

Entwined in this enchanting sauce is seasonal Spanish mackerel, which stores plenty of beautiful fat during the cold winter. We calculate the cooking so that after searing the outside in the oven, it finishes cooking within the snow crab sauce, ensuring the perfect texture when it reaches the customer. The Spanish mackerel, smooth, moist, and melting softly in the mouth, is like a celestial robe left behind by a heavenly maiden.

To avoid freezing in the cold, Napa cabbage increases its sweetness by converting its own starch into sugar. Due to metabolic changes in low-temperature environments, its umami also increases. By grilling the exquisite Napa cabbage delivered to us by Gomi Farm in Yamanashi Prefecture—the core part moist and the leaf part fragrant—you can fully enjoy the complex sweetness and umami that Napa cabbage possesses.
We cannot help but be struck with admiration by the power of winter Napa cabbage, which is in no way inferior to the rich snow crab sauce or the robe-like Spanish mackerel.

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Snow in the Deep Mountains | Miyama no Yuki ~ Honshu Deer, Sake Lees, Maitake Mushrooms

Deep in the winter mountains, snow falls silently, and a space wrapped in silence spreads out—this is a dish inspired by such a scene.

"Premium DEER Akitakata," raised in the blessed natural environment of Akitakata City, Hiroshima Prefecture, is Honshu deer (Japanese deer) with firm, sweet, and savory lean meat. Thanks to speedy preparation, there is little gamey odor, and it has a wild flavor reminiscent of the natural mountains. We roasted it until soft and juicy.

The white sauce, which resembles snow, is made only from plant-based ingredients such as "sake lees" (left over after pressing sake), oat milk, macadamia nuts, and onions. It is packed with a sweet aroma and deep umami, but compared to sauces made with butter, flour, or cream, it has a lightness that will make you want to dance.

Maitake mushrooms, grilled until moist by coating them in rice oil, and the snow of macadamia nuts depict a quiet and dramatic winter mountain scene on the plate.

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In addition to the above, our pairing course features Medetashi's signature dish, "Drinkable Dried Fish," as well as a cheese pairing.

After the pairing, we serve a grilled rice ball made with "Sasanishiki" rice from Dendenmushi in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, who have been cultivating rice without pesticides or chemical fertilizers since 1987, in a simple clam broth chazuke.
To finish, please take a moment to relax with our homemade, subtly sweet dessert.

At Medetashi, we depict the story of the season in our course menu.
We hope this becomes a memorable moment and an experience you can only have here.

With only 7 counter seats, a staff of two, and a strictly reservation-only policy, you can enjoy a quiet and private atmosphere.

We plan to continue sharing information about our seasonal menus and pairings on note.
It would make us very happy if you could "like" or follow us, as it is very encouraging.

Medetashi
Chef Chihiro Goshima
Owner Akiko Shibata