Clifford Mould visits Bice at the

Four Seasons Hotel, Tokyo

In Japan, dining out at hotels is very popular and there are many restaurants to choose from even in relatively modest hotels in the smaller cities. In the very grand hotels it has become fashionable to host a famous restaurant from China, Europe or the USA. As we had made a strategic decision to eat Japanese food in the country at local inns, it was easy to decide on Bice as our choice at the Four Seasons, given its fine international reputation.

The chef at Bice Tokyo is Diego Chiarini and he also comes from Milan, where he cooked at the Ristorante Carpaccio before becoming involved in the opening of the Four Seasons Milan. It's a striking place, I stayed there shortly after it opened; it's converted from an historic convent building.

Diego Chiarini has interpreted the Japanese love of set menus with imagination and flair. Each one has a distinct theme: so for instance in the ¥5000 lunch menu Aromi he plays with aromatic ingredients: a starter of tuna cooked in fennel and lemon, followed by guinea fowl with chili pepper, then crunchy whole gar fish with vegetables stewed in saffron, and a fruit salad marinated in vanilla. The ¥7000 menu features herbs, while another, Petali in fiore, featured such delights as stuffed zucchini flowers and most attractive florally inspired presentations such as the home made pasta with lobster and mullet roe. For ¥10,000 you can have a five course Menu degustando - a tasting from the a la carte.

Chiarini is in tune with the current Italian vogue for slow cooking where the flavours have time to develop and harmonise, and he finds a careful balance between those ingredients that are enhanced by such treatment in sharp contrast to others that would be spoiled if they were overcooked and lost their spontaneous freshness.

We drank a fresh, light Verdicchio, Castelli di Jesi (see label) as we took in all the different menu combinations, and before deciding (as usual!) to invite the chef to propose a sequence of dishes that we could share between the two of us.

After a pre-appetiser of lightly marinated tender beef with shavings of parmesan, we began with zucchini flowers stuffed entirely with minced prawn meat. They came in an elegant arrangement of rocket leaves - a delightful way to begin what was to prove a most enjoyable meal. We were next offered some risotto, mixed with red peppers, lobster and watercress. The risotto was made from the best arborio rice and although correctly a little al dente, the lobster sauce somehow squeezed its way out of the grains of rice as you ate them. I also enjoyed the contrasting colours and textures of the peppers and cress.

After a short pause to enjoy a glass or two of a lovely Sauvignon Blanc which smelled of meadow grass with hints of asparagus, we shared some Bucatini - "knitting needle" pasta - with morsels taken from a slow cooked leg of lamb and very well caramelised peppers. The lamb reminded me of Greek kleftiko - it had a marvellously ovine taste, but without all the fat and gristle that often mars that robust robbers' dish.

After that tour de force, we were brought seabass that had been cooked sealed in foil. I think the vegetables must have been cooked for longer before being combined with the fish, as the flavours of lemon, capers, tomatoes and very slow cooked onion had melded together to create a richly aromatic background that miraculously did not overpower the fish.

After all that we needed a distinct pause, filled in with a palate cleanser of maraschino granita before going on to the beef. This came in the form of a fillet of Matsusaka beef wrapped in pancetta, blasted just sufficiently to crisp up the bacon, leaving the beef inside incredibly moist and tender. It came with chicory braised in red wine, again done very slowly so that the leaves were darkly stained, and the astringency of the chicory had been absorbed, so as to create an intensely flavoured reduction.

The wine list offers, as you would expect, an excellent selection from the huge variety that Italy has to offer. For those with deep wallets there are the Sassiccaias and the Ornellaias, not to mention solid Barolos and wines from the Marches. With our beef we drank a vibrant and bright young Promis, vino rosso da tavola dei colli Toscani 1994.

The dessert menu is formidable! When we protested that we'd already eaten enough for four, the restaurant manager Angelo Visigalli wooed us with murmured hints about the lightness and the sheer delectation of the fruits of his colleagues' skills in this department. Lasciate ogni speranza I sighed, and we we succumbed to his seductive powers - (don't worry, he's marrying a British girl from the Isle of Wight in August; somehow I don't see him settling down in Shanklin, though his talent for running the service like clockwork would certainly show them a thing or two!)

I'd like to recommend the liquorice parfait with balsamic strawberries topped with crunchy candied escarole leaves (a member of the chicory family). Or Maraschino flavoured fruits in filo with yoghurt sauce. Or, or, or... We sipped some grappa with our coffee, thinking how lucky we were only to have to stagger to the lift before crashing out in our super room. So don't forget to read about the hotel and some of its other restaurants.

And remember, when in Tokyo: Bice!! - that's Beechay to you darling...

Bice at the Four Seasons Hotel, 10-8 Sekiguchi 2-Chome Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Open daily for lunch and dinner. Reservations (essential at weekends) Tel: (81) 3 943 6936