Ingredients like sumac, farro, rosewater, baharat and haloumi aren’t commonly encountered when dining out in Tokyo, but these are the flavours at the forefront of chef Fumio Yonezawa’s Middle Eastern restaurant, Salam. Located in Hiroo’s Eat Play Works dining hall, Salam is a lively restaurant stand with seven counter seats, plus several small tables.
Yonezawa, whose other venues include the popular Aoyama grill restaurant, The Burn, credits his interest in vegetable-driven cuisine to his time training at three-star French restaurant, Jean-Georges, in New York. At Salam, he combines mostly vegan dishes from Israel, Turkey, Greece, Egypt and Lebanon with some clever plant-based ingredients like soy yoghurt.
The quinoa tabbouleh is refreshing and has a Japanese twist, with shiso and myoga added to the line up of watermelon, tomato, cucumber and mint (¥900). The spanikopita is a spiral of filo pastry filled with kale and spinach, served with spiced tomato sauce (¥1,450). Don’t miss the roasted peaches and carrots served with fried halloumi and za'atar dressing (¥1,500). As well as wine and sake, there’s a selection of refreshing non-alcoholic sodas, like sumac watermelon soda (¥700) and rose water limeade (¥700). Dine a la carte, or mix it up with the lunch tasting course (¥2,400, three courses plus chai tea) or dinner tasting course (¥3,800, five courses).