DepTH Brianza: Delight is a Trip to Italy at this Azabudai Hills Restaurant

Update-Date: Aug 1, 2026

Author: Sydney Seekford

Categories: Italian Wine

DepTH Brianza: Delight is a Trip to Italy at this Azabudai Hills Restaurant

DepTH Brianza is a One-Star MICHELIN restaurant that offers Italian food with depth and breadth. Each dish is served with the warmth of an old friend and explained with such simplicity that diners feel they’re in on the chef’s secrets. At this unique pocket in Azabudai Hills, steps away from Team Labs, Tokyo Tower, and endless luxury shopping, even first time diners feel like regulars, and the meal’s straightforward appeal is easy to digest.

Sydney Seekford

Gourmet Creator

Food writer and hospitality consultant active in Japan since 2022. Sydney collaborates with some of the world’s most highly regarded food media and award organizations, bringing the luxuries and depth of Japanese cuisine to international audiences. Her passions regularly bring her outside the dining room, where she investigates food with the people who make it possible – in the fields and behind the counter.

DepTH Brianza: A Culinary Trip to Italy in Azabudai Hills

DepTH Brianza, just one of many Brianza group restaurants directed by American-educated businessman turned restaurateur Yoshiyuki Okuno, is an impressive little restaurant. It occupies a competitive plot of land, where others might be tempted to contrive or bedazzle in order to get guests through the door. Yet DepTH never fails to invite guests into its world with simple warmth and sincerity, offering food that just makes sense.

DepTH brianza

Open: [Saturday, Sunday, National Holidays] Lunch from 12:00 pm (12:00 pm/ 1:00 pm), Dinner from 6:00 pm (6:00 pm/7:00 pm/8:00 pm) / [Weekdays] Dinner from 5:00 pm (5:00 pm/6:00 pm/7:00 pm/8:00 pm)
Closed: Tuesday, Wednesday
Average price: [Dinner] 25,000 JPY
Access: Directly connected to Exit 5 of Kamiyacho Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line. It is on Azabudai Hills Residence A.
Address: 2F, Hills Residence A, 1-2-3, Azabudai, Minato-ku, Tokyo Map
More Details Reservation

Built on People. Built to Last.

Chef Yoshiyuki Okuno and Sommelier Kazuto Chiba c. DepTH Brianza

Almost exactly two years ago, DepTH Brianza’s head chef Yoshiyuki Okuno sat down for an interview with one of Japan’s biggest news outlets. In that interview, he conveyed his vision for DepTH: to be a restaurant that would represent the face of hospitality in fifty years; a place where every actor can be the star.

At that time, Chef Okuno discussed the looming crisis facing restaurants in terms of human resources. His greatest concern was ensuring that the concept behind DepTH could become a sustainable, reproducible format for dining that would outlast its origins. In his opinion, this would require not only excellent cuisine, but a team to back it up.

All it takes is a few minutes in the compact dining room to feel that his mission has been thus far, successful. A one MICHELIN Star restaurant sitting streetside in a district home to some of Tokyo’s most popular restaurants, DepTH Brianza has made its name on human connection and excellent food.

Each member of the staff, including the chef himself of course, has a pronounced, individual personality that shines. Just like the fish-scale stained glass that divides DepTH’s dining room from the muggy summer encroaching on Azabudai hills, the multifaceted talents and dispositions at play create a wonderful whole.

This is a restaurant where even if it’s your first time, a sense of belonging comes so naturally that you feel as if you’ve been a regular for years. Without ever losing poise, the restaurant invites easy camaraderie, a difficult balance that proves that even behind the scenes, DepTH exudes excellence.

Opening Bites: Seasonal Seafood & Starters with Italian Inspiration

While the staff make the meal especially memorable, the first impressions of DepTH’s menu are just as important. The first few bites, a corn soup made just with sweet summer corn, and a pea tartlet, embody their ingredients. The base flavor is prominent, translated into creamy mouthfeel without adulteration. This is followed by practically perfect scallops served with caviar and creme-fraiche that calls for a glass of champagne, keeping you in anticipation for the next dish.

While the base for DepTH Brianza’s cuisine is Italian – as evidenced by the double pasta courses, application of Italian-style tripe, and Mediterranean seasonings – the meal branches into other spaces as well.

A uniquely Japanese choice is the Hyogo Prefecture raised summer oyster, served raw on the halfshell with a dash of sumac and puff of cream. Slide it into your mouth, as if lakeside in Cuomo or the Riviera, and experience the blooming salinity and freshness that makes its quality apparent. This clean slurp of the ocean is appropriately paired with a Greek white: not obvious, but ideal in origin and character.

Overall Impressions

Not a single course, from the off-menu bagna cauda (which is served warm, as its name intends), to the final, bite sized-tiramisu, feels underconsidered. However, if you ask the chef where best to start, or whether a particular morsel, such as the palm-sized hamaguri clam or the delicately folded potato raviolo in saffron sauce, should be cut before eating, he will more or less shrug and encourage you to choose your own adventure.

Of course, the ingredients and core techniques are explained so that you can enjoy the attention to detail in each dish. But personal anecdotes and stories trump over-dictation about how to properly appreciate what’s on the plate. You’ll come to enjoy the dining occasion for what it is, a chance to spend time with the people around you, while you enjoy purposeful food and wine that does everything it’s supposed to do: impress, satisfy, and sate.

DepTH brianza

An Outstanding Main Dish: Premium Wagyu Beef Steak

For example, expressing concern that we’re too caught up in conversation to enjoy the supple wagyu steak warm, Chef Okuno steps in with reassurement, “It’s tenderloin so it’ll be good even if it cools off – don’t worry.” Thus sparks a brief conversation about why tenderloin is actually the best cut of meat for bento boxes and tasty even at room temperature.

To pair with our steak, Sommelier Kazuto Chiba selects a complex 2019 Italian red by Franco Pacenti. It supports the first bite with pronounced fruit and acidity before mellowing out into lingering spices. It’s dangerously drinkable and outstandingly chosen for the role. With the straightforward intelligence of both chef and sommelier in the room, diners are in capable hands.

Further conversation reveals that the wagyu selected for the main course has been left to the judgement of expert butchers from Shiga prefecture’s renowned Sakaeya butchery. What they deem best at any given time has substantial sway on the main dishes at DepTH.

The meat dishes are well approached throughout the course, such as the balancing of ris de veau with popular Japanese horumon for a contrast of Western and Eastern variety meats. Tripe in broth is impressively soft, simply explained as the obvious result of using fresh, never frozen, product. Of course.

We hold these tastes to be self-evident…

The deceptively simple and yet outstanding shime course, a basic spaghetti, is offered with both spoon and fork, and chopsticks. Diners eat as is comfortable. Its sauce is comprised of salt, olive oil, and tomatoes only – ingredients that are purposely unremarkable.

One might expect that only the finest tomatoes would be acceptable, surely imported Marzano or some unattainable cultivar from Kyushu. Such is not the case, reports Chef Okuno. Rather, in his opinion, “A low quality tomato makes the best sauce.” In contrast, delicious tomatoes are better on their own. It’s not the answer you expect, but it’s relayed so obviously and confidently, that you find yourself nodding along, “Yes of course! They’re turning into sauce afterall…”

Knowing this, it speaks to the chef's skills to coax such sweetness and rounded, fruity flavor from an average “streetside” tomato. Given the choice to order your pasta in a small (15g) medium, or large (60g) size, go for the full bowl. Between the al dente noodles and light, simple sauce, you’ll finish fully satisfied, not stuffed.

To finish: A Perfect Italian Dinner in Azabudai Hills

Rare is it to eat in a dining room as friendly yet refined as Chef Okuno has made his. A couple enjoys a la carte dishes to our left. They’ve ordered just a short course and are regularly being shuttled new glasses of different wine and offered friendly snacks from the kitchen. Maybe they are regulars, or maybe this really is just how the staff treats everyone.

Throughout the meal, the drink program, portioning, and flavor balance are all goldilocks seamless. The quality of food clearly displays talent and consideration. Italian flavors are wiggled into new creations that capitalize on the seasonal ingredients Japan is known for. All of this niceness is packaged in a convenient location minutes away from art museums like teamLab Borderless and the Azabudai hills gallery, JANU hotel, and luxury shopping to the tune of Balenciaga and beyond.

But more than anything, in a city full of outstanding restaurants, what makes DepTH Brianza worth a reservation is the feeling that you are wanted and respected as an individual, not just a diner. Your own sense, your own opinions, preferences and personality are taken into account and reflected in the dining experience. You may be eating Chef Okuno’s food, but between the memorable flavor and excellent hospitality, it feels like each bite was devised for your personal pleasure.

Photo: SAVOR JAPAN

Why You Should Book DepTH Brianza

MICHELIN Star quality: A globally recognized, innovative Italian omakase experience.

Perfect Location: Located in Azabudai Hills, making it an ideal dinner spot after visiting teamLab Borderless or Tokyo Tower.

Premium Ingredients: Features high-quality Japanese ingredients, including Shiga Prefecture’s Wagyu beef and fresh seasonal seafood from Japan.

Welcoming Atmosphere: English-friendly hospitality where every guest is treated like a VIP regular.

DepTH brianza

FAQ

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Disclaimer: All information is accurate at time of publication.

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