We have numerous restaurants which bear the name of their chefs, owners or svengalis. But Denis Allemand is perhaps the first to proudly boast the name of the man responsible for its interior design -- whose main work in Japan up to now has been producing deli-diners in airport departure lobbies for the Royal group.

The most remarkable aspect of his latest creation is just how much space it enjoys. It's a long, low-slung, two-story building that seems even more squat compared to the Hie Shrine and the Capitol Tokyu Hotel on the hill above -- not to mention the massive new Sanno Park Tower soaring over it next door.

Set way back from the main drag, it forms the back wall of a wide, open plaza whose only features are a low, black fountain in one corner and a trickling artificial waterfall in the other. In any part of the city such a vast area of undeveloped real estate would be a luxury. Here among the upwardly aspiring architecture of Akasaka it seems almost profligate.