Let it be stated unequivocably and from the outset: The Food File is not a great fan of gastrodomes and flashy new mega-restaurants where style outweighs substance and quality is sacrificed at the altar of fleeting fashion. Nor are we enamored of restaurant chains, where menus -- no matter how titillatingly tilted toward the fad for fusion -- are decided by absentee executive chefs and implemented in the manner of fast-food franchises.

That said, we have to confess ourselves mightily impressed by the Ginza branch of Daidaiya. Part of the rapidly expanding Chanto Food Service empire (which now numbers some 25 upmarket outlets in both Kansai and Tokyo under the Ken's Dining, Chanto and Daidaiya imprimaturs), it not only boasts a spectacular interior that outdoes just about anything produced during the overblown excesses of the bubble era, it also functions with a seamless efficiency and attention to detail that makes for a highly satisfying evening of prime restaurant theater.

You ascend a steep flight of stairs illuminated only by constellations of miniature lights. It is so dark that when you leave they show you your way down with a flashlight. But this only heightens the effect as you arrive into the spacious entrance hall and look down the corridor that bisects the entire 60-meter length of the restaurant, its course marked by a Milky Way of lights which ebb and flow in brightness, like the constant shifting of the celestial tides.