Call it the B1 syndrome, if you will, or perhaps the bargain-basement phenomenon. But the sad truth is, you don't dine well at the bottom of a building.

There are notable exceptions to this rule of thumb, of course, especially around Ginza. More often than not, though, the fuel stops that underpin high-rise office buildings are functional noodle joints, itameshi chain restaurants or generic shokudo that churn out donburi at lunchtime then morph into smoke-filled sake pubs by night.

That is not the case with Yamato. It's stylish and modern, large but still intimate, and utterly professional. By genre, it belongs in the rapidly expanding category of "new-wave super-izakaya" -- albeit in far more traditional guise than most similar operations. The only indication that you're buried deep below salaryman territory is the remarkably reasonable price structure.