Yuki Onishi is clearly not a chef who is ready or able to rest on his laurels. His flagship ramen restaurant, Japanese Soba Noodles Tsuta, is one of the best-known in the city, drawing legions of fans from near and far. He has won accolades, grabbed global media attention and opened several overseas offshoots. But still he shows no signs of slowing down.

Quite the opposite. Last November, he closed Tsuta — the place where he started out and occupied for seven years, and which became the first rāmenya ever to be awarded a Michelin star — and moved out from Sugamo, the old-school area he helped put on the map, at least among noodle-lovers from abroad. A month later he was back in action in a new part of town, with new premises and some great new tweaks to his remarkable ramen.

So what's different? For a start, Tsuta is now in Yoyogi-Uehara, a neighborhood with a demographic that's a lot more youthful, affluent and cosmopolitan than Sugamo. It also feels much closer to the vibrant heart of the city. In short, Onishi has repositioned himself not just geographically but significantly upmarket.