Ever wonder what tickled the taste buds of film director Akira Kurosawa? Look no further. Some of Kurosawa's favorite meals are on display at - where else? - Restaurant Kurosawa, the brainchild of Hisao Kurosawa, son of the late director. Down the hill from the Prime Minister's residence, Restaurant Kurosawa is housed in a three-storey wooden building modeled after one of Kurosawa's hit films,Yojimbo. 

ts classic facade is a breath of fresh air amidst the surrounding asphalt, but the real fun begins once you step inside. Open the sliding door, and the first thing you'll spot on the far wall is a smiling photograph of Akira Kurosawa in his trademark hunting cap and sunglasses. Every little thing about Restaurant Kurosawa is reminiscent of him - from the preparation of the food to the uniforms. Adorning the walls are some of the director's own drawings from movies such as Ran and Kagemusha. The interior decoration, in fact, is the work of Kurosawa's own art crew. 

The soba is handmade every morning by a pupil of a famous soba expert whose shop in Yamanashi Kurosawa frequented. The recipes for the shabu-shabu and yakiniku served at night are from his daughter, Kazuko Kurosawa. Kazuko - who prepared Kurosawa's meals after his wife's death - also designed the uniforms for the restaurant staff, modeling them after those worn by the hospital workers in the film Akahige. 

Apart from the memorabilia, Restaurant Kurosawa boasts mouth-watering dishes prepared with top-notch ingredients. The restaurant's most prized item is the pork shabu-shabu. The marbled meat comes from a rare breed of black pigs raised on sweet potatoes in the open fields of Kagoshima. 

There are two floors, with both private booths and open tables. Individual rooms - each equipped with its own Kurosawa lithograph and foot-warming pads - can be reserved for up to six at a rate of JY4000. Or, for JY8000, reserve a more spacious tatami room seating 8-12 and featuring a miniature Japanese garden. The small soba section (the only area where you can eat with your shoes on) is open for lunch hours, and seats 30. 

Prices at night range from JY5000 for the pork shabu-shabu course (Sugata Sanshiro) to JY12,000 for a ten-course beef shabu-shabu spread (Akahige) or fifteen-course yakiniku extravaganza (Kagemusha). If these exceed your means, you're vegetarian, or your main objective is to check out the decor, lunches are a very affordable JY1000 for the soba set. Avoiding the crowded hours (11:30am-1pm) will probably guarantee you a seat - just like at the cinema.