Trio to watch

Refreshingly different

Restaurant 81

5-25-2 B1F Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku

Tel +81 3 6909 4850

www.81restaurant.com.

THE comparisons with cult eatery Aronia de Takazawa are inevitable from the minimalist steel kitchen counter and the sole chef working intensely behind the stove. Yoshiaki Takazawa has nothing to fear from 35-year-old upstart chef Takeshi Nagashima, but the latter shows enough flair and inventiveness that makes his career worth tracking.

For one thing, he's a lot more outgoing than Takazawa, who much prefers to toil intensely and shyly behind the spotlit counter of his Akasaka restaurant. With his endearing broken…