Bouillabaisse, fish and chips, beef Parmentier, foie gras dengaku. For a self-proclaimed seafood bistro, Ata certainly covers a lot of territory — much like its dynamic owner-chef has done in his short career.
Satoshi Kakegawa started out at Auberge au Mirador, the pioneering gourmet getaway in Hakone, spent three years at the vaunted two-Michelin-star Les Creations de Narisawa in Aoyama, parleyed that into becoming opening chef at Daylesford Organic near Omotesando and finally opened his own place at the end of 2012.
Ata — it's Swedish for "eat" — is a warm, welcoming place. Idiosyncratic too: Few restaurants offer a choice of two parallel staircases to climb (it's one floor up from the street) but no elevator. And few have comfy, low-slung armchairs (eight of them) the length of the open kitchen. The only part that looks a bit like a bistro is the room at the back, where you sit at simple plain-wood tables with candles.