Located on the hip end of Hollywood Road, Wagyu Kaiseki Den is hidden behind a sliding door that blends discreetly into the façade of the Central Park Hotel. A sake bar takes up the ground floor, while the Japanese restaurant is on the mezzanine above. The limited counter seating literally provides front row view of chefs at work in the open kitchen – walled in on two sides by banks of private fridges – and this culinary theatre imbues the otherwise sedate main dining room with a pleasing energy. There are two private dining rooms off to the side and these are as large as the main room itself, suggesting that Wagyu Kaieki Den is mainly designed for private dinners for its A-list regulars.

This restaurant is a must for anyone with a taste for Japanese cuisine. The kaiseki (the seasonal, fixed menu) is first class, attesting to the 30 years of experience that executive chef Hiroyuki Saotome has in this artistic culinary tradition. Saotome, who was previously at Nobu in London, was working in Japan when he caught the attention of tycoon Peter Lam and lured to Hong Kong in 2009 to establish Wagyu Kaiseki Den. Since then the venue has built up a loyal client list that includes the city’s great and good – a survey of the names inscribed on the private fridges confirms this. They come for the exceedingly fresh, masterfully created dishes that are generally traditional but bear small but sophisticated twists by Saotome. In line with kaiseki tradition, Saotome creates new tasting menus each month that make the most of the seasonal produce that is flown in from Japan each day. There are two tasting dinner menus to choose from, the standard and the premium (at special request). Everything is served to perfection; the small morsels are precisely measured to maximise the desirability, but are enough to leave you sated. Some dishes feature in the menu year round and these are the beef (from Saga and Miyakai prefectures) and the signature sea urchin truffle rice, Saotome’s highly aromatic signature finale. Customers can make special requests, such as wagyu sandwich, and the restaurant can also adapt the menu to fit dietary restrictions.

The sake selection is top notch, with a wide range of premium sakes on offer. The wine selection is not as varied, but nonetheless includes big-statement Bordeauxs and Burgundies ranging from HK$10,000 to HK$20,000 per bottle as well as some excellent second-tier old world wines and notable new world wines, such as Opus One and Penfolds. The only wine by the glass is the house pour, of which there is only white and one red.

As you would expect from a restaurant that caters to the city’s top brass, the service is beyond reproach: subtle, efficient and unfailingly polite. Taking cues from Japanese protocol, the staff even kneel when engaged in conversation with customers.

Kaiseki is never cheap and, at HK$1,780 per head for the standard tasting menu, this restaurant is priced at the upper end of the scale. That said, the restaurant does not charge extra for the use of the private dining rooms, which are often booked out far in advance.