Why you should experience Saray Akasaka in Tokyo, Japan.
Saray Akasaka is a Turkish restaurant where Akasaka's international character, charcoal-rich kebabs, warm bread, layered meze and more than a decade of neighborhood continuity carry Adnan Γolak's restaurant project into one of Central Tokyo's busiest dining districts.
Set along a side street near Akasaka-dori and just steps from Akasaka Station, Saray Akasaka occupies the basement of Akasaka MY Building, opening below street level into a 50-seat dining room furnished with Turkish decorative pieces, patterned textiles and broad tables suited to shared plates. Meze, bread, grilled meats and Anatolian dishes establish the sequence of the table, while rakΔ±, Turkish wine and tea extend the meal through drinks closely tied to the cooking. Groups of ten or more can arrange belly-dance performances alongside course dinners, carrying another strand of Turkish dining culture into the room. The result is a convivial Akasaka restaurant built around the pleasures of passing plates, grilled meat and long dinners among friends.
What you should know about Saray Akasaka.
Saray Akasaka is best known for emerging from Turkish restaurateur Adnan Γolak's small kebab business in Asakusa, which opened in 2006 and grew into the Saray Group before the Akasaka restaurant opened in 2011. Γolak had studied at a Japanese university, and the group's own chronology records a remarkably fast first expansion: the original Nishi-Asakusa kebab shop arrived in 2006, three locations were operating within four years, Saray Co., Ltd. was established on February 22, 2010 with Γolak as representative director, and Akasaka joined the group the following year. The Akasaka branch became the restaurant arm of a business whose stated purpose was spreading Turkish cooking across Japan, while subsequent openings carried the name into Ginza in 2012, Okubo in 2013, Takadanobaba in 2014, Kita-Senju in 2017 and further Tokyo neighborhoods during the following decade. A second company, Saray Kebab, was established in December 2016 under Tahsin Karabakar and Isa Karabakar, followed in November 2020 by Clara Co., Ltd. under Fahrettin Γnal at the same Akasaka address used by the restaurant. Saray Group eventually reached 14 combined kebab shops and restaurants, turning the original 2006 Asakusa venture into a network spanning much of Tokyo. Akasaka remains one of the early chapters in that progression, carrying a restaurant opened during the group's first expansion into its fifteenth year of service.
Adana kebab combines seasoned minced beef and lamb before grilling develops char around the meat, while dΓΆner builds thin layers of beef around a rotating spit and carves the browned exterior directly into portions. Beyti kebab wraps Adana-style minced lamb in thin Turkish bread and slices the roll into compact pieces, while Ali Nazik brings kebab together with eggplant purΓ©e and yogurt for a softer, smoky counterpoint. MantΔ± carries minced filling inside small dumplings, lahmacun spreads seasoned meat across thin dough, and yaprak sarma wraps seasoned filling in grape leaves, giving the table several preparations rooted in dough, stuffing and patient handwork. Γoban kavurma takes cubed lamb and mushrooms onto a sizzling iron plate, while mixed meze gathers vegetables, beans and herbs before the grilled meats arrive.
How to fold Saray Akasaka into your trip.
Saray Akasaka works as the meal within an afternoon tracing Akasaka through shogunal patronage, Katsu Kaishu's final decades and a Buddhist institution carried from an Edo statesman's private estate into the modern district.
Begin at Akasaka Hikawa Shrine, whose origins reach 951 before eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune commissioned the surviving sanctuary at its present site in 1730; the building endured the 1855 Ansei earthquake, 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and 1945 Tokyo air raids, while a pair of stone komainu from 1675 survives at the approach. Continue to Site of the Residence of Katsu Kaishu, preserving Akasaka's connection with the statesman who lived in the district during the final Tokugawa years and returned in 1872 for the later decades of his life. Conclude at Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin, descended from the private worship of Edo magistrate Ooka Echizen-no-Kami Tadasuke and moved from the Ooka residence in Akasaka Hitotsugi to its present site in 1887 as a branch temple of Toyokawa Kaku in Aichi. The progression connects a sanctuary commissioned by Yoshimune with one of the central political figures of the Meiji transition and a temple inherited from Ooka Tadasuke before Saray Akasaka brings the route into the twenty-first century through Adnan Γolak's own migration, entrepreneurship and fifteen-year restaurant presence in the neighborhood.
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