Jap Cho Ok is a different breed of Korean restaurant. More refined than home-style Korean shops; more relaxed and accessible than Akasaka's old-line expense-account joints; more sophisticated than Tokyo's ubiquitous yakinikuya, and more rooted than the new crop of nouvelle fusion places. It's modern Korean cuisine that hasn't lost its bite, with an emphasis on herbs and spices and fresh, top-grade ingredients.

Jap Cho Ok's menu is large and diverse - a whole page of soups, eight different rice porridges, a full grilled-meat selection, and plenty of vegetarian items - there's even a full-course vegetarian menu for Y5300. Some highlights of a recent visit included sunde - a very flavorful pork sausage (Y1000); three types of garlic (roasted, miso-zuke and shoyu-zuke - Y800); tender young bamboo shoots for the grill (Y800); a peppery, well-spiced sashimi salad (Y2000); and a beautiful assortment of five types of kimchee. The drinks menu features numerous medicinal liqueurs made from herbs and fruit, but we stuck to Suigei, a full-blooded Japanese sake that stood up to the food. (Beer and wine are also available.)

Most of the seating here is in comfortable semi-private rooms at large hori-kotatsu tables with grills at either end - these are big enough for ten people, so you might have to share a table during busy periods. The soothing interior is modern but based on a traditional vocabulary of wood, stone and paper, with large bundles of herbs hanging from the beams. (The name "Jap Cho Ok" means "House of Herbs".) The service is attentive and helpful, and there's a complete English-language menu if you want one.