Opened: February 18, 2008

What: Elegant, upscale Japanese restaurant moves into the City Hotel. The original Misato (now-closed), just down the street on Jinxian Lu, was a secret favorite among several of the city’s best chefs for its freshness, cleanliness, and friendly owner, Mr. Nakamura.

Look: Traditional, minimalist Japanese decor. Waitresses in kimonos and wooden sandals shuffle across slate floors in a dining room built of slats of pale wood. Private rooms are austere exercises in tatami.

Food: Fancy and traditional. Misato specializes in toro, the fatty (and most expensive) part of the tuna’s belly, but that’s not all they do. At the sushi bar, the refrigerated case brims with other seafood, and on the night we visited, a plate of steamed Japanese hairy crabs (much different than Shanghai’s) from Hokkaido was set out on the counter to cool. There are plenty of dainty cold dishes, like chilled, steamed spinach in smoky dashi with crab meat and blanched bamboo shoots with octopus, plus tempura and stewed dishes.

People: Japanese. Businessmen. If they’re not the first, then they’re the second. Usually, they’re both.

Bill: ¥300 plus per person.

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