There is a caviar specialist in the basement of Azabudai Hills with five seats.
I had lunch there in June 2025. I had thought the sixteen-seat pizzeria on the third floor of the same complex was small; this is less than a third of that.
Basement of Garden Plaza C, inside the market
The shop is Prunier, L’Art du Caviar Français. The French house of Prunier is a gastronomic institution with over 150 years of history.
It sits on B1F of Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza C, inside the Azabudai Hills Market — not the tower, but the basement of the low-rise side, on the floor where the food halls are.
Which means a caviar shop shelved alongside a supermarket rather than in a restaurant precinct. That placement is the odd and interesting part.
The case is nothing but caviar
The refrigerated case is the first thing you see.
Inside are round caviar tins and nothing else. The labels come in blue, yellow, gold and green, each with its own price tag. It is laid out less like a fish-roe counter and more like a jewellery display case.
The tins come in several sizes; the smallest sits in your palm. It is set up so that “one small tin to start with” is a normal way to buy.
You buy and you eat at the same counter
What makes this shop interesting is that retail and dining occupy the same space.
Behind the case there is shelving with plates and wine glasses hanging from it, bottles lined up, and a blue-green tiled wall. The retail counter simply continues into the counter you eat at.
The range is built on three things: caviar, the smoked salmon “Balik,” and champagne. Takeaway is available. Whether you carry it home or eat it here is a decision you make at the same counter.
At the counter
This is what being seated looks like. With five seats, of course it is a counter.
On the marble in front of you: a glass of red, a tall champagne flute, water. A small dark dish, a plate of toasts, a white sauce in a pot beside it. A salad with tomato further along.
There is nothing ceremonial about it. It feels close to eating standing up in a market — and what arrives is caviar and champagne. That gap between the casualness and the contents is the best thing about the place.
Five seats also means, read the other way, that this is not somewhere to linger. A glass while you are out shopping is the correct use.
Notes from the day
- Visited: June 2025, lunchtime
- Shop: Prunier, L’Art du Caviar Français — Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza C, B1F, inside Azabudai Hills Market
- Five seats. Less a reservation than a matter of sitting down if one is free
- Hours: 11:00–21:00 (L.O. 20:00); currently stated as 11:00–20:00 (L.O. 19:00). Check the official site before going
- Range: caviar, “Balik” smoked salmon, champagne. Takeaway available; open for lunch
- Prunier has more than 150 years of history in France
- Finding it: it is on the basement food floor, not the restaurant floor. Looking on the Tower Plaza side will not find it
- Best used for a glass while shopping — or for buying a tin of caviar to take as a gift
Walking around Azabudai Hills, the sheer scale of it starts to wear you down. Sitting in a five-seat shop in the basement, looking at the price tags on the tins in front of you and drinking one glass — finding the smallest place inside an enormous complex turned out to be a rather good use of an hour.
The photographs in this article are images generated from photographs I took; colours of the food and interior may differ from reality. Hours and range change — check the official site.
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