Ristorante Machiavelli at Ikebukuro, Tokyo

Tuscan Italian on Tobu Ikebukuro's 15th floor, serving prefix courses, 100 wines and a dessert trolley.

Ristorante Machiavelli is the Ikebukuro branch of an Italian group whose original restaurant in Florence traces back around 200 years, and the Japan arm is noted as the only outlet outside Italy to carry the Machiavelli name. The kitchen builds on traditional Tuscan dishes and presents regional Italian cooking across course and a la carte menus, with a prefix-style course a particular recommendation. The prefix course lets each diner choose a pasta and a main from several options, so a table can tailor the meal to individual tastes, and the wine list offers more than 100 bottles selected by the sommelier, including rare labels imported directly from Italian wineries. Every course comes with a dessert trolley service from which guests pick three seasonal sweets, and the room offers private rooms, party booking and children's menus; it sits on the 15th floor of the Tobu Department Store, open 11:00 to 22:00. For a considered Italian meal with a touch of Florence about it, Machiavelli's Ikebukuro branch makes a refined choice above the station. Settle into the airy dining room, let the sommelier guide the wine and round off with a stroll round the dessert trolley - it is a quietly grown-up way to spend an evening in one of Ikebukuro's landmark stores.