Address - Akasaka 2-17-22, Akasaka Twin Tower East B/1F Opening hours - Every day from 11:30 to 2:00 and from 5: 00 to 9:30 (last order) Phone - 5114-8080 Map- Yes (in Japanese) - One minute from Exit A12 of Tameike Sanno station, Ginza Line Menu - In Japanese and English Credit Cards - OK

Frasier Crane once said that the only thing better than a perfect meal was a perfect meal with a tiny little flaw about which you could complain all evening.

So let me get out of the way two tiny little flaws in an otherwise perfect meal. The wine list is sparse, expensive, and too American. The food cries out for solid, meaty, bargain old-world wines from Corbiere, Cotes-du-Rhone, or Rioja. By all means leave the new world wines, but add a few cheaper old world wines too. The second tiny little flaw is with the uniform worn by waitresses. The waiters and chefs look dashing and I've seldom had better service in Tokyo, so why condemn their equally fantastic female colleagues to look like Anna Miller waitresses? It clashes.

Lawry's is a palatial art deco restaurant specializing in prime rib roast beef. The entrance is across the street from the ANA Hotel. The maitre greets guests in a roomy lobby and will ask you to wait in a pleasant little bar to the side of the entrance. When your table is ready, you are led downstairs to a cavernous high-ceiling basement with two wings: one smoking and one non-smoking. The walls are lined with booths, with benches and tables in the middle. Service is at the table with the bartender rolling a trolley with a good selection of standards, and the chef bringing a huge silver carving cart with a silver cover to keep in the heat.

We came to Lawry's for the roast beef, of course. We kept to the main menu and ordered no extras. They looked excellent but both my friend and I wanted to take the hefty 20 oz. 2 in. thick Diamond Jim prime rib cut, so we knew we'd have to pass on the clam chowder, the creamed spinach, and the dessert. All prime rib meals come with mashed potatoes and a v. good Yorkshire pudding to soak up the light gravy so no one will go away hungry.

The prime cut was one of the most tender pieces of beef I've ever had. A slowly roasted cut of beef yields much more tender and milder results than grilling would. The meat's flavour comes through less sharply than it would in a steak. I had my cut done rare and the pink, almost red, slab on my plate lasted thirty of forty minutes. Truly a decadent feast.

While the wine list is ho-hum, the bar is quite good with Veuve Cliquot champagne available as a starter and a variety of ports for a great finish, including a 1970 vintage Warre's.

We passed on the better desserts, but thankfully, we found a sherbet on the menu, which settled the stomach nicely.

All in all one of the most spectacular meals I've had anywhere. There was in fact a third tiny little flaw. My girlfriend wasn't with me, but I can't blame Lawry's for that.