Hachidaime Gihey — Restaurant in Kyoto

I had a dinner course here in the late September 2017. I called around 3:30pm for the availability for 3 people and we could luckily reserve 8pm dinnere and we were the last guests.

We chose the 70000¥ dinner course per person and it was a very unique and pleasant dining experience.

The course includes, -rice wine with flower petals. It's fruity, aromatic and delicious. -porridge with egg yolk. -seasonal vegetables with bonito+rice bran dip. I liked it but my mom found the fish flavor a tad bit overwhelming. -sushi (salmon, eel and saba) -rice balls with ikura, ebi and other fish- sorry I can't remember. And popped rice branch. We loved this. -freshly just cooked rice with water they cook rice: palate cleansers -main:their three type of rice blend cooked in a special earthware pot accompanied with misoshiru and side dishes. -ochazuke with burnt crispy rice. -dessert: matcha with rice cake and persimmon mousse.

Pro: -unique and memorable dining experience. -we agreed this was the best rice ever- my parents are Korean so they know rice. Lol -polite and professional staffs. They seem proud of the work and the place. -cozy and intimate atmosphere: not good for a large group. -a beautiful presentation of food.

Con: -maybe portion if you eat a lot.

Conclusion: I recommend for a unique and memorable dining option. Could be a great spot to impress pescatarians. Our meals were mostly fish and vegetables except one side dish which was pork.

They make you rice balls to go from the 2nd pot of rice and which were still delicious in the following day. We were moved when the staff came out and waited to see us leaving and finally bowed to our back when we...

Nothing to write home about, unless rice isn’t your staple food or you typically only eat cheap rice. The anticipated 2nd bowl of rice with crispy rice on top was just alright but nothing you can’t find elsewhere. The rice itself doesn’t have much of a fragrance either and even with excessive chewing, there is simply not much depth to the taste. The rest of the teishoku was just alright too. I got the oyakodon which is probably one of the better options as the starchy sauce helps lubricate the sticky rice which dries the mouth pretty quickly. The other options would’ve been too dry. The service was pretty passable actually, as there is an obvious system in place. Those who have reservations would be served first and followed by those who walked in and wrote their name on their sheet, who would be served in that order. While customers may sometimes miss the cue when they are called, they can be readily inserted back in line. The staff may seem hasty at times but that is to be expected for such a volume of customers. However, the meal is definitely not worth what it costs, both in monetary terms as well as time. There’re many way better options in Kyoto that’s...

Pros: lunch price (around 2000yen per person), free rice refill (though one bowl is filling enough), not touristy with lots of locals Cons: portion size (5 slices of fish for the sashimi set), rice was just ok to our Malaysian palate (we are used to rice being fragrant and with a larger grain) - it was just stickier than normal Japanese rice but taste the same to us. Getting in was an adventure in itself. First day we put our name in at 10.30am. came back at 10.50 to queue. Didn't make it in the first batch so we left to get snacks. At 11.15am the guy was already out and our name were already crossed out. So we came back the second day. 10am to enter our name. Back at 10.50am to queue. We stood outside the sidewalk with a line of people until 11.40am before being let inside. Definitely not worth the trouble for subpar food. Clearly the locals are able to appreciate their famous rice since they are...