Kichisen — Restaurant in Kyoto

For a great traditional kaiseki experience, I'd highly recommend Kichisen. The staff is super friendly, including to foreigners, which I heard wasn't necessarily the case with other top tier kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto.

We dined at the counter, and the chef gave us a ton of attention, taking time to explain each dish to us. This really added to the whole dining experience.

When you arrive at the restaurant, a restaurant staff member is there to greet you as you get out of your car. You're then welcomed in, and invited to take off your shoes. You're then led to your room, and that's when your dining adventure begins.

The meal is expensive (we went for the 23,000 yen/person kaiseki menu), but worth it if you want a once-in-a-lifetime true kaiseki experience.

Our menu consisted of:

1. Sweet rice wine sorbet served on a Japanese rose petal
2. Welcome sake
3. Yamogi (seasonal Japanese vegetables) and sesame tofu dumpling with fresh uni. This dish was delicious. The uni was incredibly creamy, and dumpling was savory and refreshing.
4. Green peas and micro tomatoes. I've never seen tomatoes the size of a single green pea before. It was really sweet.
5. Hammo sea eel and Japanese plum with yuzu flower in dashi broth
6. Sashimi course: Sea bream, shrimp, squid, toro belly, and pickled clam with tobigo. Served with a shot of sour seaweed and ginger
7. Toro cheek with daikon radish
8. Red bean mochi rice with black bean
9. Tofu with river vegetables
10. Seasonal vegetables with sea bream eggs, and fish cake
11. Baby potato with Shitake mushroom in beef soup and yuzu
12. Grilled waygu beef and pineapple on hot stone
13. Japanese pickles with baby anchovy rice
14. Dessert #1: Orange panna cotta with jelly bubbles and flower petals, served with coffee-scented fog
15. Dessert #2: Red bean mochi
16. Dessert #3: Fresh strawberries, gooseberries, and cherries
17. Matcha tea
18. Roasted...

AMAZING. I cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough. Exquisite food, honest and warm service, and a fantastic price point for the quality you're getting (in particular if you go for lunch as we did). Ignore all the bad reviews from insensitive and tasteless people claiming the service was rushed, rude, or not in English. I have no idea what these people are thinking. If you provide the kind people at Kichisen with smiles, a few well placed "arigato"s and some head bows, they will return the favour with their best english explanations of the painstakingly crafted, complex, japanese dishes. There are many meals, so the staff often check on you to see if you've finished so they can bring you the next one. You'll be in there for almost 3 hours (for a lunch), so if they leave you sitting a while between meals it will drag it out unnecessarily (hence the perception that they're 'rushing' you). Feel free to take your time eating and they will serve at your pace. The food was beautiful in every way. Seasonal, delicious, and artistically put together. Get yourself a hot sake for 1000 yen (bargain), and ask for some ice water, but otherwise let them bring you tea as they choose. You will likely also be drinking soups. My partner and I didn't book anything special, but we were placed in a private room with chairs on a rug on tatami (so not kneeling). I believe solo eaters may eat at a bar, but this seems to be no less of an experience, and provides a view of the preparation. Listen carefully to how they suggest to eat the meals to get the most out of them, and try to respect that anything provided in English is a service to you that a traditional japanese restaurant doesn't...

World-class gem, best traditional Japanese restaurant, full stop. WARNING: this is NOT FOR EVERYONE. Kichisen is a very traditional Japanese restaurant – the food is mild and unfamiliar, the customs and flow are traditional and foreign. If you expect a Western fine dining experience, you will be very disappointed. If you go with an open mind and are flexible, looking for a new experience, a heretofore unknown, secret world will open. You don't need to speak Japanese, but little English is spoken. If you have special needs (allergies, say), PLEASE have your hotel arrange beforehand. As is common in Japan, it's not very flexible – if you want accommodating service, please don't come: you'll be very disappointed, as several reviewers here were. Also, please arrive on time – it's a small restaurant, without a waiting room.

This is a small family restaurant that serves kaiseki cuisine (banquet cuisine, Japanese fine dining), and synthesizes the various traditions in Kyoto: nobility, warriors, monks ... with the occasional modern flourish. The dishes vary monthly, reflecting the season’s bounty and festivities – February celebrates Dolls Day, for instance, and includes crab and the first bamboo buds. The food is mild, mostly seafood and vegetable, with little meat, oil, or spices. The presentation is spectacular, each dish a work of art, often referencing Japanese culture and the seasons, subtle even for natives. The chef is friendly and open to foreigners, but doesn't speak English, so expect a warm welcome but little conversation. Utterly unforgettable, likely the most unique meal...