KYOTO GOJO ONO — Restaurant in Kyoto

After briefly surveying the reviews for this place, I expected a fancy meal, and was pleasantly surprised by an affordable lunch special. This is a hotel restaurant and a bit hard to find. The interior is spacious and elegant and has plenty of seating.

There aren't many options for the lunch special, so we got the tempura don and the hashed beef. The flavors in both dishes were great. The tempura wasn't very crunchy but it was very tasty -- I especially liked the chicken and the fish. The hashed beef didn't have much meat but it was smooth and tasty and paired well with the rice. I also liked the sauce on the side salad. The tempura special was around 1900 yen and the hashed beef set was around 1300 yen.

We were surprised by how big the dessert was! It was a caramel flan (so yummy!), nama chocolate (decadent), and a cake/bread. All very delicious.

The lunch special also came with unlimited access to the drink bar, which included apple juice, orange juice, detox water, and a variety of high quality teas. We loved the green tea from Yame.

Overall this was a great value meal, and I'd definitely want to try a fancy multi-course meal...

Never order the roast chicken unless you prefer the worst rubbery, almost dry, ill-prepared chicken you have ever had.

While cooking at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 ½ hours can yield moist and delicious chicken, this was not it. Also, the skin can actually be made delicious by various methods that do not include 30 seconds of blowtorching that was used to brown, but not crisp the skin. A thick brown bandage might be the equivalent substitute for this skin.

This was not a palate issue, as was noted by the manager, it is an improper use of Japanese/general cooking techniques and, possibly, very tough product. All of these issues can be overcome if they wish to do so. Thank you for removing this from our bill, though it was not requested.

As for my husbands dish, cod over rice, a small thin round of cod qualifies, at best, as a seasoning. ~$20 for essentially, a small good bowl of seasoned rice, is outrageous.

The staff was great, though I wondered why they had very basic English skills but their...

I am the 4th review for this restaurant, so my assumption was that it is new, however I was told it is a year old.

The food is technically perfect, we had the sashimi, the fried chicken, the seafood/saffron kamameshi and the fried gnocchi.

The chicken is a standout dish, it had a fantastic seasoning to it. The sashimi was fresh, but almost had too many components on the plate. The kamameshi was well balanced, but a bit neutral in flavour (however it might be my untrained palate as this was my first kamameshi) and the fried gnocchi was great, but lacked something to tie the gnocchi to the grated Parmesan.

The service and our hostess was kind, thoughtful and attentive. Excellent service.

The price point is a bit on the high side, especially since the food was only technically perfect. What I mean is, the food was missing spirit/soul, something that perhaps will come with time and experience.

Overall, this is a promising place…and I hope they growls and evolve.

The chicken was...