Shimogamo Saryo Main Restaurant — Restaurant in Kyoto

The food was not good. We did a lot of research before coming to Kyoto and looked at a lot of pictures from previous menus at this restaurant. Each one looked delicious, as you’d expect from a fairly expensive Michelin-starred meal. My family was very excited to try this restaurant.

The menu we got was dreadful. Dry, unseasoned little baby fish. Unchewably tough eel and whitefish in the sashimi course. Flavorless somen with uni sauce. My son got a Wagyu course substitution, and they just brought out slices of essentially raw unseasoned Wagyu. It was bland and off-putting. Dessert was good enough but very basic — we had better ice cream walking around the most touristy area of Gion earlier today.

Service was fine and polite, but they never once asked if we were happy with our food. And when we sent back several courses almost totally untouched, they never asked if there was something they could do to help us enjoy the meal more. They did sub out some eel for my wife and son, but the white fish they gave us instead could not be chewed. It was as tough as rubber.

The private room is beautiful. The garden in the back is beautiful. The food, at least tonight, was awful. We are in the taxi going to eat pizza, $800+ poorer. Worst of all, we lost a night of dinner somewhere else better during our limited time in this...

We arrived an hour early for our reservation and they politely seated us. This was my first time having kaiseki in a private room, and the ambiance was so peaceful, quiet, and serene. The garden surrounded us as we dined with floor to ceiling windows around us. It felt like we were transported into nature far away except when the moment you could hear car engines driving by.

It was a delightful experience with various surprises throughout the meal from roe soaked in uni to my favorite dish the crab fishball, so simple yet so well done. It's a pretty price to pay but I guess if we were do to Kaiseki just once in kyoto, you should try to snag a reservation here if you can.

The dessert was a bit of a let down as it was just seemed like a sweet potato blob - given there are various ways to plate it I think they probably could have done better.

They were very polite and we felt alone the whole time which is kind an odd feeling. The sake selection was also just okay, there was a pretty funky one (pictured below) which too my surprise I didn't know they could...

Honestly speaking, I was quite disappointed with the meal. All the dishes were nice, but not impressive enough to meet the price of the meal. The environment is quiet, perhaps too quiet to enjoy the meal. I felt like I could fall asleep while waiting for the next dish to arrive. It would be better if the restaurant enhances the vibe by playing some ambient music.

The serving waitress was very shy and couldn’t really communicate in English. So I didn’t have the chance to understand and appreciate every single dish. The date on the menu was not updated which was disappointing as it showed that it wasn’t a personalised Kaiseki course in a supposedly fine-dining setting.

The location of the restaurant was quite far from the train station so it wasn’t very convenient and naturally I had a higher hope on the overall quality and experience. I know the price per person here is cheaper than other Kaiseki restaurants but I would rather save my money for a better one than...