Sushi Ishimatsu — Restaurant in Kyoto

Those pieces are thick!!! Went here with my girlfriend because we wanted to try a place that is not in the middle of the tourist spots and we were not disappointed.

First of the place looks amazing from outside and inside it has a very „Japanese“ looking design and inside they only have the bar seating and the old school floor seating. The place seems to be run by an older couple and a few younger girls. (Not sure if they are daughters) He is making the sushi himself and the others are doing the other tasks.

We came in and set down at the bar. We had a look at the menu and decided this time to try a set menu. We choose one nigiri sushi set (2000Y) for each of us and we ordered both a piece of the fatty tuna (1000Y). After that we decided to share another one of the nigiri set because we were pretty hungry that day.

The sushi chef gives you your order piece by piece. We got really surprised by how thick those pieces of fish were. (Surprised in a good way) The sushi tasted amazing and the the absolut highlight was of course the THICK piece of fatty tuna. I’m still dreaming about that. 😋😋😋

Definitely a place I would return to or recommend to my friends.

Insta:...

Found this restaurant through TikTok and was reluctant at first due to previous experiences being a tourist trap, I’m pleased to say this definitely matched my expectations!

I will say the prices have gone up, the premium nigiri plate is 3,500 yen a person which I believe used to be 2,000 yen. It’s a rather small building which holds about 15 guests and there was a small wait when I went today at noon.

The main owner was there as well as his wife in the back and he was working effortlessly and cheerfully. True Japanese experience. He was so busy working I didn’t want to distract him with questions but you can tell he is a craftsman at what he does. I believe he’s been making sushi for over 20 years. There’s a cute photo of him and his wife on the wall which warmed my heart.

The fish was EXCEPTIONAL. A couple of bites I wish I could relive if I’m being honest, me and my husband ordered the premium nigiri and then split the standard nigiri plate. Definitely would come back, just hopefully earlier during the day so I’m able to chit chat with the owner and hear more about the story of...

It wasn't a pleasant experience. First of all, for some reason they don't let people in as soon as a table is available, and instead they wait for the restaurant to be 75% empty to let people in, in a batch. So we were right in front of the door waiting for 30min even though there were at least 8 seats available. That's infuriating. Second of all the chef was not smiling and welcoming as the other reviews say. He was actually putting the nigiri down on our plate a bit violently, and instead of waiting for us to eat it he would continue to drop the other nigiris, and it felt like we were rushed to eat our meal. And finally, of the 8 or 10 nigiri we had only 1 or 2 was really good, the others were really average. Definitely not worth waiting...