Sushi Kaiseki Kozuki — Restaurant in Kyoto

Best sushi I've ever had period.

Disclaimer regarding negative reviews citing concerns of hygiene: you may need to ease your notions of the standards of hygiene and appearance for a restaurant. If you will get squeamish about sushi being served on a counter that was wiped down from the last guest with a wet towel or the interior being likely unchanged in 20+ years, no matter how good the sushi is, it will likely ruin your experience and you should look elsewhere. I will say with reassurance that my wife and I ate here 4 separate times and never got sick.

The lower level seats about 12 at the main sushi counter. Unless you're stopping by during an off hour, the likelihood of seating a group more than 3 at the main counter is low. There is an upstairs area that seems more like overflow with floor seating with tatami and a bunch of storage-like stuff next to the walls. If you're coming at 7-9PM, you may be asked to either wait for a downstairs spot to open up or go upstairs.

The sushi menu is simple with 2 fish options: tuna and salmon as well as eel and sea urchin. There are 12 different "sets" (note: you may need to look around the different walls to find all descriptions of the sets). You can get the fish as nigiri, rolls or sashimi. Where there's simplicity, there's plenty of attention to make it as best as possible. My wife and I would say better to do a few things amazingly than many mediocrely and this holds true. Over the course of our multiple visits, we went from trying different things to going to just getting sets 8 and 9 (tuna and salmon).

The owner (sushi chef) and his wife (server) are incredibly nice. I saw a family send some sushi back because it had wasabi which their young child didn't like. You may think this would be a faux pas, but he gladly accepted it back with an apology about the wasabi.

The value is incredible. We would get 2 sushi sets, which comes with tea and soup, for 4000 yen which was perfect for 2 people. Payment is cash only. When you're ready to pay, just let them know; they won't...

July 2024: You’ll see that I have taken to reviewing this restaurant again. And for good reason. I visited in October, 2023, and I wasn’t disappointed. Fantastic sushi, and the STANDS TRUE! Amazing food! What made me post again was the wonderful service that accompanied the incredible food. That’s not to say the service was bad last time - it was great. But they went the extra mile this time. I visited the first of two night I was staying in Kyoto and got the full shabang - a wonderful taster menu of 8 or 9 different sushi - phenomenal! The second night, I’d already had a early dinner but became peckish around 9pm, and given it was only 3 minutes away from my hostel (R-Star Kyoto), I meandered over and got the tuna and salmon combo. It was accompanied by their sea bream soup which is INCREDIBLE! Matching drinks to soups ensures you don’t get too tipsy and it’s so good you could drink it by the gallon. Best though….i asked the chef about the different cuts of tuna, and through the broken English to Japanese, I came to understand the differences, but what got me was a few minutes later, he came over with a book describing the history of sushi and the Kyoto fish markets, and the story of all the fish they serve, from their migratory behaviour, to how their sold in the markets. Amazing! Anybody visiting Kyoto should visit here for dinner, and if you’re staying at the R-Star Hostel, you’d be an idiot not to given it’s only a few doors away. My 5 Star rating stands 8 months on, and represents the food, the service, and above all, the wonderful people who make such amazing food!

October 2023: Amazing sushi! Some of the best sushi I have ever had. Fantastic sea bream soup - definitely the best I’ve had! Very reasonably priced, and the chef’s recommended set menu is beautiful, and it’s the perfect amount of sushi. The house sake is fantastic and goes perfectly with the meal. Really enjoyed the food, didn’t break the bank, and I am...

We ordered a Set A and a Set B here, and true as the other reviews, there were flies flying around, not that we mind too much. However we both received the exact same sushi amount and type, and when we asked if there was any difference between both sets, there appeared to be internal miscommunication that led to the chef sounding irritated.

While the waitress mentioned that Set A (1,000 yen more) has ikura, we mentioned that we didn’t receive any ikura at all. You could tell that they both looked at each other like we were lying, and they were very doubtful about our claims. They then changed their story to one of the sushi having “different fish”, and then to “different quality of fish”.

We could also see from the chef’s hand gestures that he was very negative towards us, waving his hands off at us as though we don’t know quality fish. He served us all the sushi at the exact same time and we didn’t even state who ordered A and B, so how would he know who ordered the “better fish”?

Utterly disappointing and spoilt our otherwise great day and week in Japan. Only one of the sushi tasted great at least, like the other comments, most of the...