Sushi Komatsu — Restaurant in Kyoto

OMG what an experience. I got invited here by my friend who is a local in Kyoto. We wanted to go to his usual sushi place however that one was closed on that day so he looked for another one and found this one. The food was phenomenal.

I’m not sure if they have an English menu because my friend did all the ordering and I just ate what he gave me ;).

We started with a few sushi pieces: octopus Squid very interesting texture but very delicious Salmon Scallop Shrimp Omelet Wagyu beef Fatty tuna Very fresh raw shrimp (still twitching) And a few more were I forgot the names however you can see most of them in my pictures

The sushi highlight was definitely the 3 piece special from the tuna. I think it was from the cheeks of the tuna, around the eye and my personal highlight the forehead (also the chefs recommendations) tasted absolutely amazing. I got three from the forehead because it was so good.

We also got some fried tempura. It was some tiny fish, corn, lotus root and a slightly bigger fish.

Then we got raw tuna with an egg yolk, so similar to French tartar, that was also amazing. And finally we got tuna katsu which was very good as well.

Now again a list of my highlights of that evening: Tuna forehead 10/10 Tuna tartar 10/10 Tuna katsu 10/10 Beef wagyu sushi 9/10 Fatty tuna sushi 9/10 (Everything else was also very good)

Now to the location. It’s not the biggest place. We were almost the whole time alone when we ate, only at the end there were other people coming. But that might have been because it was Monday after a public holiday weekend. They only have one toilet however that one was pretty clean.

I don’t really get all those bad comments about „no tourist are welcome“ because I felt very welcome and the chef was very happy when he saw how much I liked his food.

If I ever come back to Kyoto then I will definitely come back here or recommend the place to my friends. (But it does make it easier if you bring someone who can speak/read Japanese)

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We have heard about restaurants in Kyoto treating tourists poorly and we finally got to experience that ourselves here at Sushi Komatsu. Very unwelcoming to non-Japanese and I would say even hostile. When I got up to go use the bathroom, the older chef got really angry and started yelling at my wife for taking pictures of the sushi that he made for us. He told her no pictures and made her delete them even though we saw the Japanese man next to us take pictures of his sushi when we were being seated. Google shows many pictures taken by reviewers and there were no signs indicating "No photography". I think he just wanted a reason to go off on tourists/foreigners. We thought about leaving after that happened but didn't want any trouble with the law so we stayed, finished our meal in awkward silence, paid, and then left without the chefs thanking us as Japanese restaurants normally do. Horrible experience highlighting the hostility of Kyoto locals towards tourists/foreigners.

It would benefit both the restaurants of Kyoto and tourists if there were "No Tourists" signs posted on their doors or windows when restaurant owners and chefs do not welcome us. That way they wouldn't have to deal with pesky tourists that they do not like and tourists can spend their money where they're welcomed.

Let this review serve as your "NO TOURISTS" / "JAPANESE ONLY" sign for Sushi Komatsu.

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I have to admit I got high expectations due to all the positive reviews I have seen about this place. Does it live up to my expectations? Well… let me tell you about it😅

We visit the place around 18:30, on January 12th, it was a cozy little place with around 10 seats, 4 tables of two.

The waitress handed us an English menu, but is does not have the sushi menu on it, only set like tuna bowl. The sushi menu is on the white board written in Japanese with no pictures at all. So be prepared to be confused or you should bring some pictures and show to the waitress if you are a non-Japanese speaker like me.

Fish were okay, 6.5 out of 10 I would say, but got the fish scale on the sashimi which is unbearable for me, but the waitress seems too busy to deal with the issue that I got, cause she only got herself with no helping hands.

The bowl wasn’t clean when it handed to me by the chef, and to be honest, I am surprised. Thanks for reminding me that 職人精神 is not that...