Takakura Yamamoto — Restaurant in Kyoto

Wife and I came here for our first meal after arriving in Kyoto and basing off other reviews was looking forward to a unique Omakase experience. Walked in and the restaurant was empty. Unfortunately other reservations were booked to arrive later and we didn't get seated at the counter and instead brought into a tatami room.

Food was delicious but felt we overpayed since we did not get to experience seeing the food be made or entertained by the staff. The head chef never came over to speak to us and we sat silently in the tatami room alone while the younger chef brought us each dish one at a time.

Younger chef essentially just gave us the dish, said it's name, and left. We had to ask for water including refills which you think would be common sense to serve since these are salty dishes.

While we did enjoy the food the service experience was definitely lacking as we felt we were locked away as second rate customers while everyone else was enjoying their meal at the counter and having a good time.

Be sure to not to make our mistake and have a reservation or leave if only tatami room seating unless you enjoy a quiet meal with no staff interaction. We essentially paid 27,800 yen to sit in a room for over 1.5 hours guessing when the next dish...

We had such a great meal here.

Around Gion there are so many restaurants that cater for tourists, we felt like we had a genuine Japanese experience in this restaurant. On top of that the food was amazing.

Finding it was difficult, it was up a few flight of stairs in a plain looking apartment block, once again this made us feel we wouldn't be sharing our experience with other tourists.

As soon as we arrived we were warmly welcomed, we sat down and the food started coming almost immediately. Course after course of delicious perfectly cooked food, also a huge variety.

Both chefs were so engaging, entertaining and made for a great night.

At no stage were we asked what we want to order, the food just started coming. I guess thats how it works, so just go with the flow.

We ate everything from snails, tuna sushimi, tempura dishes and a tasty desert. In Australia I find sushi a little hard to eat, well, let me tell you, I now know how it should taste and I love it!

We must of had 12-15 courses a few beers and some sake. Cost was about 12000 yen each, well worth it for such a...

Wow! I can't really fully express how impressed and happy I was with this experience. The food was so amazing, but I expected that based on the many positive reviews. What really made the meal special was the chef and his assistant. They welcomed us in, explained what everything was, and conversed with us despite the language barrier, and helped us celebrate our recent proposal.

After our meal, I ordered a pour of Laphroaig 18 from the counter to enjoy and the Chef shared that it was his favourite whisky. The Chef then went and brought out his personal bottle of Laphroaig 25 and offered us a pour in celebration of our proposal. That was a truly special and generous moment, that my partner and I will treasure.

Thank you again to the Chef and we hope to come...