Tan — Restaurant in Kyoto

This was our second visit to Tan to celebrate our anniversary, and we will never come back again, as it was worlds apart and unrecognisable from our first visit in 2024. This restaurant is for tourists unfamiliar with Japanese and Kyoto style of cooking, balance, aesthetics, and harmony.

The menu was shockingly similar to last year, but with poorer execution when I look at my old photos. Only the aemono sesame salad was roughly the same (as pictured), except this year with kumquat, which did not harmonise with the other ingredients.

Service: Inacceptable! The server who "greeted" us literally blocked the door, instead of letting us in until we convinced her that we indeed had a reservation. A professional would have kept tabs on the remaining reservations, as we were the only ones arriving at 1:30. Also, the wrong main course was served; instead of the beef and steamed egg as the main, the server brought conger eel and sea bream.

The worst though was how the seven course lunch menu was served in ONE hour, without any prior communication that we only had the table for one hour. Neither the person who took and confirmed our reservation nor the server mentioned that we would only have an hour to eat 7 courses, which is ridiculous. One of the most charming aspects of Tan on our first visit was the tranquility and peaceful atmosphere, as the food is rather simple. At 14:10, our main course, dessert, and dessert tea were onto our comically tiny table. Only at 14:28, the server finally came over to our table with a piece of paper that had 14:30 written on it, to let us know that they closed then. Two minutes later, punctually at 14:30, she told us we had to pay.

Food: The napa cabbage soup with miso and snap pea puree was fantastic and very moreish. Everything else was underseasoned as other reviewers noticed, even the pickles were tasteless. It was the same menu as last year except with fewer garnishes, less attractive plating, uneven cooking. For the vegetarian starter option of smoky tofu skin, this time it was soaking in too much topping. The steamed vegetables were overpowered by some random flower garnish and the beet and topinambur/Jerusalem artichoke were not steamed long enough. The stewed apple was surprisingly flavourless, mushy and therefore lacked a proper texture or acidity to offset the...

Made a seating reservation which required order of 6000 yen set course meal. Topped up with Cabernet Sauvignon which staff explained was from Napa Valley. The set came along with hot cauliflower soup for starters, followed by yellowtail sashimi and grated daikon. The persimmon, pickled radish, chrysanthemum greens and gluten were seasoned with sesame sauce dressing and sesame seeds, and there were 3 types of croquette with different flavours for fillings. You would finish off with the tempura anago, miso soup, pickles and steamed rife wrapped with grated yam and mixed in with fresh vegetables such as lotus roots and burdock. What stood out was the third course in sesame dressing, as the vegetables were fresh and dressing seasoning was on point. One of the croquette balls tasted great as it resembled a bit like curry with meat fillings. The lightly battered daikon helped to balance out the greasiness you would expect from fried food. For someone who did not really fancy grated yam, they did a good job that I finished all my rice in grated yam. What was great was that they used fresh lotus roots which were crunchy and slightly sweet. To end off the meal, they served apple slices soaked in syrup and small scoop of red beans below, with a small biscuit to finish off. I enjoyed the dessert. Overall it cost 7300 yen which I thought was still ok given the experience. Staff was attentive and gave due consideration for English speaking customers, with a English menu to translate the food that you are eating. Would rate this...

If you are a foodie and are looking for the next big thibg in restaurants in Kyoto this is it! You arrive at a superbly designed space with a central common table and the Chef is cooking and roasting at the head of it. You select you menu out of 3, and share several common dishes with the rest of the table. All the tableware is magnificent examples of Raka ceramics, all vegetables are organic and every dish is sublime, I predict 2 Michelin starts in the near future for the young Chef. I loved my sashimi menu and my dry sake! My rice was spongy and perfect and every grain was separated from the next, I really think I have been ruined forever for normal rice...the miso soup was delicate, the fried mini-sardines that I had been resisting were fantastic and just the layout, the freshness of the fish, the kindness and discretion of the servers and the subtle show of seeing a Japanese cook doing his thing was priceless. Highly recommended! Do not miss, reserve well in advance. It took us 4 days to...