Unagi Hirokawa — Restaurant in Kyoto

One of the notable eel restaurants of Kyoto, very upscale with premium sourced ingredients. Once, many would line up in advance for hours to try here but in 2023 this is now simply by reservation-only through online booking and it's fairly straightforward to book. Bookings open for dates a month in advance and as I look right now, plenty of days have times available for all the weeks in December and a few days into January, and I write this a few days into December. At the moment the booking doesn't count until you get an email and have paid a 3000¥ deposit which is subtracted from your bill on the day. The eel sourced all year round from premium suppliers in Kagoshima and Miyazaki. In late summer/early autumn there can be additional wild eel but there are no guarantees on sourcing and they have a strict policy not to sell wild eel unless they can guarantee the quality at double the price. Eels are live and prepped to order because of the importance of freshness in eel dishes, so even though there is no longer a line, from ordering the grilled rice dish that they are famous for will take about an hour from ordering, so you'll want to order a set menu to have appetitisers and smaller courses leading into the main or just pick a few other a la carte items to pass the time. Everything is the best that they can sustainably source at scale. Water is pumped in from 30m underground. Charcoal is a heavily prized pure bincho from Kishu. The irreplaceable piece is the sauce used to glaze the eel. In eel places, the sauce is like a master stock and every time it is used some new sauce is made and mixed into the existing batch so the sauce keeps getting added to and this one supposedly has origins from the 1830s, almost 200 years ago. It is deep in flavour yet lighter than other unagi restaurants since they use less sweetness to highlight the eel flavour better. Definitely a meal that unagi lovers should try at least once in their life. The restaurant itself is a beautiful wooden masterpiece, very traditional but clean and modern at the same time having been constructed and renovated this century, designed specifically for this restaurant experience, a bit luxurious but still very modest. Located in Saga Arashiyama it is a little walk from the JR or metro station but right in the heart of things near temples and the Bamboo forest you would come to Arashiyama to visit on a regular itinerary in Kyoto. Excellent...

Made a reservation with a deposit but accidentally mixed up the dates. Called to adjust the booking due to scheduling conflicts, but was refused. No big deal—our mistake, so we rearranged our plans and came back the next day. To our shock, the restaurant hadn’t prepared our meal because they ‘assumed’ we wouldn’t show up after our call. We waited while they started cooking, already feeling uneasy.

But the real kicker? A staff came over and ‘interrogated’ us—yes, interrogated—about why we were there. She asked, 'Why did you come today? You said you had other plans. We don’t understand why you’re here.' All with a fake smile and polite tone, but it was clearly accusatory. Excuse me? Since when do customers have to justify themselves for showing up to a reservation they paid for? If we were Japanese, there’s no way they would’ve dared to speak to us like that.

We never canceled—we only expressed understanding when they refused to change the time. And as a reservation-based restaurant that keeps deposits for no-shows, how dare they assume we wouldn’t come and then question us like we were begging to eat there? The food was mediocre at best, and Kyoto has far better eel rice options. This level of arrogance and disrespect is unbelievable. Never experienced anything like this while traveling abroad. Avoid this place unless you enjoy being treated like a nuisance for honoring your...

I arrived 10 mins before 11am and didn’t get to be seated till 1:15pm. My first 30 mins was under the hot sun with no shelter.

I was surprised that they adopted this one group per table theory. So if there are only 2 of you, you may get to seat on a table meant for 4 pax when comes your turn. They could spilt the table to fit 2 groups of 2 but they didn’t.

On the other hand, I saw a group of 6 pax squeezing on a table meant for 4 pax, tatami style. The same table was occupied by a couple before them. Well, it could be a marketing thing.

The waitress will inform you that you are only allow to order once, no second order so you have to decide there and there how much you can and want to eat. I ordered Set A (4500 Yen) which has a medium portion of the grilled eel, a small side with thin slices of half boiled fresh carp with miso, a super small side with pieces of grilled eel with cucumber in vinegar.

The unagi is fresh but honestly, I cannot really remember the taste except that it was soft, moist and tasted like grilled. I was so hungry after the long wait that I could swallow the whole cow. So even if the eel is out of this world, I won’t know as I was in another world. The ice cold beer was a savior.

Will I visit again? Well... I may consider if there is no...