Kikunio Honten is a ryotei and is about tradition, pure and distinct taste. Even if the traditional Kyoto cuisine, Kyo-kaiseki, offered at Kikunio Honten not entirely is a slave of the most classic Japanese kitchen. Dishes made of ingredients matching all of the four seasons following the kaiseki kitchen, but with new influences and a clear touch of modern fine dining as well.

Third generation chef and owner, Yoshihiro Murata, is a star on the Kyoto culinary scene and a local celebrity chef. Yoshihiro’s flagship restaurant in Kyoto was originally a tea house, but has today been adapted into a fine dining establishment offering one of the best Japanese culinary experiences available. The actual restaurant offers ten private tatami sunken rooms which can seat up to 50 guests in the biggest rooms.

Chef Patron Yoshihiro Murata has spent his whole life studying French and Japanese cooking and it clearly shows during your dinner, of up to 14 courses, a commitment to using the finest local ingredients depending on the season, served in a creative and beautiful way.

When dining at Kikunio Honten it feels as if you are staying at an exclusive ryokan and the private dining setting is very relaxing, yet exclusive. You will not see any other restaurant guests during the whole dinner so it is perfect for a romantic dinner, business or a special private celebration.

Once seated in one of the ten tatami sunken rooms, you are brought a small sakizuke, or appetiser, and you start an evening that will set your mind free and give you an impression that will last way after you left the restaurant. An evening at Kikunio Honten will give you dishes that you are not used to have outside Japan, such as steamed wakasa tilefish with cherry blossom petals, cherry leaf, warabi fern heads, toasted rice crackers and ginger juice. Our favorite dish is the sashimi made of young maguro (bluefin tuna), mustard and soy-marinated egg yolk sauce, a dish that easily places itself among one of the best sashimi dishes we have had ever.

Overall, the menus stay fresh with brilliant twists and surprising elements based on the Kyo-kaiseki. Kyoto is easily one of the must visit cities in the world and Kikunio Honten is one of the city’s most essential reservations.

Written by Andy