Nakamura

We just had an incredible dinner here. The atmosphere and excellent service were very unique and it really felt like an authentic, very high quality Kyoto experience. Michelin gets this right. I usually find the one-off 1 star reviews slightly entertaining and mostly a self-centered embarrassment f...or the reviewer, especially for a restaurant that expert food critics have deemed to be exceptional. I have to admit the 1-star review below made me a little nervous because I haven’t quite mastered Japanese food and they can serve things from the sea that are not familiar to me…to say the least. The whole fish dish was meant to feature a local fish and it was delicious. The bones - those servers would go out of their way to debone it if you ask (that’s part of what you’re paying for). The broth - I’ve never had that before. It was an interesting, tasteful fish broth. I had a few sips and nobody got hurt.

Visited February 2026

This is a very traditional Japanese restaurant. The dishes and the cooking techniques and skills have been handled down for generations. The atmosphere is serious and quiet with all the attention focused only on the food. Language with the explanations of the dishes could be an issue. This is a plac...e for the serious foodie

Visited August 2025

Typical japenese dishes not better than other restaurants. Mostly without taste présentation nice and service very diligent. Does not worth the visit

Visited March 2025

We dined at Isshisoden Nakamura for our 20th wedding anniversary, excited to experience our first 3-star Michelin restaurant. Unfortunately, this evening was anything but special. As Americans unfamiliar with Kaiseki-style dining, we expected the staff to help guide us through the meal. However, the...y spoke no English, and communication was nonexistent. Each dish arrived with no explanation of ingredients, flavors, or eating methods—leaving us in the dark about what we were eating or why it was special. Our private room was eerily silent, lacking any ambiance or warmth. We even had to ask for basic things, like water and wine options, which felt more like pulling teeth than fine dining. And as for the food itself—simply disappointing. Many courses were various bland soups, and the fish was served with skin and bones intact, which we had to pick out of our mouths. One course involved pouring broth over spit-out fish skin and bones and gesturing for us to drink it. It was off-putting, to say the least. The dessert was literally a persimmon cut in half—hardly what we imagined for a Michelin experience. We’ve dined at other 1 and 2-star Michelin restaurants and had wonderful experiences. Michelin has clearly missed the mark on this one. Torturous is the only way to describe it; we were counting down the minutes until it ended. An enormous disappointment for such a special occasion.

Visited October 2024

Many of these 3 star Michelin places in Japan do not take reservations over the internet and many do not speak English. I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve card's Visa concierge service to secure the reservation. They were extremely useful as they are well experienced in providing this service and kn...ow how to go through the whole process. They take a few choices for restaurants and dates/times and responds rather quickly. I highly recommend using Visa concierge. That said, on to the restaurant itself: the moment you walk through the door, you are greeted by one of the waitresses already waiting for you on the floor. She proceeds to bow the deepest bow possible (forehead touching floor) and greets you in Japanese. They show you into your private room styled in the traditional way (stark empty, sparse designs, no chairs, low table, tatami mats etc). Dinner is a multicourse kaiseki dinner in which the various waitresses come in and out of the room to serve each dish. I wish I could remember half the dishes but there were so many. Almost all of them were exquisitely fashioned pieces of art in appearance and taste. Most of it quite yummy but tends to veer toward the: "surprise!" and "you'll never guess what rare, imaginative ingredient this has!"-type of innovations as opposed to the outright "yummy goodness" type of dish. Nothing was bad by any means, but I get the impression the chef was aiming more to impress than to satisfy. The unfortunate end result is that while I certainly enjoyed the food, my lasting impression of the experience was actually of the exquisite ceramics and serveware and the unique surrounding of the private room. This needs a special mention -- this is the second time I've been to Japan but the first time I've experienced private dining like this (I also did it a few days later at a temple resort in Mt Koya). I have to admit: it's not for me. My friend who I travel with and I are huge foodies who love eating and normally have a fun time with garrulous conversation. The quite, hushed, austere setting of the private room was oddly stifling. For absolutely no explicable reason, we found ourselves talking to each other in hushed voices. Perhaps it was because this was our first time with private dining but it was not our cup of tea. Bottom line: if you want to try a suuuper traditional, refined experience, this is the place for you. If a more modern vibe is what you're looking for, you might want to try out some of Kyoto's other 3 star michelin offerings.

Visited May 2019