Nakamura

Isshisoden Nakamura is a 3 star traditional kaeiseki restaurant in central Kyoto. I had dinner there with my wife, and we were seated in a private dining room that was very large - about 40 square meters. Nakamura serves a very traditional kaiseki cuisine, based on seasonal local produce. The chawan...mushi course was excellent, and so was the sashimi. There were comparatively many bowls of different soups. One dish deserves particular mention - you are served a white fish (forgot to note which) and are asked to keep the bones and head . A while later, the bones are brought back on another plate and hot water poured over them. You are asked to let it rest appr90-120 seconds and then drink the soup resp broth. The result is nothing short of remarkable - a broth with stunning depth of favours, by what sort of magic one wonders. we had a bottle of the restaurant's own sake with the dinner, and that worked extremly well. Service was outstanding, and the price point for two quite reasonable. Kyoto 3 star Kaiseki places are in a category of their own.

Visited June 2026

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