Tomino Koji Yamagishi

I was invited by a friend who enjoys Japanese gourmet food to visit a this restaurant which is one of the most difficult to book. I was prepared for a formal ambience, but was relieved to find that the owner was so friendly and smiling. Because freshest ingredients, the chef prepared them in a very ...simple way to bring out the best umami taste from the ingredients. The highlight was sea urchin roll, a row of sea urchin wrapped in seaweed. Because its unique looks, they call it "urchin dog" it looks like a hot dog. I think you should try the dish and post it on SNS if you interested. Although the price was quite expensive, the place is well worth it.

Visited July 2023

There are a total of 10 seats in total, and we were seated at the very side, so we didn’t get to witness all the action. So definitely request middle or 2 seats to the left of the middle because that’s where everything happens! The food was great, so was the service (contrary to other reviews that I... saw). Btw, if you take photos of their signature Uni roll, the seaweed will get moist very fast and won’t taste as good!

Visited June 2021

Kaiseki is a multi-dimensional experience. Emphasising presentation over taste and creating a stifling ceremonial atmosphere becomes tedious. In the case of Yamagishi, the food ingredients and taste were bland for the price. Also the presentation and dishware were uninspiring. I think foreigners wou...ld find this place approachable because of the chef’s genuine friendliness and his relatively youthful age compared to his cohorts. However the cost was difficult to justify. For Kyoto Kaiseki, I recommend Oryori Hayashi for dinner and Suetomo for lunch. Both deliver exquisite presentation using incredibly beautiful dishware. The chefs are not steely. And most importantly, taste is amazing and you see the effort gone in to source rare ingredients.

Visited April 2018

Tominokoji Yamagishi quickly becomes one of the top rated restaurants in tabelog after opening for one year for now. The chef uses high quality seasonal ingredients in particular seafood to create the kaiseki menu. A lot of them are my favorite ingredients like shirago (soft roe), grilled moroko f...ishes, crab in vinegar jelly, buri (yellow tail), sea urchin sushi rolls and persimmon. Chef has excellent skills in using the ingredients and the dishes are very delicious, but not over fancy. What I like most is the menu has more than 10 courses, the pace between each dish, the temperature and portion of all dishes are just right. You won’t feel too much food, or the dishes are presented too slowly or quickly. This is the beauty of enjoying a high standard kaiseki.

Visited December 2016