Kiyama

Situated near the Kyoto Imperial Palace, this small restaurant has only 10 counter seats. Our menu was entirely seasonal seafood based. Aged bonito dashi was shaved in front of us and these shavings were used to make the pièce de résistance : a seafood soup with overnight kombu stock and the freshes...t congo eel. The result is the most amazing unami bomb. The rest of the course were amazing surf clams, succulent oysters and a variety of fried seafood. The course ended with 5 different types of seasoned rice and extremely sweet watermelon as dessert. Thoroughly enjoyable. The only downside was photography of any kind is prohibited so there was no memento to take away. With the chef looking like a strict school disciplinary master, I meekly complied.

Visited June 2023

Fantastic restaurant centred around fresh well water and bonito. Lunch started with a cup of hot water from the well and during the first couple of courses one of the chefs is carving fresh bonito flakes from different kinds of aged tuna in front of you while you get to taste fresh bonito sashimi an...d other delicacies. Before the flakes are transformed into the dashi that the restaurant is famous for, you get to sample the different flakes. After you taste the pure dashi, most courses that follow use the dashi in one way or another. For the last courses we were asked if we preferred small, medium, or large portions and also if we would like some more, after we finished, but at this point we were already very full. So this is not a fine-dining restaurant that you leave hungry. In addition, they also provide a complimentary sample of sake during the lunch. Yoshiaki Kiyama thanked every guest personally when leaving the restaurant, something that stands in strong contrast to some of the other fine-dining restaurants, where the head chef does not even attend the lunch service. For fish and dashi lovers, the 14,520 Yen for the lunch menu is an absolute bargain. P.s.: As non-Japanese speakers, we felt very well taken care. One of the chefs explained the dishes in English to us and we didn't get the impression that foreigners were treated different from any other guests.

Visited April 2023

My family and I had one of the best kaiseki (lunch) experiences that lasted over 2hours. Chef owner Kiyama and his staff served us tasty bite-size dishes made from best ingredients possible. The chef and his staff will make final preparations in front of us and then served us individually. Unlike mo...st traditional Kaiseki places, Kiyama has a relaxed, professional, and friendly atmosphere. The staff's English is limited, but they will make every attempt to answer diners' questions about how the dishes are prepared and where the ingredients came from. The menu changes every month. It is kind of place that you will want to go back again to taste next set of deliciousness.

Visited September 2019

Reasonably fine food , the sample nihonshu is delicious, staff are youthful and the taisho (head chef) has a cheerful vibe. However, the experience and depth is not shown through the cuisine and service. Silver at tabelog though. Had better experience elsewhere.

Visited May 2019

Excellent Kaiseki with some interesting and creative twists that make the dishes taste very different from how they appear, e.g. we had a dish that was seared so we we're expecting it to be hot but it was served cold and had ingredients hidden underneath changing the expected taste of the dish. We w...ere very surprised and it tasted wonderful. We experienced this kind of creativity in several dishes. Definitely worth visiting.

Visited November 2018