Haramasa はらまさ @ Yotsuya Sanchome, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

My first visit to Haramasa back in 2018 left a very good impression. I was very impressed with the creativity of many of the dishes and looked forward to my second visit here. This kaiseki restaurant is known to be one of the more modern and creative ones, relaying heavily on stronger tasting ingredients like truffles, shirako and spices to make their dishes more impactful. I had the privilege of sitting at the counter seat this time and was able to witness Chef Hara making some of his claim to fame dishes like his truffle infused rice among others. I actually think meal was better than my first time here because the dishes I hoped to eat again were actually served again and there were some new ones that left a lasting impression. Lets have a look at the photos:

Tagetsu 日本料理 太月 @ Omotesando, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Chef-owner Mochizuki-san

 Tagetsu is a 1 michelin star kaiseki restaurant that is relatively easy to book (for now) and is conveniently located in the Omotesando area. It is in the basement of a building and too bad there is no lift so you need to climb down the stairs. I decided to come here because I read of the good cost performance lunches priced at 5000 and 8000 yen. You can also order the dinner courses during lunch time but that's going to raise the price of  course. Anyway, for this particular visit, I reserved the 8000 yen course and this is what I got:

Selsalsale @ Ebisu, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Selsalsale is a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant located in Ebisu known for its high cost performance and good food. I read that the chef never trained at any high caliber restaurants but is very creative. There is only 1 dinner course priced at 6500 yen for about 10 dishes (in reality 13). Even though it does not have a Michelin star, it has garnered very high scores on tabelog and seems to be loved by many locals. When I posted this on Instagram, quite a few Japanese reached out to me and made comments like "oh you know this place? I like it!" and "I love coming here", stuff like that. Anyway, I came here with two of my local Japanese friends (if you're reading this, thank you so much for making the reservation for us!) and thought we'd have a lovely dinner with a bill that doesn't blow a hole in your wallet....so I thought...before I get to that, let's take a look at the photos!

Kien 帰燕 @ Akasaka, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Kien or Akasaka Kien as it is commonly known as is a 1 michelin kaiseki restaurant located in the Akasaka neighborhood. Its claim to fame is its 1700 yen super value for money lunch deal which consist of 4 dishes, pickles, miso soup and refillable rice. You can also order normal kaiseki courses during lunch time but you have to book in advance. For the 1700 yen lunch teishoku, unfortunately you can't make a reservation for that so you gotta stand outside and queue up. If there's a large number of people in front of you, you'll probably have to wait till they finish before you can go in as there are only about 6 or 7 counter seats. In other words, go early to line up, at least a good 15 to 20 minutes would be highly recommended. Of course the more people you go with, the earlier you should line up. I went at 11:15am and there were already 3 people in front of me. Anyway, enough talk, let's see what I ate for 1700 yen:

Kasumitei Matsubara 霞庭 まつばら @ Roppongi, Tokyo (Dec 2019)

Kasumitei Matsubara is a kaiseki restaurant located on the third floor of a small building in the Nishiazabu / Roppongi area. Its claim to fame is the very reasonable and very affordable kaiseki courses that the restaurant serves during lunch. From what I've gathered so far, the 2 most popular lunch courses are the grilled fish course and the wagyu beef course which is what I ordered for my first visit here. My 4400 yen lunch courses consisted of the following:

Esquisse エスキス @ Ginza, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

Esquisse is a two Michelin star restaurant located in Royal Crystal Building in Ginza (just look out for the building with The Hour Glass shop). I've heard a lot about this restaurant and indeed it has a very impressive score on Tabelog. I decided to come here for lunch with a fellow foodie friend of mine and we both ordered the same 15,200 Yen lunch course. This course consisted of a glass of champagne, a bottle of water, four hors d'oeuvres, a fish main, a meat main, two desserts and coffee or tea (which also came with a surprise third dessert). 

Shall we have a look at the pictures?

Tacubo タクボ @ Daikanyama, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

Instagram foodies and hardcore foodies alike would be familiar with this place. To say it's highly sought after is quite an understatement because it is indeed difficult to get a seat here. I suppose I got lucky (actually I consider this a blessing from God), it seems like the restaurant was experimenting with a new third party website and I happened to be using that third party website for the first time ever on that right day at the right time, I managed to secure lunch seats at the counter for me and my parents. However, a recent update to their reservation policy has now made it even more difficult to secure seats, and even more so if you're not a Japanese local. Will tell you all more about this later.

Anyway, having lunch here turned out to be one of the biggest hits of my Tokyo holiday and I consider myself extremely blessed by God to be given this opportunity to dine here, more so now that I have found out the changes to the reservation system. This lunch was eye opening as it showed just how good Japanese-Italian food can be. It's hard to describe so I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Haramasa はらまさ @ Yotsuya Sanchome, Tokyo (Feb 2019)

Haramasa is a 1 michelin starred modern kaiseki restaurant located in the basement of a building in the Yotsu Sanchome area in Tokyo, somewhat near Shinjuku. While many of  Japan's top restaurants pride themselves on their traditional dishes and the preservation of their culture through these dishes, there are always a small hand full of chefs who want to be different and are willing to explore the use of non-traditional ingredients in their food. Chef Shotaro Hara of Haramasa is one such chef who incorporates ingredients like black truffles and extensively uses high calorie items in his dishes. I believe he is someone who loves his food having a strong taste to it, in fact sometimes a tad bit on the overpowering side. I am not sure if I have described it correctly, but if you look at the pictures below, you'd sense there's something quite different about the food served in this kaiseki restaurant compared to the norm.

Shall we have a look at pictures of my meal:

Roan Kikunoi Kiyamachi Branch 露庵 菊乃井 木屋町店 @ Kawaramachi, Kyoto (3rd Visit)

Roan Kikunoi Kiyamachi Branch is a micheln starred restaurant located very near Kawaramachi Station. In fact if you spot McDonald's, the restaurant is just down the lane. This is my third visit here and it seems like this place gotten very very and I mean VERY popular among tourists and I can totally understand why. Kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto are extremely expensive and more often than not you have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for dinner at one of these restaurants.

However, over at Roan Kikunoi Kiyamachi, they may not serve you the most creative or mind blowing food but they feed you A LOT and definitely give you your money's worth. The 2nd cheapest course priced at 16000 Yen is already good enough for me and that's exactly what you're gonna see in the photos below. My most recent visit was in December 2018.

Zenen 禅園 @ Herbis Plaza, Osaka (3rd Visit)

Zenen is a restaurant located in Herbis Plaza basement 2. If you ever encounter problems finding this place, just look for the restaurant closest to the Ritz Carlton entrance. I previously blogged about this place and stated that it was an izakaya restaurant. Actually, it's more of a combination of an Izakaya, Kappou and Kaiseki restaurant. You can order both ala carte dishes or a course menu here depending on how big your group is which makes dining here very flexible. By the way, their claim to fame dish is a snapper claypot rice; I liked it when I tried it last time but I didn't order it this time before my parents weren't fans of it. Anyway, This is my 3rd visit here and as much as I enjoyed my meal given the very classy but relaxed atmosphere and generally good standard of food, the tempura and karaage dishes were rather disappointing this time round. But before I continue with this short review, shall we have a look at the pictures of my meal:

Koryu 北新地 弧柳 @ Kitashinchi, Osaka

Koryu is an award winning, 3 star michelin restaurant located in Kitashinchi, Osaka. They don't feed you a lot here but every dish is delicious and made from high quality ingredients. Pricing here is also very reasonable at just 16000 yen. They have two timings - 7pm and 9:30pm. The first seating is usually reserved for Japanese customers only as there is no English spoken during this timing. At 9:30pm there will be a translator available who can explain these dishes in detail as well as how to consume these dishes in the proper manner. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of this place but before I get to that, let's have a look at the pictures:

Naniwa Kappo Kigawa 浪速割烹 喜川 @ Nipponbashi, Osaka

Kappo Kigawa is an old and very established Kappo restaurant located in a small alley in Nipponbashi. It is foreigner friendly and extremely popular (especially among tourists) for their lunch courses which are moderately priced at 5000, 8000 and 12000 yen. Dinner starts at 15000 yen and can go up to 30000 yen which I feel is a little on the ridiculous side since Kappo is supposed to be like a sister version of Kaiseki (i.e. supposedly cheaper too). Anyway, this is my first visit here and my parents and I decided to order the 12000 yen course since we intended to come here only once.

Our 8 item course consisted of the following items:

Ushidoki Wagyu Kaiseki @ Tras Street, Singapore

Believe it or not, I've been to Japan for food adventures more than 15 times and I've never once even come across the term "beef kaiseki". This was truly an eye opening experience for me, not in terms of the giant hole in my wallet after that, but I've never had a multi beef course before. I was excited and thrilled especially after reading up that Ushidoki Wagyu Kaiseki was one of Singapore's top restaurants. Thank God, I was not disappointed with my meal here and was in fact very satisfied at the end of it. Anyway, I ordered the $200 menu which consisted of 9 courses:

Kagurazaka Ishikawa 神楽坂 石かわ @ Iidabashi, Tokyo

This is my favourite Kaiseki restaurant. I have not had the privilege to dine at places like Shinohara and Matsukawa yet but I have eaten at some pretty high profile ones like Roan Kikunoi in Kyoto and Koju in Tokyo, and no doubt they're all delicious but I find Ishikawa's dishes to be the most interesting in the sense that the combination of ingredients seem very simple but yet the flavour and taste that comes out of these combinations are just superb. For 23000 Yen, lets see what I got:

Tokyo Shiba Tofuya Ukai とうふ屋うかい @ Akabanebashi (near Tokyo Tower), Tokyo

Let's be honest here, why oh why would I travel hours to Tokyo and eat tofu as one of my meals when there are so many other more appetizing cuisines out there? That was my initial reaction when my father told me that he and my mum really wanted to try this restaurant. It was quite a miracle that I managed to make a lunch reservation just a day before our chosen date because the concierge told me that Tofuya Ukai is very popular restaurant. Immediately, my eyes widened and I figured "all right, I suppose there's more to tofu cuisine in Japan than my narrow minded view". We took a taxi to the restaurant and to our amazement, the restaurant was located inside a huge garden. We had to walk through a path to reach the restaurant. I have to admit, that short walk was extremely peaceful and really set our mind at ease for a delicious meal ahead. We were given a private room with a great view of the garden which really made us feel relaxed and yet excited for what's to come. Low and behold, the meal started:

Aji Takebayashi Kaiseki 味 竹林 @ Akasaka, Fukuoka

Aji Takebayashi is a Kaiseki restaurant specializing in vegetable / plant dishes grown from the Kyushu region. It may sound like a turn off at first since it's technically rabbits' food, I myself was very skeptical at that point in time. However, this meal reminded me of just how good the Japanese are; they can turn any kind of ingredient into something delicious and creative. That being said, don't worry there are also fish and meat dishes served.

Roan Kikunoi (Kiyamachi branch) 菊乃井木屋町店 @ Kawaramachi, Kyoto

This was a post in my previous blog, so if you read it, you will notice some similarities but treat this as an updated version of it since I went a second time in December 2015.

Roan Kikunoi is a 3 Michelin Star Kaiseki restaurant located in Kyoto. Apart from the main restaurant, Roan Kikunoi has two other branches; 1 near Kiyamachi Station in Kyoto and 1 in Tokyo. This is the first Kaiseki restaurant that I experienced creative Japanese cuisine. There are of course some of the more conventional dishes in its Kaiseki menu such as sliced fugu sashimi, but other dishes can be considered a work of art. Given that this is my second time eating here, things did not seem as creative as before since the winter menu remained relatively unchanged with the exception of a few dishes. Still, it was a great meal and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I always believe pictures speak louder than words so....

Taian 太庵 @ Nagahoribashi, Osaka

Taian is a 3 star Michelin Kaiseki restaurant located in Nagahoribashi, Osaka; it's about a 10 to 15 minutes walk from Dotonbori. I wouldn't say there is anything fancy or very creative about the dishes served in Taian but whatever they serve, as ordinary as it may seem, are of very high quality. Anyway, I came here during December 2016, so I had the winter dinner course. Let's have a look at the pictures:

Matayoshi 祇園 又吉 @ Gion, Kyoto

Matayoshi is an up and coming Kaiseki restaurant located in Gion, Kyoto. I believe the chef already has a michelin star awarded to his restaurant. I was here during the winter season last year (2016) and was served a dinner course that was centered on vegetables. I know to some, vegetables may seem like a turn off; I was feeling that way initially, but halfway through the meal, I began to appreciate the use and mix of seasonal vegetables to enhance the overall flavour and aroma of the dishes he makes.

By the end of the meal, the dish that sealed the deal for me was his Daikon and Parsley rice. Sounds very simple and plain right? But that was the best rice I've had in a Kaiseki dinner at that point of my life. Before I elaborate a little on his vegetables, let's have a look at the pictures:

Ginza Koju 銀座 小十 @ Ginza, Tokyo

Firstly, apologies for the poor lighting of the photos; the restaurant itself was rather dim and not very photo friendly due to the lighting conditions. Anyway, Koju is probably one of the most popular Kaiseki restaurants in Tokyo. It is often featured in documentaries like Tsukiji Wonderland and in Michelin Star guides. I can't remember if Koju is 2 or 3 stars but I do remember that I really enjoyed my lunch here.