Dinner for one at Japan's top Italian restaurant, Kitanozaka Kinoshita.Tabelog Rating: 4.55Tabelog Award 2026 GOLDSelected as one of Tabelog's Top 100 Italian Restaurants in WEST 2025.This is my first visit since April.Now, let's enjoy summer at Kinoshita!- **Caviar** A finger food called crostini, infused with aromatic vegetables. The base is grilled over binchotan charcoal, giving it a crispy texture and a wonderful smoky aroma. The caviar's fragrance was simply divine from the start! ❤️- **Corn** Fresh corn delivered directly from a farm in Ushimado. Served in three types of appetizers. One spoon features steamed corn to enhance its natural sweetness. The yellow part is made from the husks and core, simmered for 12 hours to create a flavorful soup. This natural soup is made without cream or added sugar. In the center, there’s grilled corn that has been shaved and turned into ice cream, highlighting the corn's sweetness and aroma—absolutely delicious!- **Surf Clam with Shiso** Lightly steamed and grilled carpaccio-style surf clam, using only the tip of a large 500g clam. Served with a green sauce made from plenty of Japanese herbs, topped with a spicy sauce made from the oldest nori in Japan, from the 16 Islands of Shimane.- **Red Sea Urchin** Cold capellini made with natural red sea urchin from Honda-ya in Kumamoto. Typically, capellini is finished with just olive oil, but here it’s boiled in fish stock to infuse deep flavors. Served with freshly grated wasabi. First, I enjoyed the sweetness of the sea urchin on its own, then moved on to the exquisite capellini—truly a winner!- **Kamo Eggplant with Nuts** Soft parts of Kyoto's kamo eggplant are cut and gently cooked in homemade consomme soup for 10 hours. The creamy topping is not made from cream but from roasted almonds blended into a liquid nut sauce. No bitterness from the eggplant, just pure deliciousness, enhanced by the aroma of yuzu.- **Hairy Crab** An 800g hairy crab sent from Sapporo, boiled alive first thing in the morning. The legs and claws are simply dressed with oil. The body is mixed with whipped crab miso, creating a rich, creamy texture. Served with an Italian-style rice salad. Packed with crab flavor, it was incredibly satisfying!- **Zuppa di Pesce** A soup made by simmering hairy crab meat, red shrimp, sweet shrimp, carrots, onions, and celery for seven hours, then extracting all the essence. Super rich yet made without salt or sugar, this natural soup is always the best!- **Abalone with Water Shield** Abalone is gently cooked and briefly tossed in corn oil for added aroma. Served with a thick sauce made by simmering water shield with seafood stock.- **Eel with Walnuts** Thick eel is grilled to a crispy skin using both wood and binchotan charcoal, with the flesh cut like conger eel and glazed with a sauce based on Sicilian Marsala wine. Served with a salad of roasted walnuts and cucumbers. No muddy taste, just incredibly delicious!- **White Squid with Squid Ink, Turban Shell, and Fruit Tomato** Homemade hand-pulled pasta infused with squid ink, made without eggs, using fine durum wheat. The sauce combines summer seafood like turban shell and white squid with fruit tomato. The pasta has a firm texture and a great bite.- **Shimane Wagyu Chateaubriand with Palermo** Tenderloin from Shimane's Ginyama Wagyu is cut from the center of the Chateaubriand and slow-grilled over wood and charcoal for an hour. Served with roasted Palermo peppers from Gifu. Three types of condiments: 1. Fresh pepper marinated in smoked oil 2. Salted fresh pepper 3. Fresh wasabi The flavor of the Chateaubriand was explosive—I could eat another plate!- **Dragon's Eye Rice with Akashi Octopus and Beans** Octopus caught at Akashi Port is prepared live at Tsuruichi, then simmered for a long time in a mix of French mineral water and carbonated water, allowing the flavors to infuse into the rice for a risotto. No cream or cheese, just a light finish! Made with the rare "Dragon's Eye" rice from Hida, which is 1.5 times larger than Koshihikari. A squeeze of lemon adds a refreshing touch.- **Kinoshita Cheesecake** Gluten-free, smooth, and wonderfully fragrant with cheese.- **Pineapple** A smooth soup made from crushed pineapple, with a center of gelato made from passion fruit and fresh basil.- **Chamomile Tea** It was a great meal! Once again, every dish from start to finish was exceptional.I’ve become someone who can only enjoy Italian cuisine from Kinoshita!