Bruno Abreu

Top-tier sushi that checks all the boxes for me: a beautiful hinoki counter, interesting tsumami, sour rice, excellent fish, and a fun chef who engages with guests.

The concept is "acid and fat," which translates to sour rice and fatty fish. Only white vinegar is used for the rice, as the chef understands that red vinegar adds more umami, while white vinegar provides a sharper acidity. However, a small amount of red vinegar, specifically Fuji vinegar from Kyoto, is used to wet the chef's fingers when forming the nigiri.

The tsumami included a rich fried oyster with balsamic vinegar and tara shirako with dashi, both of which were outstanding. The nigiri highlights tonight were the kawahagi, anago with a delicate sprinkling of salt flakes, and a unique deep-fried eggplant piece Less

They have a tasting menu for 70 euros that looked interesting, but since I wasn't very hungry, I ordered à la carte.

Starters were smoked quail egg with chestnut and ham and a tartlet of minhota (Portuguese version of the Rubia Galega beef) with pickles. Main dish was sweetbreads with grapes and an hollandaise sauce with smoked eel. For dessert, mushrooms ice cream with caramel and crunchy barley. Everything was creative and really tasty. Less

A yakiton restaurant popular with the locals in Kyoto. Still easy to book, but it was full tonight so reservation is a must.

The focus is on pork horumon (offal), which I found that I’m not a huge fan of. I had, among other things, stomach, heart, uterus and cartilage. Easier to enjoy was the tsukune (meatball) of minced pork and chicken. I had both the common version with egg yolk and one with a slice of cheddar and grana padano on top.

Natural wine is another specialty of this restaurant, but unfortunately the only options by the glass are tetrapak wine (white, orange and red). There’s an all you can drink option of shochu hi, beer and sake though. Less