Bruno Abreu

A small curry restaurant with counter seating, where you can enjoy delicious modern Japanese curry. They use dashi and miso to flavor the curry, giving it a deep and unique flavor.

There are three curries to choose from: chicken, keema and black pork. You can have two or three types for a couple hundred yen more, and also add some extra toppings like spicy egg and vegetables tempura.

The black pork curry, sprinkled with pink peppercorns, was amazing. Chicken and keema were also delicious and combined well with the Japanese rice. Less

An interesting and unique natural wine bar in the Nihonbashi-Hamacho neighborhood.

Wines are served in earthenware pottery instead of traditional glassware because the owner believes that natural wines taste better this way. The selection of bowls isn't random; the owner first "consults" with each bottle to determine where it should be poured.

The food is also very good and the short menu includes rillette, pasta, salad, and bread. Less

Tokuha Motonari opened in December 2023, and before completing its first anniversary, it had already become impossible to book online.

The chef comes from Wakuden, arguably the finest school for Kaiseki in Kyoto. As with other restaurants led by Wakuden alumni, you can expect a Kaiseki meal with creative touches while remaining true to the essence of Kyo-ryouri—lightly seasoned and elegantly presented.

The specialties are the dishes prepared over a hearth with binchotan. These included kuruma shrimp, used in the owan soup (a missed opportunity, as the smoked notes don’t carry over to the dashi), sawara yuanyaki, Kagoshima wagyu with hachi miso and narazuke pickles, and salt-grilled sanma for the final rice dish.

It was a long meal, lasting over two hours. The food was delicious, and the counter is one of the most beautiful in Kyoto. It's easy to see why it's so popular. Less

Popular restaurant for Japanese “spice curry” in Ginza. There’s often people lining up outside, but it moves fast and the wait on a Saturday at lunch time was about 20 minutes.

The most ordered item is the double curry dish with keema and chicken curry with rice and pickles. The keema is cooked in red wine, which gives it an interesting flavor, combined with the traditional indian spices. The rice is Japanese rice with turmeric.

The curry was good, but nothing special. The “Murugi Lunch” at Ginza Nair nearby is still my first choice when it comes to a good curry in this area. Less

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