Kiyamachi Sakuragawa

The guidebooks are not exaggerating when they say a kaiseki meal in Japan is worthwhile. If you:

1. Go to Japan
2. Like eating skillfully prepared food
3. Appreciate a serene, phenomenal ambience...

then you owe it to yourself to arrange for a kaiseki meal. And Kiyamachi Sakuragawa in Kyoto delivers a fantastic kaiseki meal experience at a bargain price. 

If you're unfamiliar with kaiseki, my (probably fairly ignorant) simple explanation is that it's a slow, careful, attentive meal where the chef prepares each small dish in front of you. Each small dish is served one at a time and only once you've finished the prior dish. And the quality tends to be high. 

I chose Kiyamachi Sakuragawa for a kaiseki meal because it had good reviews and more moderate prices than most other kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto. If you don't mind paying $200 or $300 for your dinner (yes, for one person), go ahead and book dinner at a kaiseki restaurant. But if you'd like the kaiseki experience for a more moderate price, book a reservation for lunch instead. And at ¥7,000 for lunch, Kiyamachi Sakuragawa was more moderately priced than most other kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto. 

Kiyamachi Sakuragawa accepts reservations up to one month in advance. And like many Japanese restaurants, you must have a Japan phone number to make a reservation. So you can follow my example and just have your place of lodging call to make a reservation for you. And yes, do make reservations or don't expect to get in.

Tip: Make sure you're entering the correct restaurant. There's another restaurant right next door that I mistook for Kiyamachi Sakuragawa. After a few moments of my using basic Japanese and awkward staring and silence from that restaurant's surprised staff, we realized we were in the wrong place. 😬One of the cooks kindly walked us next door to Kiyamachi Sakuragawa.

Tip: Dress nicely for such a restaurant. No shorts, sandals, or sloppy apparel.

 We loved our kaiseki experience at Kiyamachi Sakuragawa. The two chefs prepared the food and dishes with exceptional care and skill. The friendly and charming kimono-clad hostess spoke a fair amount of English and tactfully explained each dish to us when we received it—a good thing, as we would have been a bit puzzled at times otherwise.

There was no food served that was so strange or grotesque as to cause most Americans discomfort. And it was all good, some of it being phenomenal. 

At no point were we bored or displeased. We happily soaked in the quiet, serene atmosphere and the staff's care and skill over a couple of hours. When we left Kiyamachi Sakuragawa, we were also pleasantly surprised to realize that the restaurant was in a pretty, cute neighborhood away from other tourists and hubbub. So it was a nice walk through the area.