Kyoto gourmet cuisine has endless options, from Kaiseki, original Japanese food, obanzai, and charcoal-grilled foods. Combining these foods with Japanese sake takes mature Kyoto gourmetism to another level. Here are 5 restaurants with sake masters—Japanese sake sommeliers who are highly dependable. These restaurants are all excellent choices for Japanese sake connoisseurs and beginners who want to know more about sake.
Toji Temple - Japanese Cuisine Yuen
A Japanese restaurant where guests can spend premium time. Features private spaces that are reservation only and accept 1 group per room.
Japanese Cuisine Yuen is located near Toji Temple in Kyoto. This restaurant is reservation-only and lets guests enjoy special service in one room with course cuisine by a private chef as well as Japanese sake selected by a sake master. The food goes well with the sake, and recommended options include the matured Japanese Black Wagyu beef, smoked and cooked at low temperatures, as well as the Special Set Menu Japanese Cuisine Wabi Sabi Meal, which includes chef's choice sushi made before one's eyes.
The extraordinary and creative Japanese-style space was made by a sculptor who has handled theme parks. The private rooms have Japanese-modern table seats. The painting of a dragon, hand painted by a Kyoto fusuma painter, has a strong presence, and the Japanese garden made by a sculptor can be seen from the window and soothes the eyes. Between 2 and 6, guests can make reservations, making this restaurant perfect for dates, entertaining, and moving the emotions of guests.
Nihon Ryouri YUEN
Closed: Irregular
Average price: [Dinner] 20,000 JPY
Access: By bus: Take routes 16, 18, 19, 42, 71, 78, 202, 205, 206, 207 and get off at Toji Higashimon-mae, Toji Minamimon-mae, or Kujo Omiya.
Address: 60-2, Nishikujo Hieijo-cho, Minami-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto Map
More Details Reservation
Saga Arashiyama - Japanese cuisine Saga SUN MEMBERS Kyoto Saga
Enjoy the pairing of highly original cuisine with Japanese sake selected by a sake master.
Japanese Cuisine Saga SUN MEMBERS Kyoto Saga is a Kyoto cuisine restaurant located in SUN MEMBERS Kyoto Saga, a hotel in Arashiyama and Sagano. Here, guests can enjoy highly creative Japanese cuisine that uses seasonal ingredients from all over Japan, including Kyoto vegetables. The Japanese Pepper Chawanmushi is highly recommended, as it has addictive, spicy flavors with Japanese pepper paste and minced conger eel. Some of the course foods can be ordered as individual items.
Open the curtain and go through the stone-paved hall to find a comfortable, spacious, and relaxing Japanese space. Guests are welcomed by the kimono-wearing female staff and can relax and enjoy meals and sake at the table and counter seats. They can also appreciate the Drink and Compare Set recommended by the sake master, in which 3 or 9 varieties of sake, which go well with the Kyoto cuisine, can be enjoyed and compared.
Japanese cuisine Saga SUN MEMBERS Kyoto Saga
Closed: Irregular
Average price: [Dinner] 8,000 JPY / [Lunch] 2,500 JPY
Access: 1km from Saga-Arashiyama station of JR Sanin Sagano Line
Address: Inside SUN MEMBERS Kyoto Saga, 27-1, Saga-hirosawa-minamino-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto Map
More Details Reservation
Shichijo - Higashiyama Yoshihisa
Enjoy the restaurant's original sake along with course cuisine with elaborate flavors for each season.
Higashiyama Yoshihisa is located in a quiet alley that is a 15-minute walk from Keihan Shichijo Station. The restaurant owner has worked as the head chef at a famous Kyoto hotel and lets customers enjoy original cuisine with a highly seasonal feel that follows the concept of the menu changing monthly. Their menu consists only of chef's choice courses for both lunch and dinner. The food on the Kaiseki tray is enjoyable as appetizers with sake and lets guests enjoy a colorful seasonal taste with a focus on ingredients from Kyoto and Shiga, the hometown of the restaurant head.
This little-known restaurant is located a little way from the station and busy streets in Kyoto, which bustle with tourism. Here, guests can enjoy sophisticated cuisine and Japanese sake to their hearts' content at relaxing counter seats with indirect lighting and classic music in the background. Enjoy the sake carefully selected by the restaurant head, who has a sake master qualification, as well as the restaurant's original sake made by Matsui Sake Brewery, one of the few breweries in Kyoto.
Higashiyama Yoshihisa
Access: 15 minutes walk from Shichijo Station
Marutamachi - Kyoo Hajime
This restaurant lets guests freely enjoy Kyoto cuisine along with Japanese sake. It can also be used as a bar!
Located a 2-minute walk from Marutamachi Station on the subway. Kyoo Hajime is a restaurant where guests can enjoy original Japanese cuisine as courses and a la carte items. These foods are made by the young owner-chef based on the concept of enjoying Kyoto cuisine with Japanese sake. The appetizers are highly recommended, as they are wrapped in delicious flavors that change every season at their most crispy, savory Monaka. They appear at the start of courses and can be ordered as individual items.
The restaurant interior is a casual, modern, and comfortable space with 4 counter seats and 8 table seats. The owner and head chef have the highest sake master qualification of sake sommelier, and he has a collection of over 25 varieties of Japanese sake carefully selected from breweries all over Japan. Guests can encounter rare brands such as Rissimo from Kyoto, Mimurosugi from Nara, and Hatsukame from Shizuoka, all of which are recommended for sake enthusiasts and beginners alike.
Kyoo Hajime
Sanjo - Tan Rakuya Toriume
Japanese BBQ chicken goes perfectly with a glass of sake! Get intoxicated by tamba chicken and fine sake.
Located a 5-minute walk from Keihan Sanjo Station. Tan Rakuya Toriume lets guests enjoy Japanese sake along with Tamba BBQ chicken cooked with domestic Binchotan charcoal. Customers can enjoy the Japanese BBQ Chicken 10 Piece Set, an assortment packed with volume and exclusive to Hitosara, as well as various meat cuts that change by the day. Enjoy Japanese sake along with the fragrance of charcoal grilling and meat juices overflowing with every bite.
Though this restaurant is located close to Pontocho Kaburenjo, the representative geisha quarter of Kyoto, it has an atmosphere in which solo customers and couples on dates can freely enter. The interior has casual table seats and counter seats in the open kitchen, and from here, guests' appetites will be stimulated by the fragrances of charcoal cooking and the liveliness of the kitchen. They usually have around 30 varieties of Japanese sake available, so feel free to consult with the owner and chef, who is a sake master.
Tan Rakuya Toriume
Access: 5 minutes walk from Sanjo Station
