During my summer 2019 trip to Kyoto I was intrigued by the cuisine of Shuhaku, a kaiseki restaurant that boasts one Michelin star and was supposed to combine French and Japanese elements. Actually I found it a pretty regular Japanese kaiseki (which is good), apart from the dessert final moment that was pretty epic.
The visit
I booked and prepaid the meal through an online concierge service. There were three menus for lunch and I chose the most expensive.
The restaurant is located in a historic district near some major shrines. It has 8 seats at the counter, plus a table for 4 in a corner. During my visit the table was taken, only a couple of other diners sat at the counter.
The lunch started with a composition featuring 20 different local vegetables. It is a pretty common dish for this kind of course meals.
The second dish was a nice soup with a sizable piece of hamo and omelette with asparagus in tofu skin. Hamo (pike conger) was one of the main features of the kaiseki, as it may be expected as it is a seasonal fish popular during the summer in Kyoto.
The third dish was three kinds of sashimi: hirame (a flat fish), hamo, and tuna. It came with plum sauce with sake for the hirame, soy plum sauce for the hamo, and soy sauce for the tuna. The presentation with a plate resembling a drainpipe was pretty original.
The fourth dish combined ayu and hamo sushi. Ayu (sweet fish) is also a summer favorite and was grilled in a way that made everything edible, including the bones. Quite delicious.
The fifth dish was a marinated asparagus in vinegar.
The sixth dish was tairagai seared and presented on a hot stone.
The seventh dish was strips of Kyoto beef in broth with eggplant, plus steamed rice and pickles. This dish was a let down. I was hoping something more substantial that could help me appreciate Kyoto beef.
The dessert moment added some surprise as I was presented all the desserts available and I could choose all I wanted. The desserts mixed Western and Japanese techniques.
I picked up three.
The first was a banana mousse topped with red beans.
The second was a pastry with walnut and cream.
Finally, I had their sweet soup with matcha sorbet that was the chef’s favorite.
All the desserts were excellent.
The check
Using the online concierge service, for this menu I paid 11,180 yen. The cheaper menu was around 50,000 and there was a mid-range option for around 70,000.
This was a well executed kaiseki. I appreciated the seasonal ingredients (even if they overshoot with the hamo) and the dessert moment was great. A couple of dishes were a bif of a softball (like the Kyoto beef strips). I was just disappointed that I did not see the French influences apart from the cakes. I asked if the dinner kaisekis were different and the chef answered that they were not that different.
In the cheapest menu the most expensive seafood like hamo was replaced with mackerel and I would not recommend it. If you make the trip to Kyoto, treat yourself for something better. There was a party that I believe had the mid-range menu and I think the only major difference was that they did not get the Kyoto beef dish. If so, the mid-range menu was the best choice as the Kyoto beef dish was nothing special.
Where in Kyoto:
392 Kinencho, Higashiyama Ward.