Kikunoi Honten – Kyoto

Located in the Gion-Maruyama district of Kyoto, Kikunoi Honten is a popular Japanese fine-dining restaurant. The place Gion-Maruyama is always known to house many entertainment activities and quality restaurants throughout the day. The Japanese style interior provide for a graceful refinement and the seasonal delights served at Kikunoi makes you visit more than once.

The restaurant comes with a seasonal menu and only natural ingredients are used for cooking some of the finest Japanese cuisine. The interior is modified every season to reflect the beauty of the current season with help of flower arrangements and artwork related to that season. This also allows the customers to soak into the kind of environment outside and feel as if dining at home.

Kikunoi in Japanese means “chrysanthemum well” and the name originates from the belief that the wife of a famous king in the feudal era used the water from the well for making tea and the water burst out in the form of a chrysanthemum. Established in 1912, the Kikunoi is being headed by the 3-rd generation owner Yoshihiro Murata.

The Kaiseki restaurant in Kyoto also has one branch in Tokyo along with a kappo style restaurant in Kyoto itself. Initially, Chef Murata was inclined towards French cuisine and even went to France to learn the intricacies of making French dishes, but later after his return to Kyoto changed his mind and joined his family business.

The Kikunoi restaurant is one the most traditional Japanese restaurants that you need to remove your shoes after entering the restaurant and dine in a private room decorated with calligraphy on the walls along with a beautiful flower display. The dining rooms have a beautiful view of the gardens and comes with low bench seating common in many Japanese restaurants.