Rating: 16/20
Where: Kyoto, Japan
When: Dinner for 2 on 11 May 2023
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 25000-35000 Yen
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, Tabelog Bronze Award (2023)
Why: Kaiseki cuisine in a traditional teahouse setting, one of the oldest restaurants in Kyoto

The restaurant Hyotei is a veritable institution in Kyoto. It was founded 450 years ago, and is now run by the 15th generation of the owning family. There is even a dish that has been on the menu for all of this time. With that much tradition (and the fact that we're in Kyoto), it's no surprise that this three-Michelin-starred restaurant serves Kaiseki cuisine.

Located in a windy side-street near the Kyoto zoo, Hyotei occupies a surprisingly large area that is hidden behind a high fence. A tranquil Japanese garden is home to several stand-alone buildings, all containing private dining rooms. In fact, private dining is the only choice here, and we didn't see any other guests during our visit. We did hear them, though - the paper-thin walls are apparently not built to modern standards of sound-proofing.

While Hyotei serves only a traditional Kaiseki tasting menu, there was some variability: the cost of the menu could be chosen at reservation time. In our case, we were able to decide between 25000, 30000 and 35000 yen. We went for the priciest option, assuming that this would allow the restaurant to present itself in the best possible light. And it was still only about half of what we paid at Mizai a few days prior.

There was no beverage pairing, or even any beverages offered by the glass. The restaurant had a wine list with a few dozen entries (and a handful of half-bottles), with a particular emphasis on Burgundy. Sakes were available as well, by the bottle or by the carafe. I followed our server's suggestion for a carafe of sake and was quite happy with it - it took me all the way through our 2 1/2 hour dinner.

Hyotei gave us a printed English menu, and its staff spoke English well enough to communicate about the dinner. However, we received no descriptions of the dishes beyond what was already printed on the menu. Luckily, a private dining room meant that unlike Mizai nobody was able to stop me from taking photos, so here we go...

Our first course consisted of two dishes. A cold “salad” dressed with a sesame sauce contained baby eggplant and fried wheat gluten. The eggplant was nicely juicy, and the chewy wheat gluten a bit nutty. While this dish was pleasant, it was unfortunately pretty low on flavor 14. Better was a little bowl containing uni, crunchy red peppers and a tofu cream sauce. The tofu sauce was the weakest part of the dish: it didn't taste of anything, and there was a lot of the sauce, so it actually lessened the flavor of the other ingredients. And that was a shame: the uni was very good, and the red peppers also quite nice. Thanks to the uni (and some soy sauce jelly), this dish was saltier than the salad, and thus a bit stronger flavored 15.

Sashimi of tai was next. It was served with some herbs, wasabi, soy sauce and “tomato soy sauce” - a salty, tomato-based sauce that the chef invented. I'm not the biggest fan of tai with its inherent chewiness. But it was lovely with the very tasty tomato sauce, as well as with the soy sauce and wasabi. Adding the flavorful herbs took the dish up a further notch 17.

Next, the clear soup that is part of every Kaiseki meal. This particular soup was based on a bluefin tuna dashi, which was light but at least had some flavor, which is more than one can often say about this kind of course. A piece of sea bass in the broth had a nice texture, but not a strong flavor in itself. Similarly the deep fried tofu that was wrapped around some herbs - it was not very flavorful. This might seem like a backhanded compliment, but among similar clear soups, this was actually decent 15.

The next course was “Hassun”, the part of the Kaiseki menu that sheds the traditional rigor and allows the chef some creative freedom in creating a series of bites. Anchoring this course was a soft-boiled egg, Hyotei’s signature dish that has been on the menu for 450 years (half of a thousand-year egg, so to speak). To be fair, I'm not a fan of boiled eggs, but this one was pretty good - there seemed to be a small amount of seasoning on the top. Then again, at the end of the day (or century) it was a boiled egg, so I'm not sure how something like this would ever rate much higher than a 15. Fava beans had been covered with rice powder and deep-fried, which gave them a nice crunchy outside texture, but unfortunately didn't do anything about their mealy insides. They had slightly peanutty flavor, maybe from the fried rice powder. Pretty good, but a bit more salt would have made this even better 16. My dining companion (aka my sister) liked these much more than me, and thought they were worth an 18. A purple pickled ginger stalk was a bit too chewy for my liking 13. Jellyfish and tilefish had been marinated in a sauce of Chinese wine. The sauce imparted a nice flavor with lots of umami, and the texture of the seafood ingredients was also very good, with the jellyfish exhibiting a nice crunch 17. A slice of trout was wrapped around a Japanese vegetable called “udo”, and served with a yellow sauce that was both sweet and sour. The trout was a bit lackluster, and I wasn't too excited by the sauce either, so this was not my favorite bite 15. Sushi of eel was wrapped inside a cone made of leaves. For me, this was the best dish on the plate; the eel was nicely savory, thankfully there was no unagi sauce present here 17.

A small bowl contained our next course: a soup made of pine nut and sesame oil was a bit sweet. It wasn't bursting with flavor, but it still had more taste than the other ingredients present. Cockles, green asparagus and bamboo shoots all had a nice crunch, but were pretty flavorless. Disappointing 14 (the soup would have rated a 16 by itself).

Abalone and a mochi-like tofu were served with some wasabi in a starchy sauce. The abalone had a good bite and a lightly smoky taste - very nice. The green tofu was a tad bitter, and was better mixed together with the other ingredients, including a celery-like vegetable. The wasabi gave the result a nice kick 16 (17 or 18 for the abalone alone).

Another starchy sauce was the base of the next dish, this time seasoned with some peas - in fact, the sauce tasted very similar to a light pea soup, not the most Japanese of taste profiles (maybe 14). But there were also some solid ingredients in the soup. Roasted shrimp tasted pretty good at first, but ended up being chewy and not very juicy overall (maybe 15). Hot tempura of an udo vegetable was very good, and not too fatty (maybe 18). Finally, yuba sheets didn't taste much of anything, but were good for soaking up the remainder of the soup (maybe 13). Overall, that's probably a 15.

The "main" savory course of the evening was roasted beef. The meat was seasoned with an unknown sauce, and very, very good. Adding the supplied wasabi made it even better, and easily the best single food item of our dinner (19+ if rated separately). Unfortunately, it came with a watery, flavorless white asparagus and some oddly sweet pickles. So on the whole, this was more like a 18.

Instead of beef, pescatarians ended up with a whole grilled flounder that came with a vinegary sauce on the side. While the fish was fine with or without the sauce, I felt that it could have used a bit more seasoning 15. My sister would have given this a 17, but slowly grew tired of the udo plant which made its third appearance as the slightly sweet pickles. And a pro tip lest you want to embarrass yourself as we did: a flounder has two sides, so once you've eaten the meat on top, turn it over for the second half.

A rice pot concluded our meal. The rice had a nice consistency but only a very light flavor, mostly due to the added peas (16). The red miso soup on the side was less exciting: it was very sour and the tofu in it had no flavor whatsoever (14). The pickles were also underwhelming: the crunchy, fresh cucumber was decent, but the rest were salty and sour but lacked any crunch (13). Overall 15.

The main dessert was a plate bearing melons, a fruit with a cream filling, and an egg-white ice cream. The melon was sweet, but was cut so close to the rind that its outside was quite tough to eat 15. The cream-filled fruit was very nice - sweetness, fruitiness and creaminess went very well together 17. The ice cream was also very good, it tasted like a soy-milk ice cream with a hint of nuttiness 17.

Finally, we received a mochi that had an extremely sweet filling; otherwise ithere was nothing particularly special about it 13. A bowl of matcha concluded our meal.

Overall: Traditional Kaiseki cuisine in a traditional tea house setting. While the dishes generally followed customary presentations, there were some less-traditional touches as well (e.g. combining uni and red peppers, sashimi with a “tomato soy sauce”, rice and peas, etc). You wouldn't call this “modern” by any stretch of the imagination, but it lightened up the proceedings. We had a good time and this was a pleasant dinner, but apart from the amazing beef, there were no real three-star dishes. Of course, I didn’t grow up in Japan, so it’s always possible that I just don’t fully appreciate a cuisine that is more concerned with elegance and subtlety rather than strong flavors 16.