EAT > Restaurant Hiramatsu Kodaiji, Kyoto (16/20)

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One lane in from the stone steps of Ninenzaka, in the part of Higashiyama that Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his wife Nene made their own, a four-storey house looks out over the rooftops to the Yasaka Pagoda and, on a clear evening, to the Kitayama and Nishiyama hills beyond. This is Restaurant Hiramatsu Kodaiji, the Kyoto house of the Hiramatsu group, which opened in 2017 and holds one MICHELIN star in the 2026 Guide. The cooking is French, contemporary in style but grounded in classical technique.

AMBIENCE >

The building is meant as a meeting point of Japanese and French culture, and the main dining room makes the case through its large glass windows: the city spreads out below, with the pagoda at the centre of the frame. Inside, paintings by Joan Miró hang on the walls, a bright modern counterpoint to the borrowed scenery outside. The dining room seats 32, with two private rooms for up to four and up to eight, and a separate salon upstairs for larger gatherings. On a warm day or evening there are outside tables that would be ideal to soak up the view.

As we made our way up the hill there was a little misting rain and as we reached the entry there were three staff awaiting us with umbrella’s ready to whisk us safely into the restaurant. There is a downstairs waiting room where we sat in delightfully comfortable chairs (the Colonial Chair, by Danish designer Ole Wanscher), before heading up to the restaurant table when the whole group had arrived.

EAT >

Dinner is a choice of three set courses, Nouveau, Saison and Koudaiji, and the whole table orders the same one. The kitchen, under head chef Yasushi Kobayashi, works with classical French technique and sauces and builds its menus around produce from Kyoto Prefecture: Tamba beef and chestnuts, Daikoku hon-shimeji mushrooms from Kyōtamba, Kyōtango pears, Nanatani duck. The menu changes with the season.

Each dish was delicious and pretty. Our first course was red pepper mousse served with a dash of tomato coulis. From there we had Fujisan salmon with a mandarin beurre blanc sauce and aubergine purée and trout caviar.
Grilled scallops followed served with veal sweetbreads, a crab galette and persimmon, this was a complicated dish and possibly a bit too much going on for my palate.

Lobster and crispy tilefish were served over crushed potatoes with a crab bisque which was rich and delicious. The final main dish was roast Kyoto-Himeushi Kuroge Wagyu beef with frittered chestnuts, as you would expect the meat was melt in the mouth perfect.

The dessert was pear served with chocolate mousse and an earl grey tea biscuit with pear and lemon sorbet.

DRINK >

There is a substantial cellar and the wines range in cost from reasonable to just short of outrageous (depending on your budget), though on our evening a couple of bottles were not available and another selection was required.

We chose a Laroche 1er Cru Chablis (L’Essence des Climats – which was excellent and a Domain Chanson Clos du Roi Beaune 1er Cru also very good).

CONCLUSION >

Hiramatsu Kodiji is clearly not cheap. It is a special room and the food and ceremony is all about being a place to celebrate special events. For us it was a celebration of Simon’s 90th year and with a view that looked over close to where he had lived (and I was born) some 65 years prior it was ideal.

Minor criticisms were a few delays in service, a few wines on the list but not available and the food being tasty but the dishes ultimately not memorable, but none of these are the reason you come to a venue like Hiramatsu Kodaiji, you come for the view and the celebration.

ONE MORE THING >

Head chef Yasushi Kobayashi joined Hiramatsu in 2008, trained in the group’s Tokyo restaurants and at its Paris restaurant, then worked at La Fête Hiramatsu in Osaka. He moved to Kyoto when Kodaiji opened in 2017, served as its sous-chef and took over the kitchen in 2021. Two things to know before you book: the restaurant is closed on Mondays (Tuesday when Monday is a public holiday) and the last dinner order is 7.30pm, so this is an early evening by European standards. A vegan course is available with three days’ notice, and the kitchen can cater for other diets if you ask when booking.