Originally Posted by bhrubin

Just returned Monday from our 2 weeks and 21 star extravaganza in Japan. A quick summary:

TOKYO

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2* Narisawa—absolutely worthy of 3 stars and one of my 2 or 3 favorite meals in Japan. Food was stunning and delicious. Service was fabulous, and the mixed wine and sake pairings were tremendous. An amazing dinner, and yet I wasn’t stuffed like I’d normally be after such a lengthy 2.5 hr meal. I’d return in a second. Highly recommended, and agree that it’s one of the best in the world.

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KYOTO

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2* Gion Sasaki—what a lunch, a truly memorable and very fun counter experience as the only Anglos, yet the team and chefs tried to speak with us and used Google translate even a few times, and the surrounding customers all spoke with us too! Almost everyone was surprised we’d heard of this place, and most were shocked we’d been able to get booking as foreigners. Most fun meal of our two weeks as a result, with very good food and Kaiseki, some truly intriguing courses that were all quite delicious, better even than 3* Wayamamura in Nara. Was just $100 per person for an incredible lunch. Highly recommended.

1* Tempura Mizuki—wow. Truly delicious and memorable tempura bar dinner at the RC Kyoto. Decided to go a la carte so we could do as much tempura that we wanted as possible, especially since we don’t normally like fried foods, but was so delicious we over did it and bill came to $700 for the two of us! That’s how yummy it was. Paired with reasonable champagne that was a bit too pricey, but overall would return in a heartbeat. Highly recommended.

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