Giro Giro Hitoshina

Based in an old converted warehouse, Giro Giro Hitoshina manages to be both fun and funky. Most of the warehouse’s original features have been retained, apart from the back wall, which has been knocked out and replaced with vast picture windows looking out onto the foliage of the cherry trees lining the swift-moving canal.

The head chef, whose hair is regularly dyed and styled in punk styles, certainly knows how to cook and his cuisine has been called “punk kaiseki”, having created a multicourse dinner that follows the basic conventions and structure of traditional Kyoto cuisine, yet without its usual formality. The ingredients are less sophisticated than you’d be served at a top-end restaurant, and the bowls and utensils humbler. But each of the eight courses are given appropriate seasonal accents, often with an amusing quirkiness.

They serve only one fixed menu each month at a very reasonable price. No need to worry about reading the menu; just relax and enjoy this modern take on the essence of Kaiseki cuisine.