Gion Sushi Tadayasu, Kyoto

For us, no trip to Japan is complete without a sushi meal – it’s such a quintessential experience to sit at the wooden counter and watch the chef prepare and serve piece after piece.

We had lunch at Gion Sushi Tadayasu, which I chose with the help of the Tableall website.  It’s a very helpful resource, with so many photos and descriptions!

We arrived a few minutes before our reservation, and loitered in the traditional Gion alley along with two parties of very well-dressed Japanese diners as the restaurant noren was hung and the stone entryway was rinsed.  Then we were welcomed and shown to our seats along the counter; as it turns out, there are two chefs – the proprietor (after whom the restaurant is named) and his second-in-charge.  The other 6 diners were seated with the head chef, so D and I were the only two with the second chef.  It may be that the others were regulars, or simply that the second chef was more comfortable with English – indeed, he was quite personable and easy to communicate with!  Having his undivided attention made it a really enjoyable (and well-paced) meal.

We asked for some sake, which the chef selected for us and presented in a Edo kiriko cut glass carafe, and settled in for a parade of fabulous sushi.

He had an English guidebook that he used to explain the more unusual fish to us.

I noticed that while the two chefs used the same selection of fish, they varied the order and the preparation of some of the pieces – for example, our chef served us steamed oysters with rice stuffed inside and a bit of caviar on top, while the other chef served the oysters as a more traditional nigiri piece at the end of the meal.

As usual after a sushi marathon, I could only remember a few of the pieces: small shiro ebi (shrimp) shaped on top of rice, fresh sardine brushed with sauce (practically sweet, so unlike what you’d think sardine would taste like!), meltingly tender baby snapper, a wafer of grilled beef, and the usual suspects of ebi, various types of tuna, hamaguri clam, uni, and anago.

Afterwards, I fetched my purse from the wooden cabinet where I’d placed it before the meal (a clever and unusual feature!) and we strolled through the historic streets of Gion for a bit of sightseeing and window shopping before returning to our equally historic ryokan.