MIta

By the southeast corner of Kyoto Gyoen National Garden, home of the Imperial Palace, is a kaiseki restaurant with an aura of comfortable elegance. Grab a seat at the counter and watch the chef masterfully handle a range of seasonal ingredients such as chargrilled eel, crab dishes in winter, chrysanthemum with blackthroat perch, and matsutake mushrooms. This is a comfortable space for you to relax and enjoy the courtly cuisine of Kyoto, just a hop skip and jump from the palace where the cuisine was perfected centuries ago. The dishes that were developed in those days are still on offer at Mita, as are some more modern concoctions dreamed up by the chef himself.