Gion Matayoshi

We were able to have lunch here on short notice, and wow are we happy that we did! From entering the restaurant, the mood was very relaxed and down to earth. Just us and 6 other people got to enjoy the most amazing meal ever. The staff was super friendly and explained everything to us using books with pictures of fish and vegetables. The food was the BEST food I’ve ever had. If you’re doubting to go to a 2 Michelin star restaurant because you’re afraid it’ll be to snobby (like me) this is the place to go. I would happily donate an organ to eat here again :)

One of our more pricier lunches for our trip was here but the experience was worth it. From food, service, to atmosphere, everything was amazing. They really try to converse with you with their limited english which made the experience that much better. I tried to use the limited japanese I knew and we all had a good laugh. I love learning about the food they used to create each dish and trying ingredients that are from japan was so cool. You can make reservations online and the area they are in is really nice to walk around afterwards.

It was good experience in Gion Matayoshi. There are 12 courses in the lunch menu plus set of wine to make dishes tasty. We like fish soup much among the course. Further, the service is really good and the staff nice and to introduce each dish.

Superlative in every aspect. A kaiseki restaurant in Gion district with small counter, 2 Michelin stars but I'm not sure they even hung the plaque anywhere. Over a dozen courses, featuring quality uncommon ingredients, decorated to the 9s by their surprisingly large team. They would literally spend 5 minutes putting leaves and other stuff to the dish for you to take a photo then take it all apart right after so you can eat. They would bring picture books and iPads showing what you are eating, and the sous chef spoke decent English as he described all the intricacies of each plate. You get to see most of what they are doing right in front and all the prep work to get it ready for consumption. Considering the cost of the food, their high staff to customer ratio, and the fact that it's a two star place, the price was not bad at 36000 yen pp. That's before factoring in how tasty it was and the overall elevated experience.

The food were so good. The taste, decorations, design of the ingredients’ combination - all good and worth the price. Will come back definitely. Service was also good. Very gentle, nice and explained the dishes clearly. Two pieces of advices if I could give- the bowls used for the しゃぶしゃぶ, not good for drinking the soup with a wide edge, to change the type of bowls or provide a spoon will be better. The towels were not maintained in good temperature, could be warmer. Anyway, those are just for maintaining the quality of the good place, not big issues. Overall the experience was great.

The food was excellent. The server was very interesting. He tried his best to explain each dish to me in the language I was using. I was deeply impressed.

Our whole experience was wonderful. The staff was super kind, respectful and accommodating including to an allergy we had. The chefs were very friendly and funny and would talk and explain each of our dishes. We had no issues speaking mostly English and limited Japanese. The atmosphere was great, very traditional Japanese, you take your shoes off but get to sit on a chair. The food was amazing, not a bad bite the whole night, and you get plenty of it. You get several courses so you can try many different dishes and we were so full at the end of the night. We even got a picture with the whole staff at the end of the night. Highly recommend!

Every dish is good. We visited the other Michelin two star Kaiseki restaurant in New York. This restaurant is way better than that. The quality of the food material is super good. For example, usually the other Kaiseki places would smash taro to achieve smooth texture, but the quality of the taro here is so good that it is smooth as its original form. The chef designed the dishes really well. For example, the chef cooked both Waygu beef and fish roe for the hotpot with different flavor (both are very good). We went to other Kaiseki place in Kyoto which has higher tabelog review but it is not comparable to this one. Each of the dish the staff will show you which fish it is with fish picture. We will definitely come back!