Kiku has been famous for a long time. This is my first visit since moving to this area.

In Korea, I think the only places that beat a sushi restaurant for satisfaction are the barbecue joints, and that probably holds even when you count fine dining… If you care about value for money, skip fine dining entirely and go to a barbecue joint or a sushi place instead. Korean-style sushi restaurants in particular keep bringing out snacks as long as you keep drinking, so you end up in a delightful Mobius strip where you have no choice but to keep drinking. I had only meant to have one bottle…

This is the place

Today’s wine

BRENNTAL Gewurztraminer Riserva, KURTATSCH. Judging by the bottle alone I took it for a New World wine, but the taste is thoroughly German, and rather than dry, it is richer and livelier in aroma and flavor. Could there really be such a delicious, distinctive wine from the New World? Turns out it was Italian… It is impressive how they manage to dig up wines like this.

Chawanmushi

Sashimi

It was a while ago, so I do not remember everything.

Sashimi

It keeps coming.

Abalone

It just keeps coming.

Toro

Gorgeous.

Kuruma ebi

Lots of good ingredients coming out.

Gizzard shad, I think…

The hikarimono come out first.

Squid with uni

Intense…

Whelk, I think…

It was very sweet.

Fried shrimp heads

The snacks are endless.

Mackerel

Look behind it and there is karasumi too.

Sweet shrimp

Plump.

Akazu rice

They really know how to modulate the intensity

Ankimo

Great with drinks.

Matsutake too…

All the seasonal specials are coming out.

Uni gunkan

How can it be this good…

Negitoro

Negitoro is delicious too.

Crab gunkan

The delicious stuff really never ends.

Not sure what this was…

Pufferfish, I think…

Cutlassfish

There is still more?

Mentaiko

This is another drinking snack. How many bottles am I going to open…

Chiri hot pot

There is not a single dish that is not delicious. Since the dishes never stop coming, you have to cut yourself off at some reasonable point…

Melon

It was nicely ripened.

When it comes to satisfaction, I doubt anything beats a Korean-style sushi restaurant, and among them Kiku is probably the pinnacle. Of course, this may only have been possible because the person I went with is a longtime regular here, but even so, it was the kind of place that ought to be designated a cultural heritage site.

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