Having been to many Michelin-star restaurants around the world, Kitagawa was one of my most memorable dining experiences. The intimate atmosphere with just a few guests all at the same counter and the extremely welcoming staff immediately made me feel comfortable. The variety and quality of dishes was surprising and delightful, even more so as you can watch the chef prepare everything. The restaurant offers a fine selection of French and Japanese wines and drinks.

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Ginza Kitagawa offers a refined multi-course meal featuring a variety of dishes, including Hida Beef, fried fugu, prawn sashimi with a unique sauce, unagi rice, and prawn tempura. These dishes were among my favorites - they were absolutely delicious! The atmosphere is relaxing, the service is pleasant, and the overall experience is highly recommended.

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I recently enjoyed an exceptional kaiseki dinner at the restaurant, where the multi-course menu beautifully showcased a wide spectrum of traditional Japanese cuisine and masterful cooking techniques—all presented in a single, harmonious meal. The courses featured an impressive variety of dishes, including delicate sashimi, Agebitashi, snow crab chawanbushi, perfectly crispy tempura, flavorful skewers (likely kushiyaki-style), onigiri, and several other seasonal specialties. It was a true celebration of Japan’s diverse culinary artistry, with each element thoughtfully balanced in taste, texture, and presentation. Among the highlights, my absolute favorite was the Hida beef—exquisitely prepared with a flawless sear that created a caramelized, umami-rich crust while keeping the interior incredibly tender, juicy, and melt-in-your-mouth succulent. The lobster was equally impressive: cooked to perfection, it burst with rich, sweet, and intensely flavorful meat that highlighted the ingredient’s natural elegance. I also thoroughly enjoyed the skewers, which delivered great char, smokiness, and seasoning in every bite. In addition to the core kaiseki menu, the restaurant offered luxurious supplements such as caviar and a few other premium add-ons. I couldn’t resist trying the deep-fried fugu — expertly executed with a light, golden, and shatteringly crisp exterior that gave way to surprisingly tender and juicy flesh inside. It was a rare, thrilling treat handled with precision and skill. Overall, this kaiseki experience was refined, flavorful, and memorable—a wonderful showcase of high-end Japanese dining that left me thoroughly impressed and eager to return

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It was a very enjoyable experience to dine at Kitagawa. The omakase style always offer this element of surprise and it was no different here. It's kaiseki and the focus of many dishes was on the frying techniques, with many including tempura and a wide array of seafood. We had crab, tilefish and others. The hida beef was also cooked to perfection. We ordered an optional dish for an additional price, which was the botan shrimp. That prawn was one of the best seafood I have ever eaten and the star of the menu in my opinion, it was worth every extra yen. It was buttery and would melt in our mouths. The rice with the tempura at the end was also a great last savoury dish to wrap it all. The atmosphere was also enjoyable, with limited seats around the counter, offering an intimate experience with the chef, who partially prepared the food in front of the guests and proceeded to explain the concept. We did not speak Japanese, but they would try to translate it for us.

Visited in November 2025. The kaiseki menu included many typical Japanese dishes such as tempura, shabu shabu, or onigiri. The menu included both standard and unusual local ingredients, all of high quality. Since we visited in autumn, many of the dishes included mushrooms, which I personally love. The menu included 12 dishes + 1 appetizer (pumpkin soup) + dessert (dorayaki). My favourite dishes were the beef, unagi sushi, shabu shabu with wild boar, bear and mushrooms, and the autumn appetizer, which also looked really pretty. The sea urchin dish and the dessert were not for me. The rest was interesting, but not necessarily all in line with my taste. Besides the kaiseki menu, they offered caviar and 3 other dishes - we added one fugu and one matsutake tempura dish. There were many drinks options with prices starting around 1000 yen. I loved the yuzu liqueur, but found the white tea not very special. The juyondai sake was also very good. Besides the drinks we ordered, we got 3 different types of tea throughout the meal. The price was of course very high spent 93000 yen in total for 2 people, including drinks and the two extra dishes we ordered. However, I find this reasonable, given the quality of the ingredients and the work and passion that went into the cooking. We were 8 people in total, out of which only 2 foreigners. It was beautiful to watch chef Kitagawa and his aides prepare the food in front of the guests. The tempura was impressive and so was the overall care that went into the dishes. Besides this, it was really nice that chef Kitagawa presented many of the dishes himself, and one member of the staff translated for us. We also got to chat a bit directly with the chefs, mostly through the nice staff member that was translating for us. This was much appreciated. Overall, I can recommend Ginza Kitagawa for a tasty and interesting kaiseki experience, and I can see why the place earned its Michelin star.

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