Yonemura

Honten 本店
Add: 京都市東山区八坂鳥居前下ル清井町481-1
Tel: +81 75 533 6699
Website: http://www.restaurant-yonemura.com/

Chef Yonemura, rated with 1 michelin star, is well-known for his European-influenced Japanese cuisine (otherwise known as Jap fusion!). His restaurants (1 in Kyoto and 1 in Tokyo) are highly recommended by the famous food blogger Chubby Hubby who once said he would love to dine at Yonemura's every day!

Since the 4 of us (Big, Lynn, PS and I) were staying at Kyoto for a few days, we couldn't resist a visit to the original restaurant. Would love to try out the dinner menu, but had to settle for the more "value-for-money" lunch menu due to budget constraint! Yeah, Kikunoi had burnt a big hole in our pocket...

One spoon of squid, sea urchin and cheese

The sea urchin was rich and creamy... and not fishy at all!

Snapping turtle soup

What exactly is a snapping turtle?!

Oyster, sea bream with fruit cocktail and fennel sauce

We loved the oyster! It was really fresh and sweet. Our server proudly informed us that the oysters were from Mie Prefecture!

Steamed glutinous rice with tilefish

Following the glutinous rice, we had a choice of Foie Gras or Bouillabaisse:

Foie gras and crab spring roll

Yeah, my soft spot... it was nicely seared on both sides. It went well with the sweet dark sauce, and was very good on its own too.

Bouillabaisse with hamo, clam and matsutake mushroom

Pasta with shrimp, bottarga and seaweed

Don't be misled by the photo... the mixing spoon was the size of my little finger!

After adding all the toppings and condiments... Voila!

This was one of my favourites from the lunch menu, though we were disappointed that they had replaced the lobster on the menu with shrimp! The pasta was cooked al dente to my liking, and the end product was a very refreshing Asian twist to the usual Italian fare.

After the pasta, we could choose between Pork and Beef cutlet:

Pork cutlet

Tasty and succulent meat... it might be Kurobuta pork?

Ground beef cutlet (with close-up shot below)

Yup, it was every bit as juicy as it looked!

Next up, another choice to make: Curry or Tiny Sardines with rice:

Curry rice

It may not look impressive... but this was Big's favourite item on the lunch menu! The curry seemed boring and bland (perhaps due to the lack of meat that usually accompanies the curry), but it turned out to be full of oomph! Absolutely yummy when it was mixed into the perfectly cooked Japanese rice.

Japanese peppered tiny sardines on rice

Yuzu and pineapple sorbet

After the refreshing sorbet, we got to pick our own dessert from the dessert menu. We opted for 4 different ones of course!

Roasted tea creme brulee

It was a tad over-burnt...

Mont Blanc aux marrons (chestnuts)

Lynn's favourite!

Soy pudding

Big's favourite!

Grapefruit jelly

I like anything citrusy... though I was surprised that they didn't use Yuzu for the jelly which was in season then.

Nice coffee cups! (but I wouldn't comment too much on the practicality aspect...)

Equally nice tea cups... and certainly more user-friendly!

Don't ask me if these little sweet bites were good. I was too full to try any of them!

Much to our surprise, the lunch session was over 3 hours long! Time flies when one is enjoying good food with good company?! Our bill came up to 7000yen per person, and we all felt it was very reasonable for what we had.

Similar to Kikunoi, we had a private dining room to ourselves. Service was good and efficient in general (cute waiters included!), but I must say the service level at Kikunoi was a few notches above in comparison.

My next target? Dinner menu at the Tokyo outlet for the full experience when I get the chance to visit Japan again!