Exquisite and flawless – Kikunoi has perfected everything from the garden to the restaurant building, tableware, and of course, cuisine. A veritable “living museum”, this traditional Japanese haute-cuisine restaurant has furnishings and decorations that take your breath away at every turn. At once honoring centuries of tradition and history and showing open-mindedness for the world, Kikunoi has been delighting guests with delicious Japanese cuisine for more than 100 years and plays a major role in its promotion around the world. 

​

One of the most famous restaurants of Japanese cuisine the world over, Kikunoi was established in 1912 by the grandfather of Yoshihiro Murata, the present and third generation chef. It sits amid the tranquil green setting of Kodaiji Temple not far from the brilliant vermillion gate of Yasaka Shrine in the Higashiyama area, which has overlooked the Kyoto townscape since ancient times. Located on more than 3000 square meters in the heart of the mountain, the building occupies just one-third of the land, with the remainder being the beautiful grounds that bring calm and quiet to this space. 

For many generations, the Murata ancestors were tea servers who protected a well that sprang up in the shape of a chrysanthemum, or kiku in Japanese. When the restaurant opened using water from the very same well, it was given the name Kikunoi, meaning ‘chrysanthemum well’. Water is the key element in Japanese cuisine, indispensable in dashi – the umami-rich stock that delicately flavors almost every component of a Kaiseki course.