You gotta give it to The Oriental. Impeccable service and refined rooms have made it one of the best hotels in the world for decades. And when it comes to food and drinks, La Grande Dame offers no less. The riverside hotel is home to many institutional dining outlets: the Michelin-lauded Le Normandie, classy tea room Author’s Lounge, the beautifully designed China House, Thai restaurants Sala Rim Naam and Terrace Rim Naam, Italian venue Ciao, and seafood and grill restaurant Lord Jim’s, the latter having just reopened after months of renovations. The reopening of Lord Jim’s comes with a little surprise—it now has houses a small kaiseki restaurant within its premises, called Kinu by Takagi.
The 10-seater dining room is the brainchild of Chef Takagi Kazuo, whose eponymous kyo ryori (traditional Kyoto cuisine) restaurant in Ashiya, Japan, has been holding two Michelin stars since 2010. The Japanese chef sets his first Southeast Asian outpost in the deepest corner of Lord Jim’s, behind the sliding doors of a cubicle. You’ll be brought inside after a quiet tea moment in a small wooden pod, which they call a “minka” (refers to a traditional Japanese residence), just outside the kaiseki restaurant.
Inside, every little detail—dim lighting, a polished dining bar made from a massive slab of wood, chairs wrapped in shibori-dyed fabric, wabi sabi plates and handmade glasses—reflects Kazuo’s utmost efforts to make you feel like you’re eating in an upscale restaurant in Japan.
Meanwhile, his interpretation of Kyoto cuisine is seen in a 10-course kaiseki meal, the Japanese version of haute cuisine that employs the use of only the finest ingredients, elaborate creativity and intricate techniques. The meal starts off with Zensai, composed of five small bites meant to awaken your palate: charcoal-grilled Wagyu beef shoulder with spring onion; foie gras terrine wrapped in lily bulb; light smoked salmon sushi bonbon; persimmon with maitake mushroom, tofu, sesame sauce and Hokkaido ikura; and poached eggplant in dashi broth with sea urchin. “There’s no order. Eat as you like,” the chef says, affirming that there are no strict rules when it comes to eating his cuisine.
Wanmori, the next course and one of our favorites, includes steamed amadai fish with grated Japanese turnip and Sturia caviar, shimeji mushrooms, ginkgo nuts, carrot and pumpkin maple leaves, and a Kochi yuzu-flavored broth that magically balances out everything in the bowl. Tsukuri, a sashimi dish of the daily catch, and toro sushi are served next.
The meal only improves with Agemomo, a dish of deep-fried tofu and vegetables with snow crab from the Totori prefecture and karasumi (a Japanese delicacy made of fish roe), and Aizakana, a dish of Tokushima abalone in abalone liver sauce. In Yakimono, the next course, Okayama pomfret is charcoal-grilled and served with miso-yuan sauce. This is followed by Takiawase, which reveals the best flavors of grilled Japanese Wagyu beef in tomato sukiyaki sauce. And then comes the rice—nothing but the finest Japanese organic rice from the Nagano prefecture—served with grilled Miyazaki eel and red Nagano miso soup. The last course, a combination of Shine Muscat grapes, peach compote with jelly, grapefruit sorbet and oiri, a traditional rice puff from the Kagawa prefecture, gives an exceptional ending to the dinner along with matcha tea and petite fours.
Some may think the flavors at Kinu mild and lacking a certain bite, but that’s what Kyoto cuisine is all about—food that reflects its origin and the truest tastes of nature. In this sense, Kinu makes it just right.
A kaiseki dinner at Kinu is priced at B7,500 per person, and is served twice a day at 18:30 and 21:00. Dishes change regularly according to the season and available ingredients.
Dishes mentioned above were those served during our visit on November 20, 2019.
SEE ALSO: Mandarin Oriental's in-suite kaiseki experience by Kinu by Takagi
