Sushi Saeki – Kyoto

This is going to be a bit of a cumulative review; I've been to Sushi Saeki in Kyoto multpile times over the past few years, and rather than just post this one single visit, I thought it would be more beneficial to people if I kind of grouped everything together for a more well-rounded idea of what the restaurant is about.

Sushi Saeki was originally located in Osaka, and was moved to Kyoto after some years. There, Taniguchi-san presides over the restaurant, while I believe Saeki-san remained in Osaka.

The first thing you notice with the restaurant is the garden backdrop of the restaurant, perhaps the second thing is that the dining room is divided in two, which I learned enables the kitchen to finish the 5:00 seating while having the 7:00 guests starting their meal, allowing them to serve more guests while still retaining intimacy and a high level of quality. It also means that you're not rushed out of the restaurant at the end of your meal to make room for the next seating; something I've experienced multiple times at other sushiya.

Amongst sushi in Kyoto, Saeki is my number one. Perhaps a bit of a controversial take, since Kyoto is not necessarily known for sushi and the vast majority of the top restaurants in Tabelog are kaiseki restaurants. While it's understandable that people visiting Kyoto are going to be focusing more on kaiseki cuisine, I urge you not to sleep on Saeki. It's a comfortable mix of high-level, serious-business sushi, with the perfect level of light service to compliment and round the edges off of the stiff service that a lot of similarly-priced sushi restaurants possess. The staff have a book on hand to help explain certain fish, and they have a few staff on hand that speak exceptional english so that they can explain the intricacies of what is an exceptional procession of otsumami and nigiri. Taniguchi-san, though limited in his command of English, is a wealth of knowledge on sushi technique. If you show interest in what he is doing, he will graciously take the time to explain how he prepares a certain fish, or what he looks for in his rice preparation. This openness goes a long way towards explaining why I keep going back.

Saeki straddles a line between classics and innovative flavours. You'll get kohada prepared classically with salt and vinegar on one nigiri, and then on another you'll get otoro "hayashi", where Taniguchi-san slices the portions of tuna belly from in between the sinews, a practice that severely hampers his cost-efficiency and results in a gobsmackingly textured nigiri. I had this the first time I ate at Saeki and I still think about it. The menu features (on average) 6-7 otsumami and 15-18 nigiri, so it's a substantial meal. At the end, you're also offered "okonomi", or a la carte service, where you can choose to repeat previous pieces or (my favoured move) ask if there are any nigiri left that he hasn't served. Often a sushi taisho ends service with odds and ends of fish that are still high-quality, but maybe he didn't have enough portions for the entire counter, and thus couldn't serve them on the omakase, so this is a cool way to "extend" your menu.

At the end, you're given green tea and then served dessert, which seems to be where the kitchen gets to be more creative; desserts I've been served here often remind me of the desserts you would get in a Western tasting menu, rather than the more conventional wedge of melon or selection of fruit. Some desserts are more successful than others, but I appreciate the attempt to modernize what has mostly been a rigid meal format.

The menu fluctuates in price, and obviously will increase depend on what/how much you drink. On average it will be between 27k and 33k.

Perhaps due to the majority of tourists (and locals) seeking out the local specialty in kaiseki, Sushi Saeki remains realtively easy to reserve. Both Tableall and Omakase offer tables, though I only use Omakase because you can dodge the Tableall reservation surchage of 8000yen.