Taisho Hanana was my first sit down meal after getting into Kyoto the previous night. (The convenience store bento box the night before didn’t count.) What a way to kick off the trip.
Hanana is a seabream specialist. Their set menu offers seabream prepared in multiple ways. We got three different types of sets.
We didn’t order any of the BS kids meals with tomato sauce spaghetti etc. The kids were game trying what the restaurant was known for. Two were new to sashimi and they both liked the seabream sashimi with sesame sauce.
We weren’t able to make reservations ahead of time (they allowed a certain number of tables to be reserved), but they took walk-ins. so we just lined up half an hour before they opened at 11am. It was really hot and we were sweaty and tired so it worked out well just sitting outside the restaurant.
We ordered:
Hanana gozen (4200 yen), with Shizuoka’s fatty rea sea bream, prepared grilled and marinated in Saikyo white miso soy bean paste with a crispy skin, sashimi sliced thin, collar with sweet rice flour batter, chawan mushi with what else, seabream, rice, small sardines with pepper, pickles and dessert. It provided the full range of delicious seabream prep from the kitchen.
Pickles, gohan and green tea:
Warabi mochi dessert and black soy bean tea:
Tai chazuke Gozen (2880 yen): seabream sashimi on sesame sauce, sea bream, Kyoto vegetables, pickles and dessert. Basically a subset of the Hanana gozen. Not pictured, the Tai Saikyo-yaki gozen, with the grilled seabream, 3200 yen.
This was actually a cross between dried and fresh seafood so it had a unique texture and intense flavor.
Warabi mochi and black soy bean tea as dessert:
Tangerine juice made from Nakajima tangerines from soil with lots of mineral of seaweed and brown sugar from the Seto Inland Sea. Refreshing.
Green tea with honey from Kyoto cherry trees during cherry blossom.
Eating instructions for the gaijins. Sashimi with sesame sauce, plus gohan, and with tea added to make chazuke. Yum.
Overall, the seabream was delicately prepared. The seabream, whether its raw, grilled, eaten with rice or as chazuke, was delicious. The chazuke with the aroma from tea was especially flavorful.
Taisho Hanana
26-1 Sagatenryuji Setogawacho, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto, 616-8376, Japan
We visited the spectacular bamboo forest before lunch. Come early in the morning to avoid the crowds.
Tenryu-ji next to the forest:
View of the Togetsukyō Bridge and the Katsura River:
Kimono forest at the Arashiyama station:
Kinkaku-ji in the afternoon. The golden pavilion is literally cladded with gold.
