Eight Kyoto and Osaka Restaurants Joined the Guide This Month

Michelin Japan added eight restaurants to the Kyoto and Osaka guide on October 23 and marked each one New. On the guide’s site, the list is an early release, posted ahead of the ceremony where stars are announced. The last full selection came out on April 23, the day Miyamaso, a Japanese restaurant in Kyoto, moved up to three stars. October’s list came later. A New mark means the inspectors have put the restaurant in the guide. A star still waits for the ceremony, and so does a Bib Gourmand, the guide’s name for a strong meal at a lower price.

The shops have already posted addresses and prices. Michelin’s yen signs are a price band sitting next to those numbers. SoNoMa has four. Da YUGE and Yakitori TOKI have three.

千登利亭, Chidoritei, is the afternoon. The counter is in Higashiyama, about a five-minute walk from Gion-Shijo, on Donguri-dori just west of Yamato-oji. The shop says it opened here in 1899, Meiji 32, when the sign was still written in hiragana and the menu included noodles. After the war the family changed the characters and stayed with Kyoto sushi, the pressed kind. Nigiri, they write, came through the city later.

Mackerel sushi for one person is 2,940 yen. A mixed plate is 2,300. Michelin describes an assortment as a little mackerel, a little box sushi, and a little chirashi. The mackerel is salted, dipped briefly in Kyoto rice vinegar, and aged overnight. They are open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., last order 4:30, and Thursday is closed. Wednesday depends on which line of the site you trust. The top calls it irregular. The access table says closed. Call 075-561-1907 before you plan on it. Tabelog says the shop does not take cards.

初代 鰻すみと, Shodai Unagi Sumito, is a basement at Higashiyama Nijomachi, about a minute from Sanjo Keihan. That is still the east side of the city, one stop north of Gion-Shijo on the Keihan line. Michelin says the chef trained in Tokyo because he wanted the Edomae way with eel, and that he now cooks both styles in Kyoto. The unaju is steamed, then sauced and grilled. Hitsumabushi, eel chopped over rice, goes straight onto the fire.

On Ikyu you choose the unaju when you arrive: 5,300 yen for one eel, 7,300 for one and a half, 9,300 for two. The shop site posts 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Monday. Ikyu wants the reservation in by the day before. If you are trying for the same day, call 075-751-1200. Fifteen seats, seven of them at the counter.

Three of the Osaka additions sit within a short walk of Kitashinchi station. One is Korean, one is a small contemporary counter, and one is a seven-seat sushi bar. The bills are not close.

オンジェナ, Eonjaena, is at Sonezaki-shinchi 1-2-24, about three minutes from the station. The shop says the chef is a third-generation Korean resident of Japan who spent twenty years in Japanese kitchens. The course stays Korean, then borrows from Japanese and Western cooking. It starts with a small plate and gejang, seafood cured in soy, moves to a chicken hot pot called takkanmari, and finishes with charcoal, fish, meat, soup, rice, and a small sweet. Omakase lists dinner at 18,000 yen, tax and service included, and says the number can move with the ingredients. Fifteen seats, mostly at the counter, from 6 p.m. to 11, closed Sunday and holidays.

お料理 継みき, Oryori Tsumiki, is eight seats on the fourth floor at Dojima 1-5-1, about five minutes from that same station. Michelin traces the name to wooden blocks the chef’s father, a carpenter, made, and says the kitchen puts dashi into a soup and a pasta built from scraps. The shop’s Tabelog page lists a nine-dish omakase at 8,800 yen, tax included. Pasta is another 1,200. Everyone starts together, at 12:30 or at 6, and you need a reservation. The number is 070-5498-2641. A write-up of ABC’s September 20 segment named the chef as Akira Sakamoto, who had cooked at Tosara, and put the wait at about two months then.

鮨 川口, Sushi Kawaguchi, is the expensive seat, a second-floor counter of seven in Dojima, closer to Oebashi station. TableCheck lists the omakase at 27,500 yen, tax included, from 6 p.m. to 11. Michelin says the chef came to sushi by way of carpentry and the fish market. The simmered anago is the piece Michelin stops to describe. He does not boil it down, and he does not salt it. The sweetness is the eel’s own. Tabelog dates the opening to February 21, 2026.

焼鳥 刻, Yakitori TOKI, is a trip out of Kitashinchi. The shop is at Shinmachi 1-20-3, in Nishi ward, about four minutes from Yotsubashi station, over toward Shinsaibashi. Michelin says a farm in Yamagata raises the chickens to the owner’s specification: skin with fat on it, and meat that stays firm. Hot Pepper has the six-dish omakase at 14,300 yen, tax included, at 6 or at 8:30, and stops taking the booking at 5 p.m. the day before. TableCheck has that course at 15,730 yen with tax and service, so use the figure on the page you reserve. Sunday is closed, and TableCheck will not seat a child 12 or under.

ダ ユゲ, Da YUGE, sits in Nakagyo, in a century-old machiya on Sakaimachi-dori, about four minutes from Karasuma-Oike. From the Gion shops, that is a subway ride. Michelin says the chef trained in French kitchens and then turned to Italian. The shop names him as Keita Yuge, and says he won the Pasta World Championship in 2019. Dinner is about ten courses, 22,000 yen with tax, plus a 5 percent service charge. Thirteen seats, all at the counter. You book ahead, and they seat you between 6 and 7, Tuesday through Saturday. Sunday and Monday are closed. The phone is 075-585-4394.

想乃間 by SingleThread, SoNoMa by SingleThread, is on the ground floor of Capella Kyoto, at 130 Komatsucho, on Yamato-oji just south of Shijo. This is SingleThread’s first dining room outside Sonoma. Capella names Keita Tominaga as the chef. He came from Sonoma, worked under Ryohei Hayashi at Tenoshima in Tokyo while that restaurant had a star, and then cooked at SingleThread. Kyle Connaughton still owns SingleThread and cooks there in California. In Kyoto the room is a counter for 12 and a lounge for 20.

Dinner is 45,000 yen, tax and service included. That is the four yen signs. Capella says 5 to 8, closed Sunday and Monday. TableCheck starts seating at 6, last entry at 8, and opens the book only a month ahead. On October 29 the page had already gone to a waitlist. Lunch, from November 6, is Friday and Saturday: 22,000 yen, twelve people, seated together at noon. Capella bars anyone under 12, and TableCheck says 13 and up, so ask which rule the booking uses. Cancel inside three days and the charge is 70 percent. Inside two days, it is the whole fee.

If your afternoon is free, Chidoritei is the meal. Around Kitashinchi, the Korean counter, the eight-seat room, and the sushi counter are three different bills. SoNoMa is the reservation you make the way you book the hotel.