{"id":3009,"date":"2016-02-19T21:10:02","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T13:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2019-02-03T15:28:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T07:28:05","slug":"isshin-for-true-meat-lovers-raw-or-cooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/19\/isshin-for-true-meat-lovers-raw-or-cooked\/","title":{"rendered":"Isshin – For True Meat Lovers, Raw or Cooked"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is beef, possibly at its utmost incarnation. Isshin presents the best parts of high quality Japanese cattle,\u00a0from tongue to tail, in a variety of Kyoto kaiseki inspired interpretations including one that resembles the local sushi. While I had some reservations about this 2-Star Michelin restaurant, particularly as it involves eating raw beef, it was probably\u00a0the best food experience I’ve had in recent months. Dishes were creative but were careful to highlight the natural taste and texture of good beef. This includes\u00a0rare cuts such as the inner shoulder that only yields a small portion of meat. Basically, chef\u00a0Hideichi Katagiri is a beef deity.<\/p>\n

\"Isshin<\/a>
Entrance of the restaurant – look for the name on the sign board by the lantern<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We could tell that Chef Katagiri has spent his lifetime experimenting on what he can do with beef. It’s a good thing that the texture remains recognizable as that’s one of the joys of eating meat. There’s no whizzing, dry ice or other ploys – just unique ways to enhance the best quality beef beyond just having a grilled steak.<\/p>\n

As with most Kyoto eateries, space is limited, and consists mainly of sitting around the counter watching the Chef at work. In this instance, Chef Katagiri comes across as fairly stern while he is focused on the preparation of the food (he noticeably relaxed at the end of the meal). Luckily his wife smiles enough for the both of them. He doesn’t mind photos being taken as long as it’s silent. Alas, this meant I had to put my relatively noisy DSLR away and use the iPhone.<\/p>\n

\"Isshin<\/a>
Raw beef shoulder with eggplant in a ponzu sauce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
Clockwise from the top left: a curry flavored roast beef, beef shoulder with miso and tripe with uni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
Beef tongue on a “dango” dumpling made of shrimp and yuzu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
Smoked beef shoulder with citrus, tomatoes, endive with a coconut dressing and pine nuts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
One of the highlights: sashimi beef tongue with konbu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
Kyoto leeks, mushrooms and oxtail in a dashi broth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
The sushi platter: “otoro” beef marinated in sake and soy sauce, beef futomaki and seared beef shoulder sushi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
Beef tongue stewed with gingko nuts, yuba (tofu skin), lily bulbs and a touch of yuzu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
A “sponge cake” made of soy sauce foam which accompanies the grilled beef<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
Grilled beef<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
The final dish – a “porridge” of beef tongue with the barley rice pops a nice addition\u00a0from just normal rice. Accompanied by pickles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Isshin<\/a>
Dessert – no beef, but a red bean creme br\u00fbl\u00e9e with sake ice cream<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Isshin\u00a0is located in the historical Gion area of Kyoto, a few blocks north of Gion-Shijo station and thus easy to reach on foot from most central hotels. There is\u00a0counter space to fit around 11 diners and\u00a0a private room to pack in a few more. Needless to say, reservations are a must. In fact, we were originally wait-listed, benefiting from a cancelation.<\/p>\n

The cost of the omakase meal (no a la carte menu) is around\u00a0JPY13,000. Given the quality of the meat offered and the care taken into each course, I thought it was decently priced. I would love to come back in a different season such as summer to see what lighter dishes have been created.<\/p>\n

Isshin has no website, but it’s phone number is: 075-531-5311.<\/p>\n

Address: 51 Motoyoshicho, Shinbashi-dori, Gion<\/p>\n

The restaurant is closed on Monday but otherwise open for dinner from 6pm, with the latest seating\u00a0being 7:30pm.<\/p>\n

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This is beef, possibly at its utmost incarnation. Isshin presents the best parts of high quality Japanese cattle,\u00a0from tongue to tail, in a variety of Kyoto kaiseki inspired interpretations including one that resembles the local sushi. While I had some reservations about this 2-Star Michelin restaurant, particularly as it involves eating raw beef, it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,1,21,135,104],"tags":[133,43,58,98,73],"class_list":["post-3009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asiapac","category-home","category-japan-asiapac","category-japan-kyoto","category-michelinstar","tag-beef","tag-featured","tag-japan","tag-japanese_food","tag-kyoto","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3033,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions\/3033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}