Spring
Takenoko bamboo, wild herbs, cherry trout. Light broths, raw preparations, the first warmth after winter.
Gion · Kyoto · Eight seats
A meal that
unfolds
Kōya is not a restaurant you browse — it is a sequence you enter. Twelve courses, one counter, one evening. The menu changes with the mountain, the market, and the weather. You do not order. You arrive.
- Seats
- 8
- Courses
- 12
- Seatings
- 1
- From
- ¥38,000
The counter
Eight seats.
No exceptions.
Kōya occupies a converted machiya on a lane behind Yasaka Shrine. The counter is a single piece of aged hinoki, replaced once a decade. You sit close enough to hear the knife leave the stone. There is no music. There is no menu card. There is only the sequence, spoken quietly as each course arrives.
- Counter seating only — no tables, no private rooms
- One seating nightly at 18:30 · approximately three hours
- Dietary restrictions require seven days' notice
- Children under twelve cannot be accommodated
Chef
Kenji Mori
Twenty-two years between Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto — including six at a three-Michelin-star kaiseki house in Gion before opening Kōya in 2019. Mori-san's cooking is defined by restraint: fewer ingredients per plate, longer preparation, no garnish that does not earn its place. He sources personally from Nishiki Market each morning and writes the menu on a single sheet of washi paper at noon.
"Omakase means trust. The guest trusts the season. I trust the guest to be present — not photographing, not discussing business. Just eating."
Season
The menu is a weather report.
We cook in four movements. What you eat tonight depends on what the mountains and the sea offered this morning — not what a supplier guaranteed six months ago.
Summer
Ayu from clear rivers, chilled tomato, early matsutake if the rain came right. Fire used sparingly — the room is already warm.
Autumn
Matsutake, sanma, persimmon, the return of simmered dishes. The menu gains weight and depth.
Winter
Fugu when licensed, crab from the Japan Sea, root vegetables in miso. Longer courses, hotter broths, deeper silence.
Tonight's sequence reflects late summer — scroll the menu above to preview the arc.
"I've eaten omakase in Tokyo, New York, and Copenhagen. Kōya is the only place where I forgot to take a photograph until the fourth course."
"The suimono poured tableside stopped conversation for thirty seconds. That is the point."
"Eight seats means the chef watches you eat. Intimidating for ten minutes. Then you understand — he is adjusting the next plate to your pace."
Reservations
Request a seat.
We confirm reservations by email within 48 hours. A deposit of ¥10,000 per guest is required to hold the date. Cancellations within 72 hours forfeit the deposit.