Takeyamachi Mita(竹屋町 三多), Kyoto, Japan

I've been lurking on this sub for a while and have really enjoyed all your reviews and photos of hard-to-book restaurants in Japan. I can't thank you enough as English reviews of said places are few and far between. I don’t have much of a knack for writing or photography, but I’d still like to share my April visit to Takeyamachi Mita(竹屋町 三多), since I couldn’t find any previous reviews on this sub.

Chef Mita Hiroyuki (三多裕之) trained at renowned restaurants in Kyoto, such as Kikunoi (菊乃井) and Shunseki Suzue (旬席 鈴江), before opening his own restaurant in Takeyamachi, Kyoto, in 2010. While his cooking focuses on exceptional ingredients and tends to be rather sleek, you can still spot some flair here and there (for instance, in dishes like the fried scallops with tomato sauce). I wouldn’t consider him an extreme minimalist like Chef Ogata.

The restaurant is quite intimate, with a 6-seat setting. Most of the cooking is done in the kitchen, except for the finishing touches. The service is very kind, with the okamisan going out of her way to help me, a solo diner, feel at home. They also seem to have a very nice sake and wine selection but there is certainly no push to sell.

Below are the descriptions of the menu. All dishes were superb, but I marked the ones I particularly enjoyed with a ☆.

1. Suppon egg drop soup
2. Steamed abalone, fried bamboo shoots with sansho flowers ☆
3. Fried scallops, sauce made with candied tomato and curry
4. Clockwise from the top: bouzushi(棒寿司) made with bamboo shoots and dashi from magurobushi, grilled bachiko, diced hotaruika with new onions(新玉ねぎ) stuffed inside a sudachi, smoked scallop liver, broad/fava beans, poached sea bream eggs(鯛の子花煮) ☆☆ : Absolutely divine, especially the bouzushi.
5. Hariika, houdai from Setouchi, murasaki uni from Awajishima
6. Owanmono with okoze from Awajishima, urui, myoga, and shiitake ☆
7. Nodoguro grilled over binchotan, daikon oroshi with hanawasabi
8. Simmered white asparagus from Kagawa and tomatoes, covered in roasted sesame and sesame sauce
9. Shabu-shabu of Chateaubriand, sansho flowers, and bamboo shoots ☆
10. Bamboo shoot rice with wild sansho leaves(木の芽)
11. Setoka(せとか) jelly with Amarin(あまりん) strawberries

Can't wait to revisit in matsutake season!