In shortKaiseki — the Tokyo house of Kyoto's Kikunoi. Reservations run in Japanese and are hard to place from abroad, so our Tokyo desk requests the table for you, by phone and in Japanese.
Price
Lunch ¥14,300 / ¥17,600 / ¥22,000 + 10% service · dinner kaiseki ¥33,000 / ¥55,000 / ¥77,000 (plus a shorter ¥22,000 course) + 15% service, 20% in private rooms
About 50 — counters of 13 and 6, tables, sunken-floor raised seating and four tatami rooms (one a tea room) for 3–20
Private rooms
Yes — four tatami rooms for 3–20 guests, dinner only, from the ¥22,000 course
Payment
Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Amex, Diners and UnionPay · no e-money or QR codes · +10–20% service
Getting there
Akasaka Station (Chiyoda Line), about a 5-minute walk
Akasaka Kikunoi is the Tokyo house of Kikunoi, the Kyoto kaiseki family. Yoshihiro Murata — the third generation of his family to head the kitchen of the Kyoto main restaurant — opened it in 2004, and he still divides each month between the two cities. The house calls itself a Kyoto of the east: a few steps off a street of office buildings, a stone path runs between bamboo to a Kyoto sukiya‑style building that feels nothing like the city outside. Tabelog gave it a Bronze award for 2026 and named it to its Japanese‑cuisine TOKYO 100 for 2025. It holds Two MICHELIN Stars (MICHELIN Guide Japan 2026).
What you eat
Kyoto kaiseki — Japan’s formal multi‑course cuisine, each course built around the season — on a menu that changes through the year. Lunch comes in three courses at ¥14,300, ¥17,600 and ¥22,000; dinner kaiseki runs ¥33,000, ¥55,000 and ¥77,000, with a shorter ¥22,000 course of fewer dishes and a seasonal special menu on request. Prices include tax; service is added at 10% for lunch, 15% for dinner and 20% in a private room.
The same house offers three ways to eat it: at the counter, watching the cooks at work; at a table or in the sunken‑floor raised seating, more at ease; or in one of the tatami rooms upstairs, set in the manner of a ryotei — the traditional restaurant of private rooms.
The booking reality
The phone is the main route: 03‑3568‑6055, answered in Japanese from 10:00 to 22:00, and the house also takes inquiries by email. Ikyu carries a listing, but in early October 2026 it showed no bookable dates; bookings made there are charged in full for cancellations or changes from seven days out. There is no release day to watch for. The house closes Sundays and Mondays, plus summer and New Year breaks. Lunch is served only on the ground floor — counter, tables and raised seating — so a private room is a dinner request, starting from the ¥22,000 course. Men are asked not to wear shorts or sandals, and guests are asked not to wear perfume or cologne so the aromas of the food come through. Listings disagree on children — one limits guests under twelve to private rooms, another declines them — so settle it when booking. The house’s English site points overseas guests to partner concierge services, which charge a fee of their own.
Which seat, which course, whether a room is free, a dietary need the kitchen should know before it plans your meal — those are questions for that Japanese phone line, and it is the call our desk makes.
Want Kyoto kaiseki without the trip to Kyoto, or want to choose your register within one house — the counter for watching the work, a tatami room for an occasion. Lunch is the gentler way in on price.
The house's cancellation charge
From 00:00 JST, 7 days before100%
Same day, with notice100%
Same day, no notice (no-show)100%
Charged by the house, not by us. A plan's own policy takes precedence.
Free release-date alerts: the day before, on the morning of release day (08:00 JST) and about 30 minutes before when the time is known — or a weekly summary if the house opens a little every day.
Akasaka Kikunoi: common questions
Can you book Akasaka Kikunoi from abroad?
Yes, through our Tokyo desk. The main route is the phone, in Japanese (03-3568-6055, 10:00–22:00), or email to the house. Ikyu carries a listing but showed no bookable dates in early October 2026. We call the restaurant for you, in Japanese, and the ¥6,000-per-seat fee is charged only if we confirm your table — no seat, no fee.
Some of these links are referral links: if you book through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Restaurants never pay us to be listed or ranked. Editorial policy
Cite this page
Facts on this page were checked by our Tokyo desk. You are welcome to quote them with a link:
Akasaka Kikunoi — Akasaka, Tokyo — SHOKU NOREN (checked October 2026). https://shokunoren.com/restaurants/kikunoi-akasaka
