Tucked away in a tiny street of Gion, this little gem of a restaurant sits unconspicuously, with private rooms overlooking a beautiful little garden. We had a 12 or so course Kazeiki dinner, which was a real feast. The beauty of the presentation (every dish was a small piece of art in its own right), the delicate scents, the freshness of the ingredients, the unassuming kindness and attention of the staff, and of course the heavenly complexity and subtility of the flavours, all contributed to making it an amazing experience. It is expensive, and, when one starts to imagine the amount of work behind every single dish, it is quite a fair price, and in my opinion really well worth it.

We booked the restaurant by phone and they speak good English . And you need to decide the course set before，there are five different price and the one we chose are ¥37620 . We had our own table and the setting was great , the few main course were very delight to see the chef to cook the fish in front of you ( I mean live fish ) , they grill the fish in front of you , and all the presentation of each dishes were full of autumn. We had a great experience in it, but there are really too many Michelin stars restaurants around Kyoto , but it was very tasty overall, not transition Japanese and some indigents you don't see often, we had a soup made with stream winter melon with turtle and ginger . It is very full body and get yourself warm after having it. But overall great choice of being dinning here.

I've eaten all over the world and I'm hard-pressed to think of a better meal I've had in my life than here! It was absolutely awesome!

In addition to the many ryokans in Kyoto offering their own kaiseki dinners to guests, there is also a staggering number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Kyoto offering the same! Luckily for us, we obtained help from our hosts at Salon Tenseian Haraguchi, who, after sympathetically weighing our preferences for personable service and authentic cuisine without the obligatory and ubiquitous nod to "fusionism", suggested Gion Maruyama.

Our dinner here was truly a memorable experience in exquisite service, culinary precision, and rarefied aesthetics!

Food: We have had tasting menus elsewhere in the US and in our travels, but our kaiseki dinner at Gion Maruyma took this "tasting" concept to a new height, with considerations not only of taste but also of aesthetics and other sensory perceptions as a whole. Our dinner on this evening in early December started with Shogayu (hot ginger juice), lightly sweetened with a surprising bite of spice and heat; and a sip of fragrant warmed sake: We were awakened! Our first course was a stunner, a ginko nut with a few slices of beef, oyster mushroom, and taro all resting on a magnolia leaf to be cooked over a heated slab of stone ... And so our dinner progressed, layers after layers of tastes and textures, carefully constructed with thoughtful reminders of the season both in the presentation and in the ingredients: a golden-red maple leaf here; a melon soup there; a ripened persimmon somewhere in between; visually stunning ceramic plates and vessels; and crabs for this winter evening! Indeed, one of the highlights of our meal was crab cooked over a small grill in the courtyard just outside our private room, served with nuggets of sweet rice similarly grilled to a golden and crispy crust, followed by Kani-miso, a most unusual "soup" made by mixing sake with the fatty innards of the crab, all heated in the crab shell over the grill: what a thrilling and heady way to taste the "deconstructed" crab in this manner, to appreciate individually the sweet meat, briny juice, and rich fattiness --the last a reminder of a long hibernating winter! As an example of the chef's sure hands, we were served crab again later in the meal, this time the female snow crab with its roe, simply cooked for a singularly bright taste: no taste duplication here!

Service was exemplary. As mentioned by previous reviewers, our reservation included a thoughtful exchange to establish our food preferences and menu price range selection. We opted for a private room and were treated to a spacious and warmly decorated room with a low table and chairs and with a view onto our own small and artfully landscaped courtyard. Reception was very kind and polite; there were 2 staff members lavishing attention and care on us 2 throughout dinner, not counting the staff from the kitchen who grilled our food just outside our private room. At the end of the meal, our hostess stepped in to say "goodbye", as did the chef himself who very graciously inquired how we had liked our dinner.

In offering Gion Maruyama to his guests, Mr. Yoshio Maruyama does not just provide his guests with the culinary pleasure of a kaiseki dinner, but he also creates for us a gustatory and sensory tour de force to remember.

Because of the comment of michelin guide, I came to Gion Maruyama with the highest expectations.

In the days leading up to dinner, email correspondence was always answered in a timely manner. You're asked if there's anything you dislike or want to see, and the map of the restaurant also attached. When the menu is finalized for the season, you're sent a copy and asked for feedback.

This meal is for my wife birthday, and I told it to the servant before. When we arrive, we settle into the amazing room which decorated in traditional Japanese handcrafts. Chef Maruyama comes out to see if there's anything you don't like or want to try. He told us the decorations is special designed for us, due to my wife's birthday.

It's amazing to see a chef work this hard applying traditional to fresh ingredients to get you to taste them the way you idealized they'd taste in the first place. Gion Maruyama definitely belongs in the pantheon of must-visit restaurants in Kyoto.