Touzan Restaurant 東山 - Hyatt Regency November 2011

I waxed lyrical about Kyoto's Hyatt Regency Hotel in a previous post on Italian restaurant Trattoria Sette almost a year ago - still serving the best Italian food I have eaten in Japan. Touzan is the hotel's Japanese restaurant and I have eaten there a handful of times. Although it has always been consistently good and the meal below was lovely - it didn't seem quite as fabulous as it has been on this occasion...   Perhaps it was a little expensive compared to other places around town... But we are in a flash hotel so you will get that (it is still very reasonable - don't get me wrong!).  Perhaps I am just getting fussier the longer I am here - also my slowly improving language skills enable me to try places I wouldn't' have dared enter a few years ago so I have many more comparisons of similar level foods  - but if you don't speak Japanese its a great place to experience some real Japanese food in a lovely setting.

Here is a bit of a visual journey for you....  (one of the set menus - 4500Y)

Kyo-yasai (local vegetables) on display in the restaurant

The adjacent sushi counter

The gorgeous bar... I love this wall of books and the clever re-use of various old household objects to form beautiful collage like walls and partitions