Kaiseki Travel Guide

Incorporating elements of the seasons, kaiseki cuisine ( Japan's traditional multi-course meal) is crafted with high-quality ingredients and attention to detail. In elegant banquet-style dining, several individual kaiseki ryori dishes are served, each featuring a range of colors, textures, and cooking methods, to create culinary harmony across this luxurious sensory overload. Evolving over a number of centuries, kaiseki cuisine is said to have been born in Kyoto. From beginnings in formal banquets for the aristocracy during the Heian period, kaiseki was later influenced by Buddhist monks’ ritualistic vegetarian cuisine, and continued its development through the rise of the tea ceremony, by slowly adding food to the proceedings.

The pinnacle of high-class dining in Japan, kaiseki is the country’s representative haute cuisine. Multiple courses are beautifully crafted by a trained chef using local and seasonal ingredients, creating a holistic dining experience. Focusing on freshness, balanced visual aesthetics, and flavor, kaiseki is certainly a feast for the senses, where wholehearted hospitality meets impeccable food. Modern kaiseki has redefined Japanese cuisine; this fine art of dining is an immersive and unique experience, only in Japan. Learn about the different essential dishes of kaiseki and make your kaiseki cuisine in its birthplace of Kyoto, or experience world-class kaiseki dining in one of the top restaurants in Tokyo. Relish in the beauty and flavor of this traditional feast and join one of our kaiseki experiences for a seasonal meal you’ll never forget.