This is quintessential Japanese cuisine, so prepare all your senses for a meal that will become a treasured memory forever. Carrying on the traditions of fine food culture of old, never swayed by trends and sticking steadfastly to their own style of cuisine and hospitality, to dine at Hassun is to be offered a rare glimpse into the history and culture of Kyoto cuisine.

While the ingredients change with the key seasons in Japan’s traditional lunisolar calendar, the course at Hassun always consists of ten dishes in traditional kaiseki format: sakizuke appetizer, hassun showcasing the best from the mountains and seas and setting the seasonal theme, otsukuri sashimi, owan lidded bowl, takiawase combination of dashi-infused ingredients, sunomo vinegared dish, oshinogi sushi morsels, yakimono grilled dish, rice, and lastly, refreshing sweets.

With impact so outstanding you instantly appreciate the restaurant’s name, the hassun dish is a stunning, meticulously prepared platter of blessings from the mountains and seas. Each bite prepared individually with its own characteristic flavor profile entices the taste buds and leaves a deep impression of the chef’s intentions and skills. Sweet-simmered moroko gudgeon fish, roast duck, kobakogani female snow crab, salmon-wrapped soft poached egg, candied chestnuts, ginkgo nuts and Japanese yam bulbs skewered on pine needles. The platter is a veritable gift bound to leave you wavering as to which of the delectable bites to eat first and which to save for last.

This may be followed by luscious, velvety chawanmushi savory egg custard filled with flavor from salted sea cucumber innards, said to be one of Japan’s three best delicacies, and topped with thick yuzu sauce, for a dish that makes the sake flow. Sashimi platters showcase the chef’s incredible knife skills with paper thin slices of Awaji sea bream, glistening wild striped jack fish from Oita, and oval squid made perfectly tender with countless fine knife cuts. A lidded bowl may include a generous portion of tilefish with grilled mochi. Wafting with rich yuzu aroma and floating in a delectable dashi made from kombu and five-year-aged bonito, the flavor is exquisitely balanced by a pinch of salt.

Hiuo baby sweetfish from Shiga Prefecture are freshly boiled and served with cucumber and grated daikon in a traditional vinegar soy sauce combination called nibaizu to create a refreshing vinegared dish. The accompanying ingredients were carefully selected as sweetfish are said to take on the fresh aromas of cucumber as they grow. It's a fascinating combination.

The final savory course served with pure and simple white rice is wild eel from Lake Biwa, first grilled plain and then slowly grilled and basted with a rich sweetened soy sauce. Watching the preparation is a tease for the taste buds. And once you eat this amazing dish you will likely already be dreaming about your next trip to Hassun.

INGREDIENTS
Hassun’s seafood is sourced from a trusted local fishmonger, although some varieties are sent directly from ports around Japan: fresh-caught sea bream from Awaji on the Seto Inland Sea; mackerel and other silver-skin fish from the Bungo Channel between Oita and Ehime; and Lake Biwa wild unagi eel from a long-time supplier there. Kubota’s excellent relationships even help him secure incredibly rare Taiza crab, a winter delicacy from the Japan Sea-side of Kyoto Prefecture. Rice is sourced from a farm in Niigata run by a former superior of Chef Kubota – beautiful grains of the Koshihikari variety which recently regained its crown as the highest-grade rice in the country. Used for the grilled course, Kishu Binchotan is widely recognized as the finest cooking charcoal, grilling ingredients without imparting smoke or interfering with their innate flavors.

As for drinks, the limited menu at Hassun is another throwback to the past. The sake selection cannot be described as a list or even a line-up because Kubota serves just one variety. A junmai-shu from local Kyoto brewer Sawaya Matsumoto, the chef loves how it accents and complements his cuisine.