Giro Giro Hitoshina, Kyoto

Giro Giro Hitoshina

Fresh, modern and innovative, Giro Giro is a FANTASTIC modern take on kaiseki. Giro Giro first opened as Giro Giro Hitoshina in Kyoto, and has gone on to open branches in Tokyo, Paris and Honolulu.

Here, reservations are necessary. Try to sit at the counter so that you can watch the food being prepared and chat with the friendly chefs. The chefs at Giro Giro Hitoshina are young, relaxed and occasionally reach across the counter to clink glasses of wine or sake with the customers. Some English (though not much) is spoken, but enough friendly smiles will be thrown your way to make you feel welcomed.

CHEERS!

I happened to sit across from a French chef from their Paris branch, who was brought to Kyoto for a one-year work trip, and we chatted a bit. I learnt that he'd only been in Japan for three months at that point of time and all the Japanese that he knew had been learnt in the kitchen, and was quite impressed as his Japanese was not bad!

The head chef of Giro Giro alternates his time in Japan and Paris, spending a month in each. He leaves the head chef in Kyoto to design the menus for Kyoto and Tokyo for the alternate months when he is in Paris. This is the spunky young head chef in Kyoto, who has been featured in a number of Japanese magazines as a chef to watch. He sometimes also heads down to Tokyo to oversee the launch of the new menu. I was lucky to catch him in Kyoto, as he was headed to Tokyo the next day. When he is away, Giro Giro Hitoshina closes, which would allow the French chef his first day to explore the city haha. They work pretty long hours but seem to genuinely enjoy what they do, which is a real blessing.

The head chef of Giro Giro Hitoshina

Here's the menu at Giro Giro Hitoshina (though, by the time you go, the menu will have changed). Lest you think that I have such sensitive and fantastic tastebuds to source out all these complex flavours, sorry, nope. The French chef had very kindly explained all these to me haha. The other diners were friendly too and even though I was by myself I still managed to have some good dinner conversation. The Japanese man next to me told me that for a traditional kaiseki, people usually spend around 20,000Y (as I am not an atas eater, I must admit I was super shocked). By contrast, a meal at Giro Giro Hitoshina costs 3,800Y (not including drinks). I had this fantastic yuzu beer which was DELIGHTFUL, and most other diners had wine or sake.

1. Eel and eggplant soup

2. Starter: popped rice, tofu, salmon, potato ball with sauce made from mushroom and pepper, pumpkin mas with ham chips and coffee sauce, ginko seeds, octopus, egg and foie gras and shimeji mushroom

3. Squid with miso and Japanese pear

4. Soup with daisy flowers, crab and egg tofu, mocha rice, wasabi topping

5. Sweet potato jelly, aburi saba, sauce of liver of fish with sugar

6. Fig, dashi jelly, mushroom sauce

[Unphotographed, I proceeded to spill this beautiful dish all over my legs and bag. The chefs sprung into action, offering me warm wet towels to mop up the mess, and a new dish promptly appeared before me. Most embarrassing.]

7. Yellow tail smoked with straw and miso