Kaiseki at Yunoshimakan in Gero: A Culinary Art

2015-04-18 · Updated: 2026-08-11 · Original (Korean)

This article was translated from the original Korean post with AI assistance. Read the original Korean post →

After visiting Nagoya Castle and Osu Market since the morning, we rushed to catch our train, feeling totally pressed for time. Sitting on the train for two hours, eating and looking out the window, my usually sedentary body was screaming. Soaking that tired body in the piping hot hot spring water made me feel alive again. Now, instead of sightseeing, I just want to lie in the water forever.

The hot spring water in Gero is famous for leaving your skin milky white after a soak. Amazingly, even if you just wash your face briefly with the spring water, your skin feels as smooth as if it were coated in oil. What a miraculous hot spring.

After finishing the bath, I was sprawling in the room when I heard a knock. The server preparing today's dinner, kaiseki (traditional multi-course Japanese dinner),

"Are you ready?"

she asked.

Sure!! Sure!! I'm starving to death!!

An employee in a black uniform wiping a red lacquered table in a tatami room.

First, the server who would guide us into the world of kaiseki wiped down the dining table. For reference, the kaiseki here is handled by a single dedicated server who stays by your side to do all the light cooking, serving, and explaining.

Aperitif

An empty glass, a small glass with yellow liquid, and a small blue dish with soy sauce placed on a Japanese menu.

Once the table is wiped, the basic setting is laid out. In the center is plum wine to help with digestion. Seeing how much food is about to come out, I drank the plum wine as an aperitif.

Part of a paper menu with the course meal order and dishes written in Japanese.

This list shows the order of today's kaiseki courses. It's a shame there wasn't an English or Korean version, as it would have helped us understand the dishes better. But as if laughing at my disappointment, Chef Kim (my mom) asked what everything was every single time a dish came out. She spent the entire meal tasting, asking, and rejoicing when she guessed right, so we had no choice but to leave a generous tip. Truly amazing~

Originally, kaiseki wasn't a full dinner but rather food served alongside Japanese tea ceremonies. Because of this, the portions are small and served little by little. Nowadays, there are many styles of kaiseki, and each ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) or restaurant has its own unique take on it. So it's no longer just food to eat with tea; it has become a culinary genre of its own, much like Italian cuisine. And now, a ryokan's kaiseki is just as much a point of pride as its indoor facilities. (This is just my impression, of course, but the room price nearly doubles depending on whether kaiseki is included, and when you ask the servers about it, they genuinely boast that their ryokan's food is the best.)

A room service menu with English and prices listing snacks and alcoholic beverages.

Perhaps because it's a ryokan, the alcohol and drinks are a bit on the pricey side. Still, since we were paying good money for this meal, we ordered a sake and an oolong tea to enjoy it properly.

First Course

Bowls of raw meat, vegetables, a pot, and various side dishes set on a red table.

Grilled fish, a bowl with a yellow lid, and small side dishes inside a black tiered box-shaped container.

Tofu, clams, and blanched vegetables in a light blue round bowl sprinkled with yellow powder. — First course

As you can see, the neatness and elegant presentation are beyond what I expected.

A black brazier on a wooden stand with a round earthenware pot covered with dry leaves on top.

There's rice inside. It's fascinating how they use leaves to steam it. When you taste the rice, the leaf fragrance is deeply infused, giving it a very unique flavor. The rice needs to steam for a long time, so you don't eat it during the first setting, but later on.

Two fried fish and pink jelly-like food placed on a leaf. — I wanted to eat so badly that I just snapped the photo, focus be damned.

Shrimp dish mixed in white sauce served in a small white bowl.

Seafood dish with yellow sauce served in a small flower-shaped bowl.

Two pieces of raw meat with clear marbling and vegetables served on a blue patterned plate. — The final boss appears

This guy is today's main event: wagyu shabu-shabu. When I came to Gero, I only knew about the hot springs, but apparently, this region is famous for its delicious local beef. That's why every ryokan sells beef, and as you can tell from the marbling, the taste is no joke. It's also so expensive that I can only remember the price, not the taste.

Second Course

Plates of sashimi, a liquor bottle in an ice bucket, and a spray bottle placed on a wooden tray.

Tuna, salmon, and white fish sashimi with wasabi served on a blue plate.

A person eating various dishes including sashimi and a personal brazier set on a red table. — Applied a filter and the food looks intense!

The second course: sashimi, sake, and oolong tea. We hadn't even finished the shabu-shabu yet, and raw fish came right out!! The sake was good, but I personally highly recommend the oolong tea. My mom was completely obsessed with it and insisted we buy some to take back to Korea.

Clear broth and round ingredients served in a black lacquer bowl.

This is a clear fish broth, but it's not my style. I don't know what kind of fish it is, but I personally hate fishy flavors, and it tasted exactly like that.

Clear broth, tofu, green onions, and yellow ingredients in a metal pot. — Shabu-shabu sauce.

Thinly sliced meat, tofu, and green onions boiling in clear broth in a metal pot. — I think this was when I was happiest.

Two square pieces of rice topped with sesame seeds and garnishes placed on a large leaf.

This is the leaf-steamed rice that makes you wonder if it's rice cake or just rice. It has a subtle leaf fragrance, and you can enjoy a delightfully chewy texture when you bite into it.

A green sake bottle inside a wooden box filled with ice. — A pretty standard sake.

A few pieces of sashimi on a blue plate and clear liquor in a transparent glass.

Third Course

Now the rice, side dishes, and desserts start coming out in earnest. If the previous dishes were things you rarely see in everyday life, the ones from here on out feel like food Japanese people might eat every day.

A grilled fish on a patterned plate and red pickled side dishes in a small bowl.

Some fish came out, but there wasn't much meat to pick off the bones. Plus, moving past the second round, I was slowly starting to get full.

A round pink dessert and a spoon in a small bowl placed on a small round tray with a handle. — Apricot sherbet served after the dismantled fish. I thought it was dessert, but it wasn't.

Close-up of a round pink dessert served in a small bowl. — I felt like my stomach was going to burst, but I stuffed it down just to taste it.

A Japanese-style table setting with rice, soup, side dishes, and tea. — Japanese miso soup and rice. The most common, home-style Japanese food came out last.

Clear soup dish containing bamboo shoots and vegetables.

Dark seaweed side dish served on a small light blue plate.

Red and green pickled side dishes served on a flower-shaped plate.

Clear tea served in a patterned teacup. — Tea to cleanse the palate.

A glass of black beverage and a plate with a strawberry and a slice of melon.

A strawberry and a slice of melon served on a white square plate.

Dark beverage served in an octagonal glass.

A piece of dark transparent jelly scooped up with a spoon and a small bowl placed underneath. — Finally, the real, actual last dish: dessert. It was incredibly sweet, maybe made with brown sugar. It's a traditional dish with its own specific name.

Like I mentioned earlier, every time we ate a dish, my mom kept asking the server what it was made of and how it was cooked, leaving the server a bit flustered about how to explain it. Still, thanks to Google Translate, she managed to explain almost everything, satisfying the chef's desire to try making it at home.

My thought after trying it once is that the food quality wasn't as outstanding as I expected, but I loved having someone serve me at my own eating pace and getting to taste a wide variety of dishes all at once. Rather than just eating a delicious meal, it felt like watching a comprehensive art performance using food. When I say it wasn't outstanding, I mean it wasn't outstanding for the price, not that it tasted bad.

As for why it wasn't outstanding for the price, Chef Kim defined it by saying, 'All the food we've eaten in Japan has a similar taste (she described it as not being adventurous), so there are no terrible places, but there don't seem to be any incredibly amazing places either.' In contrast, she noted that Korean recipes tend to go to extremes, but the trade-off is that you can find some mind-blowingly delicious restaurants.

Since every place has its own way of presenting kaiseki, I think it would be fun to compare them and hunt for the best spots. Of course... to do that, you'd have to be able to eat meals that easily cost over 100,000 KRW every single day, which is nearly impossible. But it seems like it could be a hobby for the filthy rich who are numb to spending money.

Either way, the conclusion is that you should definitely come and try it. It might be tough to eat it multiple times, but I think it's worth experiencing for at least one day on your trip.

Two people preparing a bed by laying out blue mattresses and futons in a tatami room.

While we were resting after finishing our meal, the bedding staff came in to lay out our futons. They were even shouting little chants of encouragement to each other as they set up the beds, taking what seems like a trivial task very seriously.

Two thick Japanese-style futons laid side by side on the floor of a tatami room. — The bedroom set up by two very serious guys.

With a full stomach, a warm back, and a fluffy bed,

it was the next morning as soon as I lay down.

#Kaiseki is really quite good #Some of the food was cooked differently from ours or maybe just not well, so it was meh #Mostly delicious #Definitely have to eat it once #By the way, they give you too much #The food never ends #Failed at controlling the number of post images again #A single post shouldn't be several megabytes