Kawahara has only been up and running for a year and half but, in that time, owner-chef Kouji Kawahara has found loyal patrons and landed himself a Michelin star. Or, as he charmingly puts it, "I'm in that red book."
From the outside, his restaurant is humble. It's squeezed into a row of small houses in a back alley beneath an overpass on which traffic pours in and out of Umeda. There is little to hint at the magic beyond the hemp noren curtains at the entrance.
The fare is kaiseki, the traditional multi-course meal, but it is different: For every course over this long lunch, Kawahara does something that's either thrilling, or mad. These are not adjectives you usually use to describe a kaiseki meal.
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