Hiiki

Seasonal small plates such as salt-boiled broad beans and bamboo shoot tempura sit alongside sashimi, grilled conger eel and clams steamed in sake. At Hiiki in Gion, diners can build a meal by choosing a few dishes at a time. One visitor enjoyed salt-boiled broad beans, sashimi of firefly squid and the season’s first bamboo shoots, and was struck by the flavour of the ingredients themselves. The menu also features bamboo shoot and pike conger tempura, offering a way to pair seasonal produce with a seafood dish.

Another diner wrote about an omakase meal that included sashimi, fried fugu, Koppe crab and dobin-mushi, a broth served in a small teapot, followed by clam ramen. This is one account of a meal on a particular day, but it gives a sense of a seafood-focused spread enjoyed with drinks and carried through to a final dish. Drinks include sake, beer and plum wine with soda. The menu also lists rolled omelette, unagi-filled omelette and simmered fresh yuba, or tofu skin—options for adding a warm dish to a meal centred on sashimi or tempura.

Visitors describe counter seating and a tatami room upstairs. One diner enjoyed chatting with the owner at the counter, while the upstairs room may suit a meal with conversation. Reservations are recommended for dinner.