The Best French Food in Kyoto
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The best French food in Kyoto, according to the experts: the Michelin Guide and Gault&Millau have both weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. KOGA comes out on top.
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la bûche and MASHIRO hold the next two places. The Michelin Guide shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Gault&Millau next.
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Rank 1. KOGA
French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
- Gault&Millau Gault&Millau: 3 Toques
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Rank 1. la bûche
French
The chef is at the market every morning, listening to farmers before deciding what goes on the plate. This one-Michelin-star French prix fixe restaurant sits in the rural mountain village of Ohara, and the wood fire burning at the open counter runs on timber from forest thinning, which is either very poetic or very on-brand, probably both. Wild greens, mountain flowers, and game fold the surrounding landscape directly onto the plate.
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
- Gault&Millau Gault&Millau: 3 Toques
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Rank 1. MASHIRO
French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
- Gault&Millau Gault&Millau: 3 Toques
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Rank 4. anpeiji
Light French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
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Rank 4. ima
Wood-fired French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
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Rank 4. Jean-Georges at The Shinmonzen
Contemporary French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
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Rank 4. La Biographie...
French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
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Rank 4. MOKO
French
A one-Michelin-star French restaurant in a former merchant's house that once ran as a dietary school, which tells you everything about the chef's sense of irony. The team ages fish and meat in a curing warehouse to coax out depth, then counters it with vegetables from nearby Ohara and sauces kept deliberately light. Classic French technique filtered through Japanese ingredients, in a city that takes both very seriously.
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
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The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: 1 Star
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Rank 10. Middle
French
The awards
- Gault&Millau Gault&Millau: 3 Toques
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 10. MOTOÏ
French
The awards
- Gault&Millau Gault&Millau: 3 Toques
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 10. Reine des pres
French
The awards
- Gault&Millau Gault&Millau: 3 Toques
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 13. Asperge Blanche
French
A French bistro where the whole room is white, softened by flea-market antiques and a single pendant light doing real work. The chef cooks classic French, paring things down until the ingredient carries the sentence, and is devoted enough to Bincho charcoal to bake the bread over it. The name means white asparagus, which answers the question you were about to ask about spring. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, tucked into Shimogyo.
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Bib Gourmand
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Rank 13. Bistro Cerisier
French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Bib Gourmand
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Rank 13. Bistro Yanagihara
Alsatian Bistro
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Bib Gourmand
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Rank 13. Deux Filles
Modern French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Bib Gourmand
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Rank 17. Benoit
Modern French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 17. L'aparté
French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 17. Le Cadeau
French
The restaurant's name is a promise: the gift, the chef has decided, is the sauce. This is a French dining room in Kyoto where the kitchen's obsession runs through every plate, each sauce built to pull the dish into focus rather than dress it up. Brillat-Savarin would have had something to say about a place this single-minded, and it probably would have been flattering.
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 17. Luca
French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 17. wavie
French
The name blends the Japanese "wa" (harmony) with the French "vie" (life), and the kitchen takes that fusion seriously rather than just decorating French technique with a few local garnishes. This prix fixe restaurant in Ukyo-ku builds its menu around Kyoto-area ingredients, with herb-fermented vegetables lending an earthy depth and wine-and-cream sauces keeping things clearly on the French side of the hyphen.
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant
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Rank 17. Yosuke Yamaji
French
The awards
- Michelin Guide Michelin Guide: Selected Restaurant