Friday, September 4, 2026

  1. The restaurant takes its name from the goji berry, long prized in Chinese medicine as a key to longevity, which tells you exactly where the chef's head is. This is a prix fixe Chinese dining room inside a historic merchant's house in Nara, where the menu turns on vegetables grown in the restaurant's own garden and the guqin plays softly in the background. A Michelin star. Dishes arrive on Jingdezhen porcelain, which makes the whole thing feel like a very beautiful prescription.

    Two honors, in evidence:

    The record strongest first

    One number, weighted & current 90

    How we score

    The dishes from the writeups

    Tasting menu only. The dishes change too often to put on record.


    Address
    42 Narukawacho, Nara, Nara, Nara 630-8335, Japan · 奈良市
    Hours
    • Tue–Wed 11 AM–1 PM, 1:30 PM–3 PM
    • Thu 11:30 AM–2 PM
    • Fri–Sat 11 AM–1 PM, 1:30 PM–3 PM
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

Nearby in the record closest first

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Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

    How we score →

    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

      How we score →

      Stay Score

      The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. Most of it is the record: the scored places within reach, weighed by distance, so more good stuff nearby means a higher score. The rest is how life is in that country: how people there rate their own lives, how long and how well they live, how safe they are, and what they breathe. If it looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.