Kyoto is known for its traditional Japanese Kaiseki Cuisine, with 7 3-star Kaiseki resturants I had a lot to choose from.
I asked my hotel for recommendation on a mid price point one (the highest price point ones can be over $1000/meal), and they recommended Kischien
The restaurant was located in a residential area near a temple. It was basically a house. Upon entering you are asked to take off your shoes by two japanese servers (male) dressed in kimono and kneeling on their knees. (The remained their on their knees for the entire dinner).
I was brought to a waiting area there appears to be 2-3 private dining rooms. At 6pm (my reservation time), I was brought into the counter seat area, there was a total of 6 seats at the bar and was all fully filled.
The meal lasted a total of 4 hours, we finished exactly at 10pm. Some of the highlights was the Otoro Sashimi, the Matsutake Mushroom, the Japanese honeydew, the chest nut pudding. (note that there was 3 price points of menu offered here, I opted for the most expensive one, there was a couple that went for the lesser expensive menu and they did not get the honeydew melon or the matsutake mushroom, instead they got a cantaloupe melon instead)
This meal ended up costing over 50000 yen, and with no alcohol (besides the welcome sake that was included in the meal) Note that I did drink 1 bottle of the Irika green tea which sold for 7000yen here at the restaurant. Given there was no alcohol I think this was the most expensive meal that I've ever had.
