What I ate at SoNoMa, Kyoto’s newest fine-dining restaurant

Kyoto – In late March, Kyoto’s luxury hotel boom gained another entrant with the opening of Capella Kyoto — but the property’s most compelling attraction may be SoNoMa, a new restaurant from SingleThread chef Kyle Connaughton that filters kaiseki (Japanese haute cuisine) through a distinctly Californian lens.

Shortly after the restaurant’s official debut, I’m greeted with a welcome drink — warm blood-orange juice with toasted cardamom — before being led to the 12-seat counter. The meal begins with a seasonal hassun platter served as an amuse-bouche: firefly squid in a shungiku (garland chrysanthemum) and chimichurri sauce, kasugodai (young sea bream) sushi and cherry blossom mochi with duck liver pate sprinkled with dōmyōjiko (coarse powder made from glutinous rice) and wrapped in a salted cherry blossom leaf.

What Connaughton and his team serve next is at once at home in any kaiseki course yet has touches of Californian flavor and the U.S. state’s sense of creative freedom. In place of the traditional suimono (clear-broth soup) is Akaushi beef from Kumamoto Prefecture served in shabu-shabu broth, and the tsukuri (sashimi) is kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) and aji (horse mackerel) with housemade ponzu and shiranui mandarin drizzled with olive oil from Sonoma County. The nimono (braised dish) is takenoko (bamboo shoots) charcoal-grilled and brushed with chicken stock reduction, flanked by a selection of sansai (edible wild plants) including pickled nobiru (Japanese wild onion) and tempura of a leaf from the koshiabura tree.