Lunch at Ristorante t.v.b is a measured and timely affair. While it wasn't as long as an opera, it was lengthy, stretching to nearly two hours. This is slow food; I mean that in the flattering and not the pejorative sense. Good food takes time.
You could call this formal dining; the waiting staff and maitre d' were certainly better dressed than me, but the atmosphere isn't stuffy or overbearing. Ristorante t.v.b (I will get to what the initials mean) is on one of Gion's townhouse-packed streets that could double as a period-movie setting, except the extras are hordes of snap-happy geisha-chasing tourists. Inside it's serene; you pass the kitchen, behind a glass partition, on the way to tables spread between two stark yet comforting dining rooms.
The overarching influence is Italian cooking, border-hopping to France, but most dishes have a Japanese stamp on their passport — specifically Kyoto.