As with most upscale kaiseki ryōri (traditional multicourse meal) restaurants, there is little by the way of decoration in Karatsu to distract.
It's a new restaurant — just eight months old — but it's located in a house that's over 100 years old. Years from now, when the polished floors have worn with age, it will remain as beautifully uncluttered as the day it opened in 2017.
Speaking of history, owner and chef Shosaku Karatsu, originally from Nagasaki Prefecture, trained and worked at Kyoto Kitcho — one of Kyoto's most famous restaurants — before branching out on his own last year. His eponymous restaurant is quiet and unassuming, much like the owner. But, while his cooking conforms to the rhythm and scope of kaiseki, he's certainly not afraid to roll out bold, challenging flavors.