Kyo Ya.(Japanese restaurant)(Restaurant review)

Kyo Ya specializes in kaiseki, a form of cuisine said to have originated in sixteenth-century Kyoto, initially as an accompaniment to the tea ceremony. To eat the full, ten-course meal at Kyo Ya, you have to book a day or two in advance, since esoteric ingredients are shipped from Japan. (The regular menu, however, can be ordered anytime, and abounds with similar dishes.)

The ambience is calm, the clientele largely Japanese, and the interior full of gorgeous details. A wall of rippling wood swoops near the bar; men's and women's toilets are marked by a fern and a flower, respectively. Plates, from thinnest glazed porcelain to chunky, asymmetric, almost volcanic stoneware, become an art form; you're unlikely ever to see the same plate or sake cup twice. Despite the precision, there's no anxious effort to impress, and you get the feeling that the staff would prepare food this elaborate even if they were just eating it themselves.

And it is elaborate. Pressed sushi is covered with a thin speckled film of kombu, edible kelp: it looks as if lacquer had been applied over the rice. A simple aperitif of shochu, garnished with tiny morsels of pear ...