Interview with Kiyuutei manager Tetsuya Umakoshi
Kiyuutei opened in 1978.
It is operated by Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel.
After joining Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel, Tetsuya Umakoshi was assigned to Kiyuutei right away. He later worked in other departments and is now the restaurant’s manager. We spoke with him.
This interview was conducted during our first visit in January 2022.
A commitment to locally sourced ingredients
You’re committed to using locally sourced ingredients, is that right?
Umakoshi (honorifics omitted)
We try to use Okayama-grown burdock root and lotus root.
The meat in our katsu curry and pork curry comes from Bisei.
Since the restaurant is in a tourist area, we try to use locally produced ingredients whenever possible.
About 80 percent of our customers are tourists.
During the Lunch, Please! event (a food event organized by the Kurashiki Tourism and Convention Bureau), we also get more local customers.
Kiyuutei serves food under the name of its operator, Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel.
It seems that having the hotel’s name gives tourists peace of mind when they visit.
However, we want to be a little more casual than the hotel, so we offer a menu that children can enjoy, too.
That’s why we have dishes such as curry and hashed beef rice.
What has and hasn’t changed since the restaurant opened
Is there anything that has remained unchanged since the restaurant opened?
Umakoshi
I joined Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel when I was 18, and I’ve worked here for 40 years.
Kiyuutei opened four or five years before I joined.
When I was assigned to Kiyuutei, half of the current building was a private residence.
After the people who lived there passed away, our hotel bought the property.
It was later renovated and expanded to its current size.
As for what hasn’t changed, the entrance and the exterior of the entire building are the same.
That’s because the exterior cannot be changed under the ordinance protecting traditional buildings.
The arched roof tiles at the entrance haven’t changed either.
The restaurant has an open kitchen, and that hasn’t changed since it opened.
I’ve heard that it was unusual at the time, especially around the Bikan Historical Area.
Works by Shiko Munakata have also been hanging on the walls since the beginning.
The restaurant’s name, Kiyuutei, comes from the calligraphy “Kiyu.”
The tulip lamps haven’t changed either.
We’ve added more as the building was expanded, though.
They’re custom-made, so we’re careful not to break them.
Some customers find these retro lamps unusual and take photos of them.
We use daylight white bulbs rather than fluorescent white ones.
The orange tint of daylight white light, compared with white light, makes the food look even more delicious.
Has anything changed since the restaurant opened?
Umakoshi
This building seems to have been a church, its meeting hall, and at one point a kindergarten.
When the restaurant was expanded, we were able to offer a private dining room on the second floor.
It was also renovated four years ago (2017), so guests can now go straight up to the second floor without taking off their shoes.
Some items have been on the menu since the restaurant first opened.
I think beef stew, curry, and hashed beef rice are still on it.
And sometimes we bring back dishes that were taken off the menu.
There was a time when we operated as a steakhouse.
When you call yourself a steakhouse, people tend to think steak is the main thing you serve.
But we wanted to be a restaurant that was approachable and welcoming, with food that’s easy for everyone to enjoy.
For tourists in particular, a restaurant is easier to walk into than a steakhouse, isn’t it?
Still, our impressive entrance seems to make it difficult for customers to come in, for better or worse.
Kurashiki-style omuhayashi was created about three years ago (2018) as a signature dish for Kiyuutei.
The dish itself is new, but the hashed beef sauce served over the omurice is made using a recipe we’ve had for a long time.
We serve fluffy eggs topped with our traditional hashed beef sauce.
Creating a restaurant unique to a tourist destination
What are your plans for the future?
Umakoshi
I hope people can enjoy a relaxing meal at Kiyuutei amid their busy days.
And I hope they’ll enjoy Kurashiki’s streetscape as well and have an even better trip.
I’d like our customers to feel even more at home and enjoy their meals more than they do now.
I want to create a bright, welcoming restaurant.
I hope to make this a place where people can come to Kurashiki, dine at Kiyuutei, and feel glad they did—somewhere that leaves them impressed.
It’s best when people tell us the food is delicious.
Doesn’t the atmosphere of a restaurant have a lot to do with how delicious the food tastes?
No matter how delicious the food is, if the staff working there aren’t good, your satisfaction is cut in half.
That’s why, in addition to making sure the food is delicious, I think it’s important to create a bright atmosphere in the restaurant so that customers feel glad they came to Okayama and Kurashiki.
So, to help customers feel at ease with us, we use the local dialect whenever we can.
I think speaking the local dialect is one way to make people feel glad they came to Okayama and Kurashiki.
It’s comforting when someone speaks to you in the local dialect, isn’t it?
But it’s not good to overdo it, so I let it slip out now and then while watching the customers’ reactions.
If we can use the local dialect naturally while keeping an appropriate distance from customers, I think it will brighten the atmosphere of the restaurant.
And I think customers will feel, “I’m glad I came to Kurashiki and Restaurant Kiyuutei.”
From the Writer
Before conducting the interview, I thought of a restaurant in a tourist area showing hospitality by focusing on locally sourced ingredients to promote the region.
I learned that at Kiyuutei, “speaking in the local dialect” is also a way of showing hospitality to customers.
Perhaps this is a way of thinking unique to restaurants in tourist areas.
Why not visit Kiyuutei, which strives to create a place where both tourists and locals can feel glad they came to Kurashiki and to Kiyuutei?
Restaurant Kiyuutei Information
| Name | Restaurant Kiyuutei |
|---|---|
| Address | 1-2-20 Chuo, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Contact | 086-422-5140 |
| Parking | None |
| Hours | 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Lunch: 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. |
| Closed | Wednesday |
| Payment methods |
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| Reservations | Available Private room “Kawasemi” on the second floor is by reservation only |
| Seating | 34 seats on the first floor; 10 tables 8 seats on the second floor; 1 table |
| Smoking | Entirely non-smoking |
| Restrooms | Western-style toilet |
| Child-friendly amenities | High chairs available |
| Website | Restaurant Kiyuutei |
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