The attention to detail and preparation that goes into the dining experience are phenomenal, and Ramsey hasn't even touched on the meal. I learn that once guests enter the dining room, they are typically seated on the floor, while food is served on an elevated tray. Room decoration is purposefully stark, bar a scroll on the wall. Even the dimensions of the room are accounted for, including the number of tatami per session. 

“When it comes to the food, there are a few rules,” Ramsey explains. “First, you must have a base of ichiju sansai—a meal of rice, miso soup, pickles, a vegetable dish, a simmered dish, and a grilled dish.” Ichiju sansai translates into one soup and three dishes, which can be seen in the form of teishoku, served as a lunch set all at once. At tea houses, however, it is broken down into courses.

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Ramsey talks about the different courses that comprise a typical kaiseki meal. “Often, there’s a familiar course of hassun, which translates into 24cm, the length of the square plate it is served on.” The plate is filled with various seasonal items from the land and sea, arranged together to represent the seasons. During spring time, a cherry blossom branch is often featured. 

“There’s typically hassun, but there doesn’t have to be. There’s typically sashimi, but there doesn’t have to be. There aren’t any hard and fast rules, bar the rice, miso soup and pickles, which have to be served at the same time.” 

During our meal at Kintsugi, the menu is divided into courses of sakizuke (bite-sized appetisers), hassun (seasonal appetisers), mukozuke (seasonal sashimi), agemono (deep-fried dishes), ozara (main dishes), gohanmono (rice dishes), and mizumono (dessert).

“At Kintsugi, we do a Kappo Kaiseki and a Sushi Kaiseki,” explains Ramsey. “Kappo is a less formal version of kaiseki, typically served in front of a chef at a counter. Kappo literally means cut and cook—you see the chefs preparing the food in front of you, and you get a course progression.” 

The 15th-century practice Ramsey's restaurant is named after is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold lacquer. “Kintsugi is an euphemism that refers to the craft of joining broken items that were once cherished, broken and repaired.”

The phrase means “to join with gold”, with “kin” translating into gold. “It represents my past experiences with Japanese food, molecular cuisine, my time as a sushi chef and everything in between being joined together in one concept,” Ramsey muses.

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While Kintsugi was first born in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur will be the flagship restaurant where Ramsey will spend the majority of his time. The opening menu was developed from scratch. “We started by making a list of the amazing seasonal ingredients available. I would normally then start conceptualising by eating around Japan for inspiration, but since I haven’t been back for three years, I relied on a lot of YouTube videos of Japanese gourmands going out to eat.

“What inspires me are non-traditional dishes. I want to bring food here that is authentic, yet atypical. I call that modern Japanese—it’s not fusion, but it is something chefs all over Japan are doing to push the envelope."

Ramsey compares Kintsugi to a department store of the newest brands, offering the latest in Japanese food. “I like dishes with contrast, whether in temperature or taste, as I feel this creates excitement.”

In Kintsugi’s next seasonal menu, one of the dishes is handmade soba, inspired by a walnut soba Ramsey had in Nagano with his wife. “I met my wife when I was snowboarding in Nagano. It was the middle of winter, and I would come visit her in Hakuba, where she was based. Once, we went to this small village called Oyaki-mura. There was this rustic, quaint restaurant—old ladies were making meat pies filled with salted vegetables, there was a small fire, and the restaurant smelled of burnt hay.”

Nagano is known for soba, due to the high-quality water content, Ramsey explains. 

“I tried this walnut soba there. You crush roasted walnuts before pouring in tsuyu and dipping in your noodles. It was magical to me—I had never made the connection between walnuts and Japanese food.” 

The dish that will make an appearance at Kintsugi will be an elevated version of the aforementioned dish. He explains the process: walnuts are blended with oil, before being left to separate, which takes up to a week. The oil is poured off and the remaining paste is combined with handmade soba noodles, sourced from a farmer in Nagano.

The dish is then topped with a seven-ingredient Japanese condiment made with herbs, roots and seeds, inspired by the one Ramsey’s wife made while they were living in Japan. The walnut oil is drizzled into liquid nitrogen, resulting in what Ramsey refers to as a “golden, shimmering dust that smokes when sprinkled on top of the soba."

"And it comes with a great story," he laughs.

Ramsey feels it is the right time for Kintsugi to open in Kuala Lumpur. “Things have really changed since I first came to Kuala Lumpur, eight and a half years ago. The dining scene has transformed and there’s a bar that has been set.”

Though Ramsey acknowledges the number of Japanese restaurants have blossomed, he says: “I can guarantee Kintsugi won’t be guilty of doing the same thing like everyone else.”

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