milpa
On our recent visit to the Kansai region (Osaka and Kyoto) of Japan we originally didn’t have any “fancy” meal plans. Browsing the web one day, I saw that Japan got their first Michelin starred Mexican restaurant. I quickly looked it up and decided I had to go check it out.
milpa (lowercase intended) started after the chef, who ran a taco restaurant in the same space that is now milpa, worked at the Noma pop-up in Kyoto. Inspired by what he saw there, he decided to try and bring a fine-dining spin to Mexican cuisine using Japanese ingredients. The gamble to totally revamp his restaurant from casual to fine dining seems to have paid off so far, as he was awarded a Michelin star in his first year of operation.
The restaurant is rather small with room for perhaps 20 diners at one time. Since we went for lunch on a random Tuesday, we ended up being the only table seated for lunch service.
Here is what we had for our visit on September 23, 2025:
The first of our house made non-alcoholic pairings
I’m not much for alcohol or wine pairings, so am always excited to see when a restaurant offers non-alcoholic pairings as an option. milpa does and takes it a step further by creating all their pairings in-house (versus sourcing drinks from outside as some others do).
Snacks - Chile Atole soup, empanada with caviar, mini tacos
Hokkaido scallop tostada with corn broth
Leche de tigre with Japanese snapper
Mole verde with cauliflower, tofu, and edamame
Chilapachole soup with ama ebi
Enmolada
Sorbet with crunchy grasshopper
Taco al pastor
Japanese beef, maitake mushroom, and salsa macha
Maracuya with passionfruit
Chocolate
Service was very attentive (likely aided by the fact we were the only diners for lunch) and our main server did an excellent job explaining the dishes and the non-alcoholic pairings.
I found the food to be delicious and exactly what I had hoped for from a Mexican cuisine restaurant in Japan. The ingredients were all superbly fresh and while there were several bold flavors, chef showed great restraint in those courses where the focus ingredient was more subtle and delicate (such as in the scallop tostada). The mole dish was outstanding, and probably my favorite mole that I’ve had to date.
milpa
1 Chome-16-25 Kitahorie
Nishi Ward, Osaka, Japan
www.instagram.com/milpa.rest
