Eating in Kyoto
Try these dishes while you are here.
Try these dishes while you are here.
Order the first one and work down the list.
We recommend ordering this one first.
A course of small seasonal dishes, composed like a garden. Expensive at dinner, and a fraction of it at lunch.
Tofu simmered in plain water at the table, with soy and spring onion. Temple food, and better than that sounds.
Vegetables pickled in a dozen ways. Bought at Nishiki market, and the best small souvenir from the city.
Uji, south of the city, is the historic centre for matcha. Parfaits, warabi mochi, and a bowl of tea in a garden.
Small shops, no English sign outside, and worth the walk.
Kyoto is full of careful, expensive food. This is the other Kyoto — a plain dining hall by the university, with big plates and low prices.
A clear broth made from fish stock rather than pork, with white soy. Closer to Kyoto cooking than to a normal ramen counter.
Soy broth, and the noodles come from the maker that owns the shop. Two minutes from Jujo on the city subway, south of Kyoto Station.
Tofu simmered plain in hot water and lifted out with a slotted spoon, eaten with soy and spring onion. In a garden below Nanzenji temple.
Soba with a whole herring simmered in sweet soy laid on top. The fish flavours the broth as it sits. Beside the kabuki theatre at Shijo bridge.
Egg rolled in layers around hot stock so it comes out wet inside. Cut and sold over the counter in the covered market street.
Ine wraps its bay in boat houses that stand with their feet in the water. This dining room is up on the hill at the roadside station, looking down the whole line of them.
Uji has grown tea for as long as the temples here have wanted it. This tea house stands at the east end of Uji bridge, where the road from the station reaches the river.
Fushimi brews its sake on spring water. This is the brewery own shop, set in a converted store house, and it grills chicken over coals.
Freshly pounded rice cake with smooth red bean paste on top, lightly sweet. Four tea houses stand side by side at the gate, each selling it.