Tag - kyoto-restaurants

 
 

KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Dec 11, 2015
Sakuya: One of the old capital's best traditional lunches
On a mundane street in northern Kyoto is an excellent soba restaurant called Nicolas. Farther down the road, tucked under a nondescript apartment block, is Sakuya, a kappo (counter-style restaurant), which serves a variety of traditional Japanese food. There is no menu to speak of, but I wouldn't be...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Dec 11, 2015
Ippodo: Enjoying tea without tradition
Japanese tea can be beguiling and bitter. And the ceremonial tradition that surrounds it can be disconcerting and dull.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Nov 13, 2015
Hashinaga: Delicious and relaxed kaiseki cooked by a formidable chef
I am almost certain that I wouldn't survive a day working under chef Noriyuki Hashinaga. I am, however, certain that I could eat his food every day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Oct 9, 2015
Totoya: Fresh seafood donburi beside Kyoto's fish market
While Kyoto's main fish market is off limits to the public most of the year, Totoya, a little seafood restaurant just yards from the market's main entrance, gives you a taste of what's available inside.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Sep 11, 2015
Kyokabutoya: Informal Japanese cuisine in an old wooden townhouse
Yasumasu Ikeda, chef and owner of Kyokabutoya, moved to the Kansai region from Hokkaido more than 15 years ago. After almost a decade of cutting his teeth in the kitchens of Osaka and Kyoto, he opened a Japanese restaurant around 2010. Kyokabutoya is housed in a machiya (traditional wooden townhouse),...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Sep 11, 2015
Sasaya Iori: Kyoto's 300-year-old sweets shop
The area around Kyoto Station seems to lack the cultural and culinary charms found elsewhere in the city, but this might be changing. A massive restoration of the nearby Higashi Honganji Temple complex will soon be completed and Umekoji Locomotive Museum will be combined into the new Kyoto Railway Museum,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jul 8, 2014
Aoi-jaya: Traditional Japanese cuisine without the traditional price tag
A combination of train delays and the restaurant I had intended to eat at closing earlier than advertised meant that I had to find a replacement on the hoof. Fortunately, I was in the Isetan department store in Kyoto Station. The top two floors are given over to restaurants: the 10th floor to mostly...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jul 8, 2014
Nakamuraken: refuge from summer in a glass of shaved ice
With months of nothing but sun, Japanese summers can sap your will to live. Be grateful, then, for the arrival of kakigōri (shaved ice). In fact, it's about the only thing to look forward to between now and November.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 10, 2014
The Kyoto neighborhood where dessert is the main course
Kitayama is five stops on the subway from downtown Kyoto, but it might as well be a million miles away for the tourists who trudge around the city in search of Kyoto tropes: temples, shrines, teahouses and geishas who are more than likely tourists dressed up for the day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jun 10, 2014
What's: Fine Matsusaka beef in a restaurant as unusual as its name
Culinary epiphanies don't happen often, but when they do, they are food for thought. I had one recently dining on prime Japanese beef and it was an experience that, on reflection, recalled a childhood event. Not that I grew up eating wagyū — far from it; rather, the portion of seared beef reminded...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jun 10, 2014
Marumo Kitchen: Bowls with soul
In the DNA of almost every Japanese building there is a gene for "renewal." And so it was inevitable that Porta, the underground mall at Kyoto Station, would close earlier this year for a revamp. When it reopened it was out with the old and in with the new — and yet another Starbucks. Among the new...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
May 13, 2014
Café Indépendants
You don't have to be hip to enter Café Indépendants, but it helps. Located in the basement of the old Mainichi Shimbun Kyoto bureau, Indépendants is the kind of cafe frequented by the artsy set. There is a version of this cafe in every city all over the world. In Cork, where I grew up, that cafe was...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
May 13, 2014
Nanaezushi: Edo-kei sushi without the sticker shock
We need to talk about sushi. First, any discussion of sushi isn't worth its wasabi without a mention of the perspicacious octogenarian Jiro Ono, star of the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi," about his Michelin-starred restaurant in Ginza — you know, the one that Obama took Abe to, or was it the other...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Apr 8, 2014
Inakatei: Local Kyoto cuisine heavy on the fish and veg
When faced with a six-page menu allied with a supplementary page loaded with specials and all in a language that makes less sense to you than abstract art, what do you do? Get up and leave is one answer, as proven by the nearby holidaying couple, American I assumed by accent and attire, who left shortly...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Apr 8, 2014
Elk: Who doesn't eat soup with their pancakes?
Here's an odd couple: soup and pancakes. But this is how Elk, a small but expanding chain of cafes, advertises itself. The day I ate at Elk the pancake crowd was definitely in the ascendancy; there were a few soup eaters like myself, but we were in the minority. And speaking of minorities, men were so...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jan 7, 2014
Harimaya: Remember this one, baby
For lunch at Harimaya I was joined by my son, who was celebrating a birthday, of sorts. Six months. He's a good kid, but let's face it, he's a baby — so a six-course lunch could have been more a pain than a pleasure.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jan 7, 2014
Hagi: Real-deal burgers from 1970
There can be no doubting that Snow White's beauty derived in part from the Seven Dwarfs' lack of it. But what they lacked in looks, they made up for in charm. This is how you should approach Hagi, a cafe of considerable charm and irretrievable beauty. Located beside a storm drain in a drab neighborhood...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Dec 31, 2013
Juicy Chinese dumplings will Shanghai your taste buds
People have opinions about xiao long bao. And for good reason: xiao long bao (or XLB, or soup dumplings, or shoronpo as they're called in Japanese) are enchanting: semi-translucent satchels of dough encasing balls of minced pork suspended in, curiously, soup. In that magnificent way that the Chinese...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Dec 19, 2013
Where would Santa find Finnish flavors in Japan?
Dear readers, I have made a wonderful discovery: Finnish cinnamon rolls, korvapuusti, are not just cinnamon rolls. They are cinnamon and cardamom rolls and they are delicious. Also, korvapuusti translates to "slapped ear" — perhaps because the dough is rolled rather than coiled — which is adorable....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 5, 2013
Kagurazaka GiroGiro: Kyoto import brings a youthful buzz to kaiseki
The plate is a deep turquoise blue, hand-thrown and uneven. The sliver of fish on top, its skin grilled to a burnished copper, sits on a jade green sauce. The place mat depicts a neon psychedelic geisha. Welcome to the Technicolor world of dining, GiroGiro style.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji