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May 03, 2024
 

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KYOTO RESTAURANTS

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Sep 9, 2016
Moriwaki: Blissful sashimi in a compact family-run eatery
One of my favorite occasions to eat out in Japan is after returning from a long trip abroad. I have learned to empathize with those Japanese tourists who can't wait to get home and eat Japanese rice after a whirlwind tour of Europe.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Sep 9, 2016
Hyakushokuya: The wagyu joint that only makes 100 meals each day
Hyakushokuya, "100 meal shop," makes 100 meals a day — and that's it. The daily challenge for staff is to make and serve them as fast possible, so that they can take the rest of the day off. It seems that this is typically accomplished by the end of lunchtime, at which point a chalkboard is placed outside the entrance informing diners that the restaurant won't be opening for the evening.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Aug 12, 2016
Grill Aoi serves up the most Japanese Western food in its Little Rich Lunch
The Japanese guriru ("grill" meaning a restaurant, not a cooking tool) is an interesting mix of new, borrowed and adapted ideas. Grill Aoi, a family-owned diner tucked away on a quiet side street between Gojo and Shijo, has no shortage of such ideas.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Aug 12, 2016
The telltale signs of a terrific Thai restaurant
When you've been to enough Japanese restaurants, you come to realize that a bowl of rice or miso soup can foretell the quality of an establishment's other dishes. I like to think this rule also applies to a serving of pad thai at a Thai restaurant.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jul 8, 2016
Sara: Where daintiness gets a good grilling
Midway through lunch at Sara, a family-run restaurant in northern Kyoto, I started to suspect that the chefs subscribed to a philosophy of daintiness. The food was as pretty as it was good to eat, but the portions were decidedly petit.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jul 8, 2016
Chocolat Bel Amer: Head-turning desserts in an old wooden town house
First established in Tokyo, Chocolat Bel Amer has now opened a boutique in a gorgeous traditional machiya (town house) fronted by a Japanese maple tree. In a rather bold move, it is directly opposite Inoda, an institution among Kyoto's cafes. What connects both these places — besides the street — is an extreme earnestness.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jun 10, 2016
Okina: The intangible joys of heirloom eggplant
In 2013, UNESCO gave Japanese cuisine, or washoku, Intangible Cultural Heritage status, an unwieldy mouthful that left some people wondering, "What's that?" A recent lunch at Okina, near the tourist mecca of Arashiyama in northwest Kyoto, provided a clear path through the official language.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jun 10, 2016
Ichikawaya Coffee: A young cafe inside a 200-year-old wooden townhouse
Many of Kyoto's traditional wooden machiya townhouses are being renovated, and one of the most enchanting ones that has recently opened to the public can be found a few minutes walk from the endless stream of tourists visiting Kiyomizu Temple.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
May 13, 2016
Sakamoto offers an 'only in Kyoto' experience
There's every chance that while dining at Sakamoto you'll end up in a tourist's photo. It's not because of who you are, but where you are. Diners sit overlooking the shallow Shirakawa River, which is lined with restaurants, bars and cafes on one side, and a cobbled street with cherry trees and willows on the other, the tips of their branches fanning the water as it dances through the Gion district.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
May 13, 2016
A sweet retreat in Toraya's tea rooms
Tokyoites could be forgiven for thinking Toraya is theirs as it has been based in Tokyo for more than a century. This famous teahouse and confectioner, however, has its origins in Kyoto. When the capital moved to Tokyo, Toraya followed suit, moving its operational base both to curry favor with the Emperor and to get more people to "eat cake."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Apr 8, 2016
Godan Miyazawa: Traditional multicourse cuisine unsettled by a wild bear
Regrets? I have a ton. Here's one: I didn't get to eat bear meat at Godan Miyazawa. Perhaps one of the drawbacks of the omakase (chef's selection) here is that there's no actual menu to provide information about what's being served. Trusting your chef is a small price to pay for an elaborate multicourse meal that marries skill with tradition. Besides, there is a certain pleasure in anticipating what you're about to eat when the chef throws tradition out the door and lets a bear in — if you're lucky.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Apr 8, 2016
Nick Stock: The steaks are high but the muzak is terrible
There is elevator muzak and shopping channel muzak, but combine these two subgenres and you'll have a type of muzak so bland that even a computer would be embarrassed to claim ownership of it. Yet there's no avoiding this banal background music at Nick Stock, a steakhouse and cafe just west of Kyoto Research Park that opened at the beginning of the year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Mar 11, 2016
Ajikyu: A tiny izakaya squashed inside a family home
Reviewing restaurants is a slippery slope to overindulgence. That's why opting for lunch can be a safer bet than dinner. Not only are lunch reservations easier to come by and the bills easier on the wallet, but midday meals help to ensure you getting home before sunset, or sunrise. That didn't happen on a recent visit to Ajikyu, a timeless and homely izakaya (traditional tavern) past Sanjo-dori on the far side of Gion, Kyoto's nightlife paradise.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Mar 11, 2016
Miyako Yasai Kamo Nasu: All the locally grown vegetables you can eat
Miyako Yasai Kamo Nasu — a mouthful if ever there was one — is a chain of buffet restaurants offering all-you-can-eat vegetables for breakfast (¥490), lunch (¥880) and dinner (¥1,350).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Feb 12, 2016
Muraki: Handmade soba in a tavern for hobbits
There's a hobbit-in-the-Shire feeling in Muraki, a homely husband-and-wife run soba restaurant west of Kyoto city. The entrance is uncharacteristically marked not by traditional noren curtains but sliding wooden doors — the ki in Muraki is the Chinese character for tree or wood. The arboreal theme continues inside with the main communal dining table composed of two long slender planks and the smaller wooden tables placed in alcoves. And from the ceiling, a half dozen bird mobiles sway, making the restaurant feel like a tavern deep in Scandinavian snow country. Or a perfect setting for hobbits, if they ate soba.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Feb 12, 2016
Tsukijisay: Enjoy seasonal sushi without breaking the bank
Tsukijisay has been serving sushi since almost as long as nigiri (sushi with vinegared rice) has been around — the original restaurant is more than 125 years old, a time when this venerable fast food was still in its infancy. As the restaurant name suggests, the origin of Tsukijisay is the historic fish market in Tokyo, which this year will undergo a momentous move.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jan 15, 2016
Rikichi: Bowling and the art of traditional Japanese kaiseki
In 2000, Harvard political scientist Robert D. Putnam wrote "Bowling Alone," a book about the decline of community and rise of individualism in the U.S. I thought about the title of that book over lunch at Rikichi — indeed there was plenty of room for thinking. Not only was I the only diner, but chef and owner Shuichi Hiraoka was working by himself. It's how he prefers things in his little kappo (counter-style restaurant), tucked away in the back alleys of Gion.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jan 15, 2016
Kobushi: Ramen with spinach, chicken and a motorbike
One of the differences between a restaurant chain and an independently owned restaurant is that the latter tolerates — even encourages — eccentricity.
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 surprised if soba made an occasional appearance here. Chef Gunji Komura serves whatever happens to be in season or in his kitchen.
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.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Saudi Arabia steps up Gaza-related arrests as Israel ties edge closer
The arrests for Gaza-related posts indicate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s regime will take a hard line against citizens not toeing the line when it comes to normalizing ties with Israel.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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