Location: Kyoto
Top Restaurants in Kyoto
Where to eat Kyoto cuisine food in Kyoto: The Best Restaurants and Bars
Discover Restaurants offering the best Kyoto cuisine food in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Kyoto is Japan's most traditional city. The lush and verdant cityscape encompasses sprawling rock gardens, vast palaces, and tall temples. The streets are alive with businessmen hurrying past Geiko and Makio in their full kimono, both on their way to work along cherry-tree lined walks. A historic hub that celebrates Japanese culture, from kabuki to textile weaving, Kyoto can also be surprisingly modern. It is one of Japan's largest, busiest, and most visited cities, with packed shopping mega-centers and high-rise offices. Suffused with shrines, outdoor markets, and nature walks, the small but bountiful location is also home to some of Japan's most contemporary architectural marvels, hippest cafes and eateries, and modish local brands and shops. It makes Kyoto a playful and sublime city, studded with as many bars and hole-in-the-wall fried food shops along the Kamogawa river as it is suffused with ancient ryokan and delicate wagashi shops. Kyoto is in the cross-hairs of Japan's most artful past and its energetic present.
Things to do in Kyoto
1. Oagari
Overall Ratings
4 based on 278 reviews
Nowhere else could be better to savor Japanese âmust-try 3â - Okonomiyaki crepe/Wagyu beef/Yakitori chicken. You canât go wrong with well-prepared dishes by the talented chef as well as special drink offers. Never miss out a great opportunity to try diver
Reviewed By rickpoet
Everything about our experience at Ooagari in the Gion area of Kyoto was fantastic. This was our first meal in the cityâ¦One of the uniquely Japanes style course restaurants where they keep bringing you food, small course after small course. They are very vegetarian and gluten free friendly. Quick note, theyâre on the second floor of the building and thereâs another restaurant on the first floor, so make sure you head up the stairs to get to the good stuff.Itâs small inside but you have your choice between tables, or counter seats where you can watch the chef prepare your food.Theyâre also very English friendlyâ¦and well, just friendly in general. They were happy to see us, serve us, and sit down and talk with us.There was sweet, traditional Japanese music playing which added to the lovely atmosphere.We started with the Kyoto sake sampler (specifically serving us 3 different sakes brewed within the Kyoto area.) You can choose a broader geographic region for your sake as well.Then the food started coming. A salad with silken tofu and baby corn, followed by corn mousse with plum wine marinated tomatoes, then daikon radish with mushroom miso sauce, followed by two long peppers and a potato called dengaku which had a rubbery, fish like texture, and finally a soft tofu soft served in Japanese broth which super, super tastyThey brought as a palate cleanser of 2 flavors of shaved ice (citrus and lime). The lime was bolder then we would have liked, but orange was good. (These were served in tiny little bowls which delighted my wife.)The main course was a Kyoto style âokanomiyakiâ which is a Pancake with different layers of all kinds of things on top of it including a conglomerate of cabbage, onions, ginger, topped with a beautiful egg. This was our first time having anything like this and it was delicious. The fried egg was perfect, and the whole thing was especially good with French âPetit Pointâ sauce they served it with. Okonomiyaki is uniquely Japanese and different regions have their own style as we learned later on a visit to Hiroshima where they served âHiroshima Styleâ Okonomiyaki.We loved everything about our experience here. We felt well catered to as vegetarians. Their menu, and staff were super friendly and we had a fantastic conversation with one of the owners who sat with us and genuinely seemed interested in who we were and our experience so far in Japan. 5 stars all around.Wow... I can't appreciate it enough for sharing our details!! After your visit we've keep improved food accommodation for vegetarian/vegan and are finally going be listed on happycow and vegewell next month. We just want to say thank you so much for you folk's help and feedback!
Where to eat Cafe food in Kyoto: The Best Restaurants and Bars
2. Arashiyama Kijurou
Sukiyaki,Steak,Local / Regional Cuisine
Reviewed By Scharringa
I stumbled upon this restaurant while walking around near the bamboo forest. From outside it looks very nice but quiet. Usually i prefer to go to crowded restaurants, but somehow this time I went in. Im glad I did. Their specialty is wagyu and the famous kyoto tofu. I tried both and oh my god.... THE WAGYU WAS AMAZING! Very soft, juicy, and generously sliced (even the 80gr one), and the tofu was sooo soft and nice. Overall i really recommend it. The interior is also very nice and is actually more crowded than it seems :)Thank you for choosing "kijurou"We're very glad to recieve some comments of high evaluation.We're waiting for your second visit with our hospitality when you come to Arashiyama again.
3. Teramachi Yoshikura
Overall Ratings
4 based on 23 reviews
Reviewed By SimpleSimX
Delicious, elegantly presented, fresh kyo-ryori kaiseki, or tasting menu, using outstanding ingredients. We sat at the counter. Likeable chef and apprentice, with limited English. Relaxed unassuming atmosphere, no âfaine dainingâ fluff. Reasonably priced sake and beer on tap. Tempura is memorable, try it just with salt. Iâve never tasted tempura, rice and pickles as good as this. Simple and perfect.
Kyoto Prefecture, Japan Food Guide: 10 Asian food Must-Eat Restaurants & Street Food Stalls in Kyoto
4. Shunsai Tempura Arima
Overall Ratings
4 based on 181 reviews
Reviewed By NSDLondon
Maybe our best meal in Japan?! The sashimi was seriously perfect. Melt in your mouth, fresh delicious. The tempura was amazing- light and airy- so tasty. The chilled sake was so good and it was all so reasonably priced! The squid tempura was the best I have ever had. The staff were lovely (and spoke English). We could have just kept ordering more if they didnât need to close. It was simply divine.
Where to eat Japanese food in Kyoto: The Best Restaurants and Bars
5. Kyoto Gion Tempura Endo Yasaka Honten
Overall Ratings
4 based on 411 reviews
For over 130 years, Endo has been welcoming guests to its restaurants on the historical and atmospheric streets of Gion, Kyoto. Originally founded as an ochaya teahouse where geisha would perform, we have honored that heritage and status while also contin
Reviewed By 919famh
Difficult to make a reservation from abroad. They don't accept email etc so you have to ask your hotel to make a reservation, but take this action because it is an experience you don't want to miss. All small dishes with soya sauce or other dips. All explained by the cooks or waitresses. It is not done to refill your own glass so with ten friends we had dinner the ladies were quite busy. Nice to have the shrimp heads before the rest of the shrimps we find the only part of the shrimp we should eat in Europe. Here in Japan it is served in tempura and tastes good. I have to say that all the different things they serve in tempura is great to eat but at the end a bit heavy on the stomach, but it tasted great, service was excellent and friendly.So why four stars and not five? This is because of the reservation problems and what I wrote about the tempura satisfaction at the end. Thank you very much for coming to Tempura Yasaka Endo.We are very honored to receive the words from you.We will make further efforts in providing better service. When you come to Kyoto by all means please visit our restaurant again.Yours Sincerely, ããã Tempura Yasaka Endofrom all staff
