kyoto - restaurant & food

Forget everything you know about Japanese cuisine and plunge in a brand new experience of body and soul. Hyotei is not a restaurant as you know restaurants. In this wooden traditional Kyoto house they serve the best and most exquisite Kaiseki dinner you can possibly have. Once you enter your private empty room, your hosts will gently serve you (at least)11 dishes of amazing unknown delicatessen. The order is precise and brings you more and more toward the food Nirvana. There, in silence, watching a perfect Japanese garden you'll savor an appetizer, a grilled plate, a stewed plate, something raw, something cold, something hot, a rice plate and a desert. At the end you'll feel incredibly happy and in peace with the world. Definitely expensive is totally worth it. Reservation must be made in Japanese.

If you are visiting the amazing temple of Ryoan-ji, after the breath-taking view of its inspiring stone garden and a walk in the suggestive musk forest, you must rest at Yudofuya. A traditional, small, quiet, little restaurant situated in the temple garden. We stopped there for something hot after a lot of rain, and it was like being still in the temple. We savored the delicious yudofu meal - which is boiled tofu and vegetables topped with seven herbs - seated on the tatami watching the pond gather rain. Yudofu meals are traditional vegetarian meals eaten by Buddhist monks. That one, was one of the best hours of our staying in Kyoto. Don't be scared if you usually don't like tofu, you'll enjoy this one (we shared one yudofu set in two and it was enough).

This was our first restaurant in Japan. The very beautiful Japanese garden let us amazed and the cold yudofu lunch (a tofu based dinner typical around temples in Kyoto) was very good. I've never liked tofu, but this one - believe it or not - was yummy! I had a cold soba menu which was also very nice. Definitely a good place to rest after or before visiting Nanzen-ji temple in Kyoto.

After some time in Kyoto you will have met at least once a "warabi mochi", a sweet jelly paste covered with a fine brown flour served as a dessert. Because most of the Japanese confectioner we bet spoke little English we found ourselves wondering what the flour was and how it was made. Well, Kitaoshoji reveals the mystery. When you get in ask for a Warabi mochi (they also serve ice creams and many many other cakes, but this is a specialty). You will be placed at a table with a huge and heavy marble millstone. Then a lovely lady will bring your warabi mochi and a bowl of toasted soy beans and explain to you to put them 3, by 3 (not more not less) in the millstone and then turn to make the flour. With the help of a brush and a strainer you'll put your own flour on your cake and enjoy it! I would have loved a good cup of hot tea then, but the only hot tea they serve with warabimochi is the powder green tea. p.s. At entrance they serve you some dried soy beans, they are totally delicious!

The garden restaurant of this traditional Japanese Ryokan is a beautiful and peaceful place to eat a traditional Kaiseki dinner (the highest expression of Japanese cuisine). The food is delicious, the service impeccable, the serving dishes precious. If you like to sit near the garden ask it when you reserve, but expect to seat on a tatami. If you prefer a hole under your table or a regular table you'll be far from the lolvely Japanese garden. You can choose among three options: Standard, Deluxe and Luxury Kaiseki dinner (http://kyoto-ryokan.co.jp/kaiseki-ryokan-kyoto.index.html) . We tried the most expensive one and it was very satisfying.

Taisho (master) Hiroaki Okura is the Fugu cutter judge for the Kyoto prefecture, master of sushi and international teacher, and yet a friendly and very lovely person. His raw ingredients are the best you can find in fresh fish in Kyoto, sashimi is simply divine and sushi a masterpiece of beauty and delightful taste. And it's incredibly cheap: 2500 yen for a sushi mix (he suggest this solution for foreigner who don't speak Japanese). If you master the language though you can order sushi and sashimi by piece. The familiar atmosphere, delicious food and amazing anecdotes told by taisho Okura made this place one of our most favorite restaurant in the whole world. If you are lucky you will have the chance to see him at work with the 400 cuts of the "hamo" fish, a Kyoto delicatessen reserved to masters and special guest. Finding Daikoku might not be that easy, it is hidden in one of the covered shopping alley in Karasuma-dori, but your quest would be rewarded with one of the best Japanese experience of your life, and not just for the amazing food. Extra tip, thank you in Kyoto is "Okini" :)

In this simple, unpretentious Okonomiyaki place you can eat multiple delicious versions of this tipical dish from Hiroshima. Ready made in front of you by a talented cook. An English menu helps you choose multiple ingredients and many toppings and variations that you can add to the plane okonomiyaki, served hot in a heated table. Absolutely delicious a cheap but very tasty meal. Try the spring onion topping on pork and shrimp okonomiyaki. DELICIOUS!