Dining and Shopping in Kyoto: Beef and Sushi and Needles

Izuju Sushi - Mackeral Sushi and the "Mosaic" sushi

One of the best things about Japan is that the standard of the restaurants here are generally good.  We didn't really have any major "dining ambitions" here in Kyoto, beyond eating a good variety of the different Japanese meals, but most of the time, we just chose our restaurant based on what took our fancy.  Many a time, our picks surprised us!

As in my last trip, thought it is easier to summarise our foodie experience all together (with a little extra on a special shopping excursion at the end).  This time though, I've taken pains to try and identify/locate the restaurants, especially the better and more memorable meals:

Sushi, sushi

Izuju Sushi

Amazingly, during this short visit with a limited number of meals we went to two top sushi restaurants in Japan, at least according to Tsunagu Japan!  They are two very different sushi restaurants, one very traditional, and one totally modern.

I did not know previously that there is such a thing as Kyoto style sushi and that one of the best exemplars of this type of sushi is Izuju Sushi.  This was one of the few restaurants we went searching for based on its reputation.  Izuju is just across from the Yasuka Shrine, and is a small little restaurant with only a few tables.  Go early, or you'll have to queue!  Choices are limited - the restaurant is known for its mackerel sushi and inari and also this interesting "mosaic" type sushi.  Little ingredients (like pickles) are packed into the rice so the sushi itself is a complete meal.  There was also a seasonal special, on horse mackeral sushi.  The restaurant requests courteously to try their food without soy sauce, to better enjoy the flavour of the rice.  Indeed, I did not need soy sauce, as the flavours of the rice and fish are so fresh that any addition would diminish the overall experience.  There is a far more detailed blog post about Izuju here, so I won't go into more detail on the food, ambience, and the history of this well-known restaurant.

"Ikan Bilis"

The second restaurant, Sushi no Musashi, is in Kyoto station and we actually came by here the last time we were in Kyoto!  We rather enjoyed ourselves and so we came back here again.  This is a totally modern conveyor-belt, Tokyo-style sushi restaurant, with one of the largest selections of sushi toppings I've ever had - lots of different shellfish, sashimi and it's all really fresh and good.  Prices are reasonable, and no surprise, you will have to queue for this one too.  What I like is that they actually name the seafood that you're selecting - having said that I am not sure what the name of this particular fish is.  I just mentally called it "ikan bilis".

Where's the Beef

Blow-torching the beef

A few doors down from Izuju is a beef restaurant, "Kappo Bar Gyugyu Gion Honten".  It sells Kobe Beef but as prices are like 9,000 yen for a steak we had the "normal" Wagyu instead.  We got a seat downstairs, on the bar surrounding the kitchen so we had a good view of our food being cooked on the grill.  One of the more exciting dishes was this version of beef carpaccio.  The beef (sliced super thin) is lightly cooked with a blow torch and served with a lump of sushi rice, radishes, and some soy sauce.  It is literally two mouthfuls of food, but really yummy mouthfuls.  

Kameoka beef

Obviously, we had not eaten enough beef because the very next day, we found ourselves in another beef restaurant called Gyuraku in Kameoka (we were looking for a nice restaurant for lunch after our ride on the Sagano Romantic Train)  Here there is no mention of Kobe beef.  Rather, the restaurant proudly proclaims that it is using only the famous "black cattle" of Kameoka.  The beef itself is also available in the butcher's next door. It appears that Kyoto prefecture  is trying to promote its own beef products internationally and Kameoka is one of the leaders in this!

Anyway, we had a steak served on a hot plate and next to a hot stone.  So we can cook it further to the degree of done-ness we want.  The steak itself was good - moist and flavourful.  It gave us the strength and energy to make our dripping way back through the rain to Arashiyama.

Traditional Kyoto Cuisine - Kyo-ryori, and Yudofu 

Kyo-Ryori Manshige

Another unexpected or rather unplanned meal was our first in Kyoto, at Kyoto station.  We were really looking for the conveyor belt sushi but got lost in the massive station and found Manshige instead.  We were attracted by the promise of traditional Kyoto food (termed Kyo-ryori) and indeed, it was a charming meal full of dainty little dishes - including the tiniest, sweetest little new potatoes I've ever seen, and three of the tofu "lollies" which I remember from my last trip here.  In addition, there was a delicately flavoured soup made from seafood and which comes with a squeeze of lime (Thai influence?).  It was such a lovely meal, that it is no wonder that I subsequently found it on someone else's "best restaurant in Kyoto station" list.  And apparently it is a branch of a more famous restaurant somewhere else in Kyoto!

Yudofu Set Meal

We also took the opportunity to eat Yudofu, another Kyoto delicacy especially in the Nanzenji temple area - apparently all the vegetarian monks swear by it.  And the purity of the water here in the area makes for the most pure Yudofu ever.  Now Yudofu is really not the most exciting food in the world.  It is a few pieces of tofu in a stock flavoured with one piece of kelp. It is served in a claypot.  You put the cooked tofu in a dipping sauce, add radish, seafood and bonito flakes and that's it.  Fortunately, the dish comes with some side dishes as well - vegetable tempura, and other small side dishes such as pickled seaweed and some tuba tofu (Yuba is made by skimming off the the film off the top of soya bean when it is being cooked).

We didn't go to a famous restaurant for this one either. We tried to but it involved a 1 hour wait so we went to the less famous (and much cheaper) establishment called Goemon Chaya down the road.

Ramen

Black Ramen

Regular Ramen

Another "must have" when in Japan is the ramen.  We were walking home from Hanamikoji when we passed by Musoshin ramen restaurant and decided that a hot bowl of noodles was just the thing for dinner.  Musoshin prides itself on its tasty stock made from vegetables and chicken and indeed the rich, thick broth was very tasty.  It is so thick, it coats the noodles completely so each mouthful is full of flavour.  They also have a special "Gion Black Ramen" dish which features a black ramen stock, sprinkled over with black sesame seeds and served with some black seaweed on the side.... you get the picture.

Little did we realise that it is rated so highly - ranked 29th out of all the restaurants in Kyoto! Maybe it is the result of the very active calls to review it positively on Tripadvisor

Nishiki market 

Beef Pao

No visit to Kyoto is complete without a visit to Nishiki Market.  I had visited the market on my last visit to Kyoto but it's still worth a repeated trip.  We made our way there but it would appear that the sashimi stalls are not open on a Monday morning :-( Anyway, we had breakfast here, if conger eel tempura, a beef pao (courtesy of Kyoto foodie tip), takoyaki and matcha flavoured soy milk ice cream can be considered breakfast.  The conger eel tempura was not wonderful - it had been sitting a while and so was not that fresh any more.  At least they reheated it for me.  But the beef pao - hot, steamy, full of succulent meat - was something different and definitely worth a repeat visit during future repeat visits to Nishiki (yes I think another visit to Kyoto is a definite possibility).

At Misuyabari

After visiting Nishiki market we went looking for Misuyabari needle shop.  My friend had tipped us off to this shop - because she wanted us to buy her some decorative pins and the famously sharp needles the shop is famous for.  It was not easy to find - it is actually in an offshoot of the Teramaki Shopping Arcade - but behind the row of shops.  We had to go through a little alleyway, which opened into a courtyard garden and the shop was on the far side.  If interested, the directions are here.

The shop itself is tiny, and sells primarily needles, the decorative pins (ordinary pins but with little pinheads of dogs, cats, and many other little items).  It has a 360+ year history and apparently used to sell needles to the Imperial Palace!  The shopkeeper doesn't speak much English but somehow we managed to get by.

Tea for Two

Apple Tea

Somewhere along the way, we started having tea.  It started with a rainy visit to Arashiyama and a warm cosy English tea served in a traditional looking Japanese house.  Who would have expected to see scones and Earl Grey?  Although it turned out that the house specialty is actually an apple tea, complete with chunks of freshly cut apple.  It's a seasonal specialty so not always available.  Anna Maria is on the main street, on the way from the railway station to Tenryu-Ji temple.  It's a welcoming place and I certainly would recommend it to anyone who wants a little break from all the walking around (rainy day or not).We also decided to treat ourselves to a nice tea 

after tracking down the Misuyabari needle shop and making our purchases.  Our reward for effort, so to speak.  Lipton Tea House was started up apparently in 1930 as the British wanted to interest the Japanese in drinking Lipton rather than green tea. And to have a nice piece of cake with it.  I had a nice cheesecake.  But honestly it was just a nice break after all the walking (and BTW we had not had lunch, just all the snacking at Nishiki market).

We were amused to see two of the other patrons of the needle shop having tea here, too.

Well, I've come to the end of a long long post all about my Kyoto food experiences.  Or at least the more significant ones.  Glad that we had some new food experiences and also the chance to revisit a few old favourites.  Looking forward to my next visit to Kyoto (whenever it is)!