Strolling along Pontocho, I walked into a place near the far end that looked decent enough. Its Tabelog score is somewhere in the low 3s, the kind of place I would normally never go. To my surprise it was tasty and not particularly expensive either. The open kitchen looked great and the interior was stylish too. For a restaurant in a tourist area, this is really satisfying.

Otoshi

Before serving it they told us there would be a charge. Charging for otoshi is an unspoken rule, but announcing it is very much a tourist-area restaurant thing. There is nothing special about the otoshi itself, but I was glad to see taro and mountain vegetables, fitting for Kyoto.

Kyoto sake: Eikun Junmai Daiginjo

Sweet, but delicious. Good enough that I wanted to remember it and buy a bottle to take home, though that was not going to happen with this trip’s schedule.

Negima

Reliably tasty.

Tontoro

They use good-quality meat, and they cook it well too.

Tofu salad

This came out in a much bigger portion than I expected. I slightly regretted having had okonomiyaki before coming here.

Ebi and reba (shrimp and liver)

Kyoto is nowhere near the sea, so how do they get shrimp this fresh? The flesh was firm and plump and filled my whole mouth. The grilling was good, but the ingredients were so good that I really enjoyed it. The liver was about average.

Tebasaki

It came out slightly rare, which startled me a bit, but it seemed they were not using frozen chicken. Is chicken even allowed to be this juicy?

Karaage

Standard level.

I would not go so far as to call the food delicious, and the menu was fairly ordinary, but either way I ate really well. The staff were friendly and it was not as expensive as I expected, so I left satisfied.

A restaurant I photographed while wandering around

There are a lot more shops with pretty designs than there used to be. It made me want to set aside a day and properly explore just Kyoto.

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