I made it to Kyoto again this year. I feel like I go there rather often, but however many times I go there is always somewhere left to see.
The front of en boca
I came by taxi, and someone who doesn’t know the area might think the driver was taking them the long way round. There are so many one-way streets that even reaching the road right next door means going back and forth for a while. When I arrived, a few people were already waiting out front. I had a reservation, so I wandered the neighbourhood until opening time.
There are plenty of places right nearby that look worth eating at, too.
This one looks like a bakery
And this is an alley with an izakaya and a ramen shop.
There were honestly too many places that looked good.
This one’s a cafe
One place with real presence after another.
A one-way street
A very Kyoto-looking scene.
And here is en boca, open for the day.
It is so understated that it doesn’t look like a pizza place at all. I suspect this is what the Kyoto style is.
The oven
A proper wood-fired oven. Kyo-yasai, the heirloom vegetables Kyoto is known for, are laid out beside it, and the room feels like Kyoto too.
A small garden
Pizza eaten looking out at a garden is rather nice.
The table
Clean and simple.
Water glass
The coaster is a maple leaf. Nice touch.
A drink
Tea
It’s a pizza restaurant, yet the mood is that of a kaiseki meal, the traditional Japanese multi-course dinner. That must be why it is so popular.
Every pizza here can be ordered half-and-half, so wanting to try as many as I could, I had all of them split in two.
Margherita and lotus root
Margherita is the most basic of the basics, so I was curious how theirs would come out: generous cheese, dough seasoned just right, a perfect bake, and it was gone in no time. The lotus root pizza, with crisp slices over fresh basil paste, is one of the house signatures, and I kept wondering how it could possibly taste this good. The lotus root’s own flavour isn’t strong, but the crunch is the whole point.
Kiln-roasted vegetables
I ordered these in place of a salad, and dipped in salt they were pretty good.
Bamboo shoot and shiitake
The bamboo shoot half had Kyoto miso mixed into the cheese, quietly bringing out the flavour of the shoot. The shiitake pizza was full of juice with a strong aroma that burst across the mouth. Whatever I ordered, it was at a level I had never tasted before.
Fruit pizza
I ordered it as dessert. The dough is the same as the regular pizzas, and the fruit on top has been cooked through, a style some people will like and others won’t. It tasted fine, but the kyo-yasai pizzas were so good that I rather wish I had ordered one more vegetable pizza instead. I tried it out of curiosity and came away feeling I had lost out.
Inside
The place has a stylish feel, and almost all the customers were women. Somewhere this lovely was never not going to be popular. The pizzas apparently change with the season, so I’d like to visit in another season too.
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