Pitstop Recommendations for Exploring Kyoto by Area
Diverse and delicious lunch choices make for wonderful pitstops during sightseeing in Kyoto.
Kyoto is a great city to explore for several reasons:
It is Japan's most compact city with the greatest variety of things to see or do.
It is easy to navigate, with a grid system for much of the city and a pretty comprehensive network of public transport options.
Areas are distinct and manageable in size, each offering sights and scenes that add layers to a Kyoto experience.
The number, variety and quality of cafes, restaurants and bars are astounding. Japanese, Western, light meals, desserts and local snacks are scattered all over town. You just need to know where to find them.
Many visitors, especially foodies, plan their itinerary around highly recommended restaurants that require reservations well in advance. That is certainly a smart way to enjoy an anticipated experience, especially for return visitors.
But one can also plan activities by area, efficiently covering a few spots within walking or short ride distance before breaking for lunch or tea. The key to this approach is knowing where to make a stop, where one can enjoy local offerings such as a drink, a snack or a light meal that won't interfere with dinner.
Inspired by guests who often ask us for local tips, we would like to share our recommendations for 6 sightseeing areas. We try to include useful information such as business days and hours but please note that these may change for various reasons. It is always advisable to call in advance to check.
1. Heian Jingu, Kyocera Museum, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto City Zoo area:
Kyōcera Museum Cafe ENFUSE
“Okazu Plate” (of small dishes) at Enfuse cafe on the 1st floor of Kyōcera Museum.
This stylish cafe within the museum, called Enfuse, offers sandwiches, light meals, cakes and pastries, and even picnic sets for you to enjoy around the Okazaki Park. Just be sure to order the picnic sets 3 days in advance!
Hours: 10:30 - 19:00 (L.O. 18:00)
Closed on days that Kyocera Museum closes.
075-751-1010
https://kyotocity-kyocera.museum/cafe
Gontaro Okazaki Branch (soba/udon)
This is a local favorite with 3 locations around the city, all serving high quality, good value udon, soba, donburi rice bowls, nabe hotpots and small dishes. We love their fried soba rolls and sesame tofu.
Hours: 11:00 - 21:30 (L.O. 21:00)
Closed Wednesdays
075-751-7880
https://gontaro.co.jp/english/okazaki.php#a_eng
Usagi-no-Ippo (obanzai Kyoto home-style dishes)
The owner, born in the year of the rabbit, named this restaurant Usagi no Ippo, loosely translating as Rabbit's One Step Forward, to celebrate the realization of her dream. She offers Kyoto homestyle cooking (obanzai) in a restored old house overlooking gardens on both sides.
Hours: 11:00 - 15:00 (L.O. 14:30)
Closed Wednesdays. Open on public holidays.
075-201-6497
2. Nanzenji, Eikandō area:
Hinode Udon (curry udon, soba and ramen)
Curry Udon with Beef - a warming bowl that gave Hinode lasting acclaim. Be prepared for long lines!
Like many Kyoto establishments, Hinode has an eaves lamp (“noki andon”) that harks back to a bygone era.
This is definitely a local favorite. Try the curry udon with beef, the founding dish that turned this modest shop into a Kyoto institution, now run by 4th generation owners. Hinode means sunrise. The noodles here, smooth and coated in a thick soup, will make you warm, like being in the sun. Be prepared for long lines in peak seasons.
Hours: 11:00 - 15:00
Closed Sundays and the 1st and 3rd Monday (unless the Monday is a public holiday then it will be closed the next day); closed on unscheduled days in July, August and December.
075-751-9251
https://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2601/A260301/26000815/ or read-4979 (this Japanese website has good pictures of the restaurant)
Tairikitei (Japanese beef courses, a la carte)
Lunch with a garden view
View of mansion within gardens. Photo courtesy of Tairikitei.
Tairikitei’s beef udon in soup with Kyoto kujō leeks.
This restaurant is a mansion within the Nanzenji temple grounds, with different seating areas overlooking beautiful gardens. It specializes in beef, and beef courses have to be booked online in advance. But it also offers a la carte Japanese dishes including beef, chicken and vegetable udon for walk-in guests throughout the day.
Hours: 11:30 - 20:00
Reservations possible in English on their website using Tablecheck. Walk-ins accepted.
075-752-4334
3. Ginkaku-ji, Philosophers' Path area:
Akatsuki (Ramen)
Ramen from Akatsuki
Very unusually for Kyoto, this independent ramen shop (not a national chain) opens past midnight! Their soup stock is made with chicken, pork bone and soy sauce, and they also serve excellent fried gyoza (dumplings).
Hours: 11:30 to 03:00
Closed on unscheduled days
075-702-8070
https://www.instagram.com/ramen_akatsuki.kyoto/
Tonryu (ramen)
Ramen from Tonryu
Rice with chopped meat Taiwanese style from Tonryu
This ramen shop has homemade noodles cooked in a soup base of chicken, pork bone, salt, and a variety of home-grown vegetables. The owner has a family farm that grows rice and vegetables. Here you can order ramen as well as rice with minced meat Taiwanese style.
Lunch 11:30 - 14:45 Dinner 18:00 - 21:45
Closed on unscheduled days
075-703-0900
Katsukura Ginkaku-ji Shop (tonkatsu and cutlets)
Specializing in premium pork, this restaurant with 6 branches in Kyoto serves combo sets with pork cutlets plus crab meat croquette, yuba croquette, and vegetable cutlets. There is also a Kids Meal set.
Weekdays 11:30 - 21:00 (L. O. 20:30) Sat, Sun and holidays 11:00 - 21:00 (L.O. 20:30)
Closes on 2nd Mondays (if Monday is a holiday it will close the day after)
075-708-3155
https://www.katsukura.jp/en/#here
4. Daitoku-ji, Kinkaku-ji, Ryōan-ji Area
Izusen Daiji-in Branch (Buddhist Shōjin cuisine)
Nestled within the Daiji-in sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, this restaurant is less well-known than Kyoto's other Zen temple establishments. But their shōjin vegan offerings are just as authentic and delicious. The walk through temple grounds on the way to the restaurant puts one in a calm state of mind for experiencing the lunch.
Hours: 11:00 - 16:00 (L.O.)
Closed Dec 28-31
075-491-6665
https://kyoto-izusen.com/html2/restrant_daijiin.html
Ichimonjiya Wasuke (grilled mochi)
Charcoal grilled Aburi Mochi - a very Kyoto snack.
Ichimonjiya, now run by the 25th generation, was established around year 1000. Its current building is 300 years old.
Adjacent to the Imamiya Shrine are 2 shops that serve Aburi Mochi, which are rice cakes charcoal-grilled on skewers. Ichimonjiya Wasuke (also known as Ichiwa), now run by the 25th generation, has been serving this quintessential Kyoto snack for a millennium. Enjoy with green tea.
Hours: 10:00 - 17:00
Closed Wednesdays
Gontaro Kinkaku-ji branch (soba/udon)
Soba set from Gontaro Kinkaku-ji branch
Buckwheat tofu
Fried buckwheat soba rolls
This is a local favorite with 3 locations around the city, all serving high quality, good value udon, soba, donburi rice bowls, nabe hotpots and small dishes. We love their fried soba rolls and sesame tofu!
Hours: 11:00 - 21:30 (21:00 L.O.)
Closed Wednesdays
075-463-1039
https://gontaro.co.jp/english/kinkakuji.php#a_eng
Kinkaku-ji Itadaki (Japanese-style Western food)
A yōshoku (Western food) restaurant in the old Japanese style right outside Kinkaku-ji. The burger steaks, cutlets, curry and omelet rice are adapted from Western dishes but cooked in the Japanese way, and served with rice and miso soup. This restaurant has a warm, home-like feel and friendly service.
Hours: 11:00 - 15:30 (L.O. 15:00) 17:30 - 21:00 (L.O. 20:00)
Closed Mondays and the 4th Tuesday (if the Tuesday is a holiday, it will close the day after).
075-465-9102
https://kinkakuzi-itadaki.owst.jp/en/
5. Fushimi Inari, Fushimi Sake Brewery Area:
Kissa Roku (cafe)
A short walk from Fushimi Inari Taisha is Kissa Roku, an elegant coffee shop with beautiful cakes, pastries and sandwiches. Housed in a Shōwa era building registered as a tangible cultural property, it has a lovely Japanese garden and an interior that befits the style of that bygone age, with modern details and vintage furniture.
Hours: 11:30 - 17:30 (L.O. 17:00)
Closed Wednesdays and unscheduled days.
075-585-3272
Itsukichaya Fushimi Inari branch (Washoku)
Set of 5 donburi rice bowls for comparison.
Itsukichaya's door curtain shows a fox, known as a messenger of the Fushimi Inari shrine, celebrating harvest with his friend the moon rabbit, chosen as a symbol for the restaurant's Arashiyama main shop.
Itsukichaya is quite a mouthful (the full official name is even longer), but if you recognize some kanji, it can be easily remembered as the 5 Tree Tea House. There are 4 in Kyoto, all strategically located in iconic spots with scenic views - Arashiyama (the original), Kiyomizudera, Pontochō, and Fushimi Inari shrine. The one in Fushimi is very close to the Senbon Torii, or under 10 minutes walk from the Fushimi Inari station of the Keihan train. All branches serve a unique set of 5 seasonal donburi (rice bowls) with different ingredients and cooking methods which they call Kyōdon goshū tabekurabe-zen, or a meal of 5 Kyoto rice dishes for comparison.
Hours: 10:30 - 19:00 (L.O. 18:30)
Reservations possible in English on their website (by Tablecheck). Walk-ins accepted.
075-643-5217
Torisei (chicken, yakitori and sake)
This restaurant specializes in chicken dishes and sake straight from the brewery. Operated by the Yamamoto family and converted from their sake brewery, the restaurant has high ceilings, wooden beams, a nostalgic feel, and fresh brew on tap in a large sake tank amidst the tables. On offer are all manners of chicken - raw, grilled, steamed, fried, in skewers, salads, sets or iron pots of rice - and sake brewed in different methods.
Hours: 11:00 - 22:00 (L.O. 21:30)
Closed Mondays
050-5485-1416 / 075-622-5533
Doi Katsuman Fushimi Inari main shop (unagi fresh eel)
Charcoal grilled fresh eel is the specialty here. Apart from eel rice bowl (unajū) and grilled eel with or without sauce (shirayaki or kabayaki), also on offer are original small dishes such as eel liver, rolled egg or rolled kombu with eel, and grilled eel with cucumber or with Sansho pepper.
Lunch 11:00 - 15:00 Dinner 17:00 - 21:00 (L.O. 20:30)
Closing days unscheduled.
No reservations. Walk-in only.
075-644-4556
https://doikatsuman.net/doikatsu_us/
Mangia Mangia (casual Italian)
This Italian restaurant on the second floor of a shopping street (above MOS Burger) has a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. Greatl for a lunch break if you feel like some Western style comfort food. They take great pride in their homemade spaghetti with meat sauce (made with pork belly and minced beef).
Hours: 11:00 - 22:00 (L.O. 21:30)
Closed Tuesdays
075-748-6262
Yamoridō (craft beer and Japanese tea)
"A place to enjoy the old and create the new" - this is Yamoridō's aim when they lovingly transformed a Meiji-era Machiya (townhouse) into a stylish space for craft beer and Japanese tea. It's open all day, the beer is freshly brewed on site, and there is delicious simple fare on the menu, including a lunch set of 8 Kyoto home-style items ("obanzai").
Hours: 11:00 - 22:00
Closed Mondays or the following day if Monday is a bank holiday.
075-603-3080 or info@yamorido.jp
https://www.instagram.com/yamorido/
6. Arashiyama (bamboo grove), Sagano Area:
Sagami (handmade flat udon)
This noodle shop serves a variety of udon and soba in a folksy house in a quiet spot. Their specialty is a unique flat noodle called Tarai udon, handmade at the back of the house. It is soft but firm, and very flavorful when coated in soup.
Hours: 11:00 - 17:00
Closed Mondays.
https://tabelog.com/en/kyoto/A2601/A260403/26001294/
Steak Otsuka (Japanese beef)
Highly rated for their premium Japanese beef - steaks, roast beef, Korean-style beef ribs - all served with rice and soup. Enjoy with chopsticks as no knife-cutting is needed for the juicy meat! They take reservations for only 6 seats a day. Please see their website for how best to be waitlisted on the day.
11:00 - 14:30 (L.O. 14:00)
Closed Thursdays and Sundays.
075-864-7989
Shōraian (tofu kaiseki)
Walk upstream the Katsura River from Tōgetsu Bridge, and you will find it rewarding to arrive at this beautiful villa set in the woods overlooking the river. Built in the traditional style and decorated with the owner's calligraphy, Shōraian serves Kaiseki courses with tofu dishes as the main attraction.
Mon-Thu 11:00 - 17:00 (L.O. 16:00) Fri-Sun and holidays 11:00 - 20:00
Closed end of year and new year holidays
075-861-0123 (Reservations required and by phone only)
