Kansai Food Page Restaurant and Market Guides

Daimaru Food Floor, Kyoto

Pastries and sake, miso paste and fishcakes, from one of Kyoto's most luxurious department store food floors

Sogo Food Floor, Kobe

Delicate Japanese sweets, savory crackers, and regional sushi variations at this popular department store food basement

Hanshin Food Floor, Osaka

Fresh crabs, grilled fish and oden ingredients from Osaka's legendary railway-station department-store food market

Isetan Food Floor, Kyoto

Pickles, yuba (tofu skin) and other Kyoto food specialties at this food-floor basement inside Kyoto station

Nishiki Market, Kyoto - photo tour

An introduction to central Kyoto's sprawling food market and the people who shop there

Nishiki Market, Kyoto - favorite shops

From rice crackers and spices to soy-milk doughnuts - where to go for delicacies in Kyoto's market

Yufuna: Kyoto Karasuma

From the entrance, this unpretentious little basement shop looks like an ordinary after-work hangout, with a solid wooden counter lined with sake and shochu bottles and a blackboard announcing the daily specials. Yufuna is surprisingly spacious inside though, with several other dining spaces beyond the front counter - all cozy and attractively decorated. Wherever you happen to sit, you'll get great Kyoto home-style cooking - small, tasty dishes made from the finest seasonal ingredients - plus a small but impressive selection of local sake to wash it down.

The pride of the kitchen is food and drink from the Tango region in the very north of Kyoto Prefecture, facing the Sea of Japan. The menu features a constant stream of fresh seafood and vegetables brought in from that area, varying according to the time of year. The sashimi platter of the day (Y1200-1500) is a sensible way to sample the best of it. There's also a good assortment of grilled dried fish - sardines, flounder, mackerel and squid - and these go especially well with sake. A Kyoto variation on the dried-fish theme is called "sakuraboshi," where the fish are first seasoned with mirin and sesame, then dried overnight and grilled, resulting in a much sweeter-tasting fish. From the entrance, this unpretentious little basement shop looks like an ordinary after-work hangout, with a solid wooden counter lined with sake and shochu bottles and a blackboard announcing the daily specials. Yufuna is surprisingly spacious inside though, with several other dining spaces beyond the front counter - all cozy and attractively decorated. Wherever you happen to sit, you'll get great Kyoto home-style cooking - small, tasty dishes made from the finest seasonal ingredients - plus a small but impressive selection of local sake to wash it down.

The pride of the kitchen is food and drink from the Tango region in the very north of Kyoto Prefecture, facing the Sea of Japan. The menu features a constant stream of fresh seafood and vegetables brought in from that area, varying according to the time of year. The sashimi platter of the day (Y1200-1500) is a sensible way to sample the best of it. There's also a good assortment of grilled dried fish - sardines, flounder, mackerel and squid - and these go especially well with sake. A Kyoto variation on the dried-fish theme is called "sakuraboshi," where the fish are first seasoned with mirin and sesame, then dried overnight and grilled, resulting in a much sweeter-tasting fish.

A big section of the menu is devoted to the local cuisine known as obanzai-ryori - home-style dishes from Kyoto. Obanzai-ryori is a free-wheeling style of cooking with plenty of room for originality, and we enjoyed some unusual dishes like the deep-fried salmon and lotus root - sort of a lotus-root sandwich with crunchy, thick slices of lotus root serving as the bread. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of spicy and garlicky dishes on offer, like the spicy green beans in sesame dressing, and the very impressive charcoal-grilled pork belly. The pork was beautifully streaked with fat and skillfully grilled, with flavor intensified by a hefty dose of extra garlic. Even a simple dish like zosui (rice porridge) was exciting, filled with aromatic mushrooms and greens that somehow captured the essence of the season.

The sake list includes around a dozen well-chosen varieties, including four very local brews from the Tango area that are well matched to the food. You can also choose from various types of shochu, ten kinds of umeshu, and some intriguing fruit-based drinks, like the very sweet momoshu (peach liquor) and the more tart yuzushu (made from the yuzu citrus fruit).

Yufuna's prices are very reasonable - you can easily get away with Y3000-4000 per person with ample food and drink, or far less for a quick snack and drink. There are also set menus (Y3500), and an all-you-can-drink shochu deal. Although there's no no English menu, the set meal is an easy way to order without working your way through the Japanese menu.

Yufuna is located in the basement of the Kyoto Mitsui Building, on the corner of Shijo and Karasuma and just above the subway station. [Show more]

[Shop data]

Yusoshi: Kyoto

Pleasure, imagination, use; Yusoshi is a hybrid of these three words and is a downtown hangout for the Oike set. Comme des Garcons patrons come here after racking up purchases in the CDG shop downstairs. And they come here to smoke Kool cigarettes. The set menu is a choice of three small dishes - chicken balls in tomato sauce, fried lotus root sandwich and battered white fish is the best combination - plus miso soup and rice for Y850.

The coconut parfait with dango, azuki beans, matcha and coconut ice cream is huge, and hugely popular. Desserts start from Y550; Japanese and Chinese teas from Y500. The large interior has a backlit moonscape covering one wall. As afternoon progresses into early evening, a bottle of wine at Y2730-3680 is a good investment. The staff will help navigate the Japanese-only menu. [Restaurant data and map]

Nenohi: Osaka Umeda

Managed by a Nagoya-area sake brewery with a 300-year-history, Nenohi offers premium seasonal and limited-edition sakes along with excellent grilled chicken and regional dishes. The dining room is quite spacious and attractively laid out. Budget around Y6000 for food and drink. [Restaurant data]

Benoit: Osaka Umeda

A mid-priced bistro-style menu served in a flashy skyscraper dining room, from French celeb-chef Alain Ducasse. Unlike the Michelin-starred, pan-Mediterranean Benoit Tokyo, the Osaka branch is more classically French. Typical entrees include roast baby rabbit with carrots and green onions; and braised halibut with champagne sauce and creamed spinach. Prix-fixe dinners are Y5700-8000 or a la carte; lunch is Y2600-5200. [Restaurant data]

Inaseya: Kyoto

Chicken sukiyaki is the specialty of the house here, and they use only the very best free-range birds - slightly chewy and very flavorful - in all their dishes. Sit in the zashiki room overlooking the beautiful traditional garden and choose from one of the three sukiyaki-centered full-course menus, priced at Y4200, Y5250 and Y7350.

If you're more daring (and speak Japanese), you can chat with the staff at the counter and ask for recommendations from their excellent sake list, and explore the wide range of delicacies - including raw chicken livers! (They were better than we expected.) No English spoken. [Restaurant data]

Dining Diary