Great grilled chicken, smoked dishes and craft beer are the specialties at this late-night, fourth-floor-walkup in the shadow of Daimaru department store.

The menu offers two dozen or so Japanese microbrews by the bottle, and around the same number of Belgian beers; there are also shochu and sake options if you're so inclined. [Restaurant data and map]

Kyoto is well known for its beautiful vegetables, and Kanematsu is known as the gourmet greengrocer in Kyoto's central Nishiki Market, supplying many of the finest restaurants in the nearby Gion district.

In 2000 Kanematsu decided to open a little restaurant of their own, occupying a few small rooms above the shop. Called simply "Yaoya no Nikai" (the "Second Floor of the Vegetable Shop"), they serve a lovely vegetable-centered lunch every day from 11am until they run out of food. Kyoto is well known for its beautiful vegetables, and Kanematsu is known as the gourmet greengrocer in Kyoto's central Nishiki Market, supplying many of the finest restaurants in the nearby Gion district.

In 2000 Kanematsu decided to open a little restaurant of their own, occupying a few small rooms above the shop. Called simply "Yaoya no Nikai" (the "Second Floor of the Vegetable Shop"), they serve a lovely vegetable-centered lunch every day from 11am until they run out of food.

Although the main ingredients are all plant-based, the cooking here is more a celebration of vegetable life than an avoidance of meat, and in fact traditional fish-based seasonings like katsuobushi are used in many of the recipes. There's only one item on the menu - the Y2100 set meal - which changes day to day and month to month depending on what's best at the market.

Yaoya's lunch tray includes rice, soup, pickles and four more dishes, followed by your choice of dessert. On a recent visit the meal was built around a very tasty asparagus rice - a bit more pilaf-like than the usual Japanese rice, lightly seasoned with butter, mirin, and soy sauce and filled with chunks of firmly textured asparagus. The fried dish included tofu tempura wrapped in shiso and dotted with tiny bits of crunchy chopped vegetables, plus a tempura-fried shiitake mushroom. No dipping sauce for the tempura, just a dab of salt. The boiled dish showcased some very fresh sansai (mountain vegetables), artistically arranged in a pretty ceramic bowl.

Other dishes featured crisp cucumber slices with daikon oroshi, slightly salty boiled spinach, and great miso soup with thinly sliced daikon. The three types of pickles were excellent, as one would only expect from a Kyoto vegetable seller. The impressive finale included a round scoop of tomato sherbet paired with an equal-sized cold peeled tomato just brimming with old-fashioned tomato flavor. A reminder that there are still vegetables worth traveling across town for.

The decor is simple - a few hanging scrolls, a folding screen - with ten small tables spread across three small rooms. Advance reservations are highly recommended, and vegetarians can order a non-fish-seasoned version of the meal if they call ahead a day or two. Yaoya no Nikai also sells bento lunches to take out, and these too should be reserved in advance to avoid disappointment. [Show more] [Show less]

We're not sure whether to call it casual modern kaiseki or creative Kyoto cuisine, but the food here is exquisite in both flavor and presentation.

The nine-course menu follows a traditional kaiseki sequence of preparation styles, and as each dish arrives the waiter provides detailed explanations of the many seasonal ingredients incorporated therein, right down to the origins of the miso paste and seasonings.

The prix-fixe menu (the only choice at dinnertime) is an incredible bargain at just Y4000. [Restaurant data and map]

If you don't have time to travel the length and breadth of Japan, here at least is your chance to try some of the best ramen from around the country.

Seven well-chosen shops serve ramen in various regional styles, from Sapporo to Kumamoto. There are also little stands selling roast chestnuts, soft ice cream and takoyaki. [Restaurant data and map]

This legendary soba shop first opened for business in 1465.

A nice introduction to the menu is the Hourai soba with eight toppings, including shrimp tempura, mushrooms, leeks and sliced egg; it's served with Kyoto-style hors d'oeuvres as a set meal for Y2940. Regular noodle dishes start at Y735. [Restaurant data and map]

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. 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] [Show less]

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]