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Organic Café Aurora
This fine little café in a traditional Japanese house is a good spot for a cuppa before or after visiting the temple. You can choose from 25 varieties of tea. Simple meals are also served. The small garden is nice to gaze out on as you sip your tea. It's a few minutes' walk up the road from the station, on the right. There is an English sign.
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Ōzawa
Located on one of the most beautiful streets in Gion - Shirakawa-minami-dōri (also known as Shimbashi) - this charming little restaurant offers excellent tempura in refined Japanese surroundings. Unless you choose a private tatami room, you'll sit at the counter and watch as the chef prepares each piece of tempura individually right before your eyes.
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Park Café
This cool little café always reminds us of a Melbourne coffee shop. It's on the edge of the Downtown Kyoto shopping district and is a convenient place to take a break. The comfy seats invite a nice long linger over a cuppa and the owner has an interesting music collection.
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Ponto-Chō Uan
Ponto-chō Uan (formerly Uzuki) is an elegant kaiseki restaurant with a great platform for riverside dining in the summer. We recommend that you have a Japanese speaker call to reserve and choose your meal. Look for the rabbit on the sign.
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Prinz
Behind the blank white façade of Prinz, you'll find a café/restaurant, gallery, bookshop, garden and library - a chic island of coolness in an otherwise bland residential neighbourhood. You can sit at the counter and request music from the CDs that line the walls. The lunch set usually includes a light assortment of Western and Japanese dishes, generally on the healthy side of things. Coffee starts at around ¥300 .
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Ryūmon
This place may look like a total dive but the food is reliable and authentic, as the crowds of Kyoto's Chinese residents will attest. There's no English menu but there is a picture menu and some of the waitresses can speak English. Décor is strictly Chinese kitsch, with the exception of the deer head over the cash register - still trying to figure that one out. Look for the food pictures out the front.
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Santōka
The young chefs at this sleek restaurant dish out some seriously good Hokkaidō-style rāmen . You will be given a choice of three kinds of soup when you order: shio (salt), shōyu or miso - we highly recommend you go for the miso soup. For something totally decadent, try the tokusen toroniku rāmen, which is made from pork cheeks, of which only 200g can be obtained from one animal. The pork will come on a separate plate from the rāmen - just shovel it all into your bowl.
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Saraca Nishijin
This is one of Kyoto's most interesting cafés - it's built inside an old sentō (public bathhouse) and the original tiles have been preserved. Light meals and coffee (around ¥400 ) are the staples here. The honjitsu Nishijin (daily Nishijin lunch; around ¥890 ) plate is decent value. Service can be slow and scattered but the interesting ambience makes it worth a look. It's near Funaoka Onsen and is easy to spot.
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Senmonten
This place serves one thing only: crisp fried gyōza, which come in lots of ten and are washed down with beer or Chinese raoshu (rice wine). If you can break the record for the most gyōza eaten in one sitting, your meal will be free and you'll receive - guess what? - more gyōza to take home. The last time we were here, the men's record was around 150 gyōza . Look for the red-and-white sign and the glass door.
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Seryō-Jaya
Just by the entry gate to Sanzen-in, Seryō-jaya serves wholesome sansai ryōri (mountain-vegetable cooking), fresh river fish and soba noodles topped with grated yam. There is outdoor seating in warmer months. To find this place, look for the food models.
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Shigetsu
To sample shōjin ryōri (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine), try Shigetsu in the precinct of Tenryū-ji. This incredibly healthy fare has been sustaining monks for more than a thousand years in Japan, so it will probably get you through an afternoon of sightseeing, although carnivores may be left craving something. Shigetsu has beautiful garden views.
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Shin-Shin-Tei
This place is famous for its shiro (white) miso rāmen, which has a distinctive thick soup and good chewy noodles. The restaurant scores minimal points for ambience, which is typical for rāmen joints. The claim to fame here is that Keanu Reeves once ate here. Look for the yellow-and-black sign.
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Shinshindō Notre Pain Quotidien
This atmospheric old Kyoto coffee shop is a favourite of Kyoto University students for its curry and bread lunch set (around ¥780 ), which is kind of an acquired taste. It's located near the university. Look for the glazed tile bricks and the big window out the front. There's a small English sign and English menus are available.
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Shirukō
For a light meal, Shirukō has been serving simple Kyoto obanzai-ryōri since 1932. The restaurant features more than 10 varieties of miso soup, and the rikyū bentō (mixed lunch box; around ¥2600 ) is a bona fide work of art. Shirukō is down a somewhat seedy pedestrian alley near Shijō-Kawaramachi crossing; look for the bamboo out the front.
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Shizenha Restaurant Obanzai
A little out of the way, but nevertheless good value, this place serves a decent buffet-style lunch and dinner of mostly organic Japanese vegetarian food. It's northwest of the Karasuma-Oike crossing, set back a bit from the street.
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Shuhari
Shuhari is a great example of Kyoto's newest dining trend - fine restaurants in renovated machiya . In this case, the food is casual French, with an emphasis on light fish dishes and healthy salads. Look for the red stove pipe with the name of the restaurant written on it out front.
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Somushi Kochaya
This is the only Korean teahouse we've ever seen in Japan. It's a good place to go when you need a change from the creeping monoculture of coffee chain stores. It's a dark, woodsy and atmospheric spot with a variety of herbal teas (the menu details what they're good for). The teahouse also serves a few light meals, including some unusual Korean favourites (just don't expect Korean barbecue).
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Sunny Place
Sunny Place is a fine little organic vegetarian eatery not far from the Hyakumamben intersection (within walking distance of Ginkaku-ji). It has a long wooden counter at which everyone tends to chat with both their neighbour and the friendly owner. The standard set includes a nonmeat protein dish (such as tempeh), three vegetable sides, rice and miso soup. Sunny Place is a bit tricky to find. Starting from the Hyakumamben crossing, walk west on Imadegawa-dōri to the first set of traffic lights; turn right and walk about 200m (you'll cross one fairly large street). It will be on the right; there's usually an English sign out front.
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Taco Tora
Try this spot for Kyoto's best tako yaki (fried, battered octopus balls - no, not those balls). The place doesn't have much in the way of ambience, but, then, what tako yaki place does? Be careful: the balls are served piping hot and you can easily burn your mouth if you're not patient. It's near Kitano Tenman-gū .
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Tagoto Honten
This casual restaurant in the Sanjō Covered Arcade serves a variety of soba and udon dishes. It can get crowded at lunchtime and the service can be rather brusque, but the noodles are very good and the English/picture menu helps with ordering. The tempura teishoku makes a great lunch.
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Tochigiku
Try this lovely riverside restaurant for chicken and beef sukiyaki, wild boar stew and kaiseki sets. There is a small English sign. Last orders are at .
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Tomizushi
For good sushi in lively surroundings, try Tomizushi, where you can rub elbows with your neighbours at a long marble counter and watch as some of the fastest sushi chefs in the land do their thing. Go early or be prepared to wait in a queue. It's near the Shijō-Kawaramachi crossing; look for the lantern and the black-and-white signs.
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Torito
This is part of the new wave of yakitori restaurants in Kyoto that are updating the old standards in interesting and tasty ways. It's a crowded spot, with a counter and a few small tables. The food is very good and will likely appeal to non-Japanese palates. Dishes include kamo rōsu (duck roast; around ¥1050 ), negima (long onions and chicken; around ¥294 for two sticks) and tsukune (chicken meatballs; around ¥482 ).
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Tōsuirō
We really like this tofu specialist. It's got a great traditional Japanese décor and in summer you can sit on the yuka (dining platform) outside with a view of the Kamo-gawa. You will most probably be amazed by the incredible variety of dishes that can be created with tofu. At lunch, the machiya-zen (tofu set; around ¥2100 ) is highly recommended. At dinner, we suggest the Higashiyama tofu set (around ¥3675 ). Tōsuirō is at the end of an alley on the north side.
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Toyouke-Jaya
Locals line up for the tofu lunch sets at this famous restaurant across from Kitano Tenman-gū. Set meals start at around ¥650 and usually include tofu, rice and miso soup. Problem is, it gets very crowded, especially when a market is on at the shrine. If you can get here when there's no queue, pop in for a healthy meal.
