Food and drink - Kyoto - Travel | Monocle

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Kiln, Central 

Set on the banks of the Takase River, this bistro specialises in charcoal grilling: think Wagyu beef, burgers, chicken brochette and charred yellowtail with yuzu, coriander and ginger. There are two large sharing tables, giving Kiln a communal, informal ambience. The dining room’s river-facing windows let in plenty of sunlight during the day and the space becomes cosy at night, when Artek pendant lamps light the brick-and-wood interior.

2F Murakamiju Building, 194 Sendo-cho, Shimogyo-ku  
+81 (0)75 353 3555 
kilnrestaurant.jp
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Teuchisoba Kanei, North 

Soba aficionados rate Toshio and Mayumi Kanei’s small restaurant, near Daitoku-ji Temple, as one of Kyoto’s best. The noodles use only Japanese-grown buckwheat flour and no binding ingredients (such as Chinese yam); they’re also cut thinner than at most other shops. Customers sit at low tables on tatami-mat floors that extend to a small garden at the back of this renovated wooden machiya (townhouse). Meals begin with a small plate of freshly fried homemade soba chips; try the soba-zenzai (dumplings with sweet red-bean soup and seaweed) to finish.

11-1 Higashifujinomori-cho, Kita-ku 
+81 (0)75 441 8283
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Murakami Kaishindo, Central 

Opened in 1907, this is Kyoto’s oldest western-style cake shop. Founder Seitaro Murakami made sweets for Emperor Hirohito’s 1928 enthronement ceremony; today his great-grandson Shoichi heads the family business. From the ovens come Russian cakes – soft cookies topped with jam, chocolate or apricot – florentines and kozubukuro (orange jelly). Behind the shop a machiya has been converted into a café fitted out with Scandinavian furniture.

62 Tokiwagi-cho, Nakagyo-ku 
+81 (0)75 231 1058 
murakami-kaishindo.jp
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Rokuyosha, Central 

Rokuyosha was founded by Minoru Otono and his wife in 1950 and today it’s run by their sons, Takashi and Osamu, themselves in their sixties. The ground-floor room opens at 08.30 to serve buttered toast, boiled eggs and dark-roasted coffee, with Osamu’s son Kunpei watching on. From noon you can take the stairs down to the wood-panelled basement – Osamu’s domain – which becomes a bar at 18.00. Osamu’s wife, Mihoko, makes the cakes and doughnuts that are served on both floors.

40 Daikoku-cho, Nakagyo-ku
+81 (0)75 241 3026

Images: Tsutom Watanabe, Masakazu Kuroiwa, Shimpei Hanawa

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