What to Eat in Kyoto: Matcha, Kaiseki, Noodles, and Market Bites

WHAT TO EAT IN KYOTO

Kyoto has a strong claim on the title of Japan’s most delicious city. Food is everywhere here: sweet shops, noodle counters, market stalls, and tiny rooms with six seats and a line outside.

The city is best known for green tea, which means anything with matcha attached to it is usually worth your time. That is the simple rule the original Kyoto food guide opens with, and it is a good rule to borrow for your own trip.

If you are a fan of matcha, you are in the right place. You can drink it hot, iced, whipped into a parfait, folded into a donut, or swirled into soft serve. Plan your days so a matcha stop lands in the afternoon, right when your feet start complaining. Here is where to start.

Floresta Donuts sits inside Nishiki Market, a long covered lane in central Kyoto that offers plenty of options for both food and shopping.

The donuts here are almost too cute to eat, and there are many designs to choose from, including a green tea frog donut. The writer behind the original guide skipped the frog and went for the cute kitty design instead.

If you fall for these donuts, you do not have to say goodbye at the city limits, because Floresta Donuts also has locations in Osaka and several shops in Tokyo.

Tsujiri, also known as Saryo Tsujiri, is the most famous matcha tea shop and parfait cafe in Kyoto. The original writer believes it is a chain, and there is a Tokyo Station branch as well.

The hours are handy for planning: the Gion location runs 10am to 10pm, and the Kyoto Station location runs 10am to 8pm. A small warning from that same writer: she was pretty disappointed that she never managed to make it here.

So treat this as your chance to go, order the parfait, and report back on how it actually tastes.

Itohkyuemon is famous for its green tea and lovely snacks. It sits across the street from Kyoto Station, which makes it an easy first stop if you have just arrived by train and are not ready to navigate a new city yet.

The main store is located in Uji, roughly 20 minutes from Kyoto, and Uji is the place to drink tea if you want to see where the region’s tea reputation was built.

Mister Donut is the stop people underestimate. The writer of the original guide said she was addicted to it, and the description explains why.

The ring donut is a hybrid of donut and mochi, so it has that soft, chewy pull instead of a dry cake crumb. There is a location inside Kyoto Station, and it became a nearly every morning habit.

Because it is a chain, you can find it all over Japan, especially in Tokyo, so the streak does not have to end when you leave Kyoto.

Street food deserves its own slot in your day. Kyoto has so many great options that the only real advice is to try everything you can, because it is all delicious. Do not forget the matcha ice cream, which you can find everywhere.

Two classics you will spot constantly are taiyaki, a cake shaped like a fish and usually filled with sweet red bean paste, and dango, chewy rice dumplings served on a skewer.

Both are easy to eat with one hand while you keep walking, which matters when you are squeezing a lot of sightseeing into one day.

Helpful habit: order one thing at each stop instead of one big meal. Grazing your way through the market and the side streets is how you taste more of Kyoto in a single afternoon.

If matcha is your main mission, here is a simple way to spread it across your trip:

• A parfait at Tsujiri, if you finally manage to get there
• A green tea donut at Floresta Donuts in Nishiki Market
• Green tea and snacks at Itohkyuemon, right across from Kyoto Station
• Matcha ice cream from any street stall that catches your eye

If you want a second opinion on the same city, this roundup of Top Kyoto restaurants and what to eat covers a lot of the same ground with its own favorites.

Kyoto is known to have the best Kaiseki, Udon, Soba, and Ramen

Once the sweets and the tea are handled, it is time for the savory side of Kyoto. The city is known to have the best kaiseki, udon, soba, and ramen, and each one deserves a spot on your list. Here is how they break down.

Soba. Sobanomi Yoshimura earns its recommendation for great service, and the detail that makes it memorable is the setup.

The noodles are made in front of the group while you sit at the bar, so you get dinner and a show at the same time.

If you want to understand what you are eating before you sit down, or try your own version once you are home, this guide to Japanese Soba Noodles pairs well with the trip.

Udon. The pictured bowl in the original guide came from a traditional udon shop the writer found after visiting Monkey Park. There is one catch: she does not have the name of the place.

What she does have are directions. Walk over the bridge from Monkey Park and the shop is on the left corner. If wandering without an address is not your style, another good option for udon in the city is Yamamotomenzo.

Kaiseki. This is the one to plan ahead for. Kaiseki is a traditional Japanese multi course dinner, and the closest comparison is a tasting menu at a fine dining restaurant.

That means it can be pricey, and it also means the meal unfolds at its own pace, one small course after another.

Ryokans, the Japanese style hotels, are known for serving great kaiseki meals, so if you are staying in one, you may already have the best seat in the house.

The writer’s own kaiseki experience was at Hakone Ginyu in Hakone, which is worth knowing if your trip stretches beyond Kyoto.

Ramen. Kyoto holds its own here too, at both ends of the price range, and the names to know are in the next section.

A simple way to plan it: soba or udon for a quick lunch, street food and matcha in the afternoon, then kaiseki or ramen for dinner depending on how much you want to spend that night. If a formal kaiseki dinner is beyond your budget this trip, remember that a fancy restaurant can still be reachable at lunch.

Other Restaurants:

If you still have room in your schedule, these four names round out the list. For a wider look at the city’s dining scene, this Kyoto cuisine guide from local experts is a useful companion.

• Ippudo Nishikikoji. A famous ramen chain, and a must if you have not had it yet. Chains get a mixed reputation, but this is one people keep coming back to.
• Gogyo. Cheap, delicious ramen. This is the stop for a fast, satisfying bowl when you want to save your budget for something else.
• Izuu. A well known sushi restaurant that is popular with both locals and tourists, which is usually a good sign in a city with this many options.
• Nakamura. A restaurant with three Michelin stars. The smart move is to go for lunch, which is the cheaper way to experience it.

Notice the pattern: Kyoto lets you eat very cheaply or very grandly, sometimes on the same day. You can have a mochi donut for breakfast, a bowl of udon for lunch, and a multi course kaiseki dinner that you planned weeks in advance.

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