
2025] 15 Recommended Lunches in the Shijo-Karasuma Area
One of the best places to visit in Kyoto is the so-called "Kyoto obanzai" restaurants, where you can enjoy the taste of home and traditional cuisine. Each restaurant has its own specialties and innovations, such as using seasonal vegetables and carefully prepared soup stock.
In this issue, we feature 12 obanzai restaurants in Kyoto recommended by our local editors! You are sure to find the perfect restaurant for you.
Shunsai Imari (Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture), located in the Karasuma-Oike area, offers Japanese set meals only in the morning. The menu features a variety of Japanese dishes paired with freshly cooked rice in an earthenware pot. The set meal includes Kyoto-style side dishes such as saikyo-yaki fish, dashimaki rolls, and daily obanzai made with seasonal ingredients, as well as plenty of vegetables such as Japanese salad and nukazuke pickles.
In the evening, you can enjoy the luxury of local sake and shochu with obanzai lined up at the counter.
A Kyoto-style breakfast for 2,200 yen, a perfect start to the day. Breakfast is by reservation only.
Teramachi Fukuda (Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture) stands quietly on the second floor of a building. Once passing through the curtain, you will find yourself in a relaxed atmosphere where you can casually enjoy authentic Japanese cuisine prepared by the owner, who has been studying in the world of Japanese cuisine since he was 18 years old, as if you were at an izakaya. You can spend a relaxing time alone at the counter, or gather around the table with your loved ones. In the evening, you can enjoy pairing dishes with sake. You can also take home mackerel sushi, sake snacks, and desserts for a small souvenir.
Mackerel sushi and seasonal somen (boiled noodles) for 1,500 yen. Reasonably priced lunch with broth *Photographs are for reference only.
Located north of Shijo-Magayacho, Kyo-Na Ajino Murasaki Nishiki Branch (Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture) offers vegetable-based Kyoto-style obanzai in a relaxing atmosphere that combines Japanese and Western styles. In addition to the signature yuba, the restaurant also offers a daily changing selection of obanzai, including the Asa Masa Gozen and the soft cheese yuba bowl. You can also order yuba-don toppings to enjoy at home.
The Asa-Masa Gozen set (1,500 yen) is a luxurious set of 12 colorful obanzai dishes. It is a great way to enjoy a variety of dishes little by little!
[At Ushinohone Anaza (Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto), the second branch of the Ushinohone group, which has been well-loved since its establishment in Karasuma Oike in 1993, diners can enjoy obanzai dishes centered on Kyoto vegetables and charcoal-grilled dishes cooked over bincho charcoal. The interior of the restaurant, which is a reconstruction of a historic machiya (townhouse) built in the Taisho era (1912-1926) and over 100 years old, is full of Japanese style with impressive thick beams. On the first floor, with its high ceiling and open space, there are kotatsu (table placed over a sunken table) and counter seats, and on the second floor, there is a space like an attic where you can relax in a tatami room.
Three kinds of obanzai (side dishes) for 1,550 yen. Enjoy with local sake.
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