京町家PAUSE（パウゼ） — Restaurant in Kyoto

My family and I stumbled upon this restaurant, only coming here because it was close to our hotel in Kyoto. We didn’t know what to expect, but ended up being totally blown away. Everything about this restaurant was great. The interior of the restaurant reminded me of one of those European scenes of a Ghibli studio movie — the setting was western, but felt subtly Japanese. The food here was fantastic. We ordered two omelettes, dashi tofu, curry spaghetti, Ochazuke (お茶漬け), hamburg (ハンバーグ), fried chicken, assorted tempura (天ぷら), and ume-shu with soda (梅酒). Everything we ordered reflected the atmosphere of the restaurant — European, but subtly Japanese. My personal favorite was the Hamburg— the juices oozed out of the patty as I sliced it open. It came with fries that were seasoned perfectly with just salt. You know how good the fries are when you are wowed by something so simple.

We ordered the mentaiko (明太子) omelette. It was cheesy on the inside with a distinct mentaiko savory taste. I ate it with some rice and loved it.

The service was great, too. The woman who took our order was patient with us, even though we couldn’t speak Japanese well. They had an English menu, which helped a lot when we were ordering. On second thought, we could’ve blindly ordered items by randomly pointing at the menu, and I’m sure things would still be great.

In the end, all of this food fed me and my family of 4, all for just 12200 yen, which is roughly 85 US dollars. For the quality of food we got, I felt like we got way more than what we paid for. Whether you are Japanese or foreign, I would strongly recommend anyone in the area to try out...

Go here if you want to pay a lot, eat a little, and feel unwelcome. We ducked in to take the family here. Was expensive for 2 adults and a baby so we went elsewhere for dinner. I thought it looked nice so I came back on my own. I was greeted, sat at the bar, the women behind the counter spoke about me "The American" in Japanese while I waited after my order. I ordered a Sashimi Set (2800 Yen) and a local a Sake (650 Yen). I arrived at 9:35 pm and paid my bill at 9:51 pm. The Sashimi was a small serving (8 very small slices 2 Maguro, 2 Snapper, 2 Octopus, 2 something else max 50g of sashimi) and poor quality. It was served with 4 pickles, a bowl of rice, miso soup. Sake was excellent, miso was delicious, rice was average, sashimi spoke for itself (poor). Service was quick, efficient they clearly don't like non-locals because they were quick when I asked for the bill. Restaurant was empty but it was a Sunday night. Maybe its due to opening of Kyoto, but was not a...

The food is extremely average to very oily and fat; the price is high for the small and not tasty portions; we asked for the grilled chicken to ve very well done, but it came undercooked and badly tasting..Pasta very greasyy.. so bad. And the service rushed and uncooperant. Another unpleasent surprise was the bill.. apparently, when we asked why it was higher that what we ordered, they said they included the service - 500 yens per person - the only place in Japan when we heard such thing. Do avoid...