Akoya-chaya — Restaurant in Kyoto

If you like Japanese pickles, this place is for you! I could literally eat rice, Japanese pickles, and miso soup every day, and be completely happy. I love Japanese pickles that much! So when my friend sent this to me and asked me if I wanted to go, it was a big YES. I loved it so much that I went twice in less than a month. Once you are seated, someone will bring a tray to for each person at your table. On the tray you will find a rice bowl, a plate, a little bowl with something that will be miso soup once you add hot water, and some tea leaves to make tea with. You can take the rice bowl and fill it with the rice of your choice. There is white rice, a kind of multi grain rice, and a rice porridge to choose from. The plate is what you will use to get your pickles. They will not bring you another plate so please use the same plate to go up and grab pickles as many times as you want. There will be a pot of hot water on your table or they will bring you one. This is for your miso soup and for your tea. Water is also available and is self serve. They even have a monaka dessert. Grab the monaka wafers and choose the sweet bean you want to put on the wafer. If you like mushrooms, be sure to try the pickled mushrooms. They were one of my favorites! I also really loved the cucumbers, the lotus root, and the sweet potato. I felt that the price was very reasonable for what I got. It was a little over $14 at the current exchange rate. They open at 1100 so if you don’t want to wait for a while, I recommend getting there 10-15min before they open. Otherwise, go a little later. The first time I went I got there at a little after 2pm and got right in. The second time I went I arrived at a little before 1130 and I waited for about 45min. Be careful not to go too late though. They stop allowing people in one hour...

Great option for vegans and vegetarians. Affordable, authentic Japanese food. I had no idea this was a pickle restaurant and that’s on me for not doing my research. I’m not a big fan of pickled foods but I left the restaurant content.

Once seated, I was handed a tray with an empty rice bowl, plate, miso bowl and tea set.

As others have mentioned, there is plain white rice, m rice with red bean and rice porridge. An assortment of pickled vegetables including mushrooms, potatoes, greens/salads etc.

Hot water is provided on every table for the miso and tea.

As its buffet style, even though the pickled veggies weren’t much to my liking, I was able to eat well with the miso, rice and Monaka for dessert which is red bean paste (and another sweet paste which I couldn’t identify) and wafers.

All in all happy with the meal although the pickled options got old after a while, that’s because I’m not used to the taste. The tea and miso were really good.

Quiet and comfortable atmosphere. There were a lot of Japanese people eating there when I went. For the price of ¥1800 a head, I’m surprised this restaurant is not busy considering the foot traffic just a couple of metres away.

Note: there seemed to be one fish dish in the buffet. I’m not sure what it was but a rule of thumb is don’t eat if it doesn’t look like a...

This is a pickle buffet with lots of different veggies and rice options. They also give you unlimited miso soup and a red bean paste/seasonal dessert. The miso soup is kinda fun to watch lol. I am a meat lover but this place provided so many different tastes, textures, and things to experiment with that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The seats are spacious and the staff are welcoming. Very relaxing experience in the middle of a super touristy area.

This would NOT be a good option for vegans despite what you read in other reviews(unless you are a pescatarian) Many of the pickles contain shellfish or fish products. Unless you can correctly identify which ones are actually vegan without eating it yourself, this really isn’t the...