Blue Fir Tree — Restaurant in Kyoto

Our meal at Blue Fir Tree was our very last one in Japan at the end of a two-week trip before heading back to California…so when we walked into the place and heard Eric Clapton on the speakers, we knew we were heading home.

It’s a small, bar-like space with counter seating and a few tables in the back. My wife and I took a table…we were the only ones in the restaurant and couldn’t tell if the 2 people working were happy to see us or not.

An English menu was available and brought to us without asking. There are limited items on it (mainly pancake and French Toast), but the coffee and drinks are good and everything we received was gorgeous to look at and not bad to eat either.

I had a black honey-roasted Japanese tea latte. This was a beverage that will stick with me forever. Besides how beautiful it was to look at, it had very present (and welcome) green tea flavor and was sweetened with the uniquely Japanese “black honey” which on its own is crave-worthy. (Black honey is misnamed with “honey” as it’s more of molasses-like sugar syrup.) This beverage was the absolute star of the meal.

The french toast is made with French bread and served in 5 little rounds, topped with whipped cream in a little cast iron pan. It looked great and wasn’t bad…though it didn’t top the French Toast we had a couple days earlier at another restaurant in Kyoto.

The pancake was also beautifully presented…super tall, and tasted good topped with granola.

This also wasn’t quite as unique or good as the pancakes we had at another Kyoto restaurant but it was still pretty good, and a little different from the American version of pancakes we’re most familiar with.

A lot of time went into the preparation and presentation of our food and drinks, so a thousand stars for presentation and the unique delight of the green tea latte. Although we’d recently had more delectable and unique tasting pancakes and french toast in other parts of Kyoto, these were no slouches. We’d, for sure, come back for hot and...

i would give this place 6 stars if i could, i don’t even know where to start. the atmosphere inside is so cozy and welcoming, i practically want to move in. the place is sort of dimly lit, and they have such nice music playing, beatles and the wallflowers make the ambiance that much nicer. and the ladies who work there are so friendly and kind. now to the most important part, the food. they have a pretty small menu but that’s not a problem, because everything on it has been amazing so far. the pancakes are perfection and all of the topping variations are wonderful. finally, the selection of drinks is great, from yummy hot tea to milk tea to coffee. they even have cute little miniature pitchers that hold just enough cream for a cup. the attention to detail overall makes this...

We went there 2 times during our 6 day stay on kyoto. The staff and the owner were super nice. We tried the "Maboroshi no Hotcake" in the Seasonal special version and the one with ice cream and condenesed milk. We also had the french toast with ice. I wouldnt be able to decide which one is better. My wife didnt allow to me order a second round of both servings as we had to leave for the station. Next time ill tr to have more time to enjoy the calming Atmosphere, the excellent service and the insanely tasty food. ( Also the staff working there were really cute and able to speak english ).

Next time i visit kyoto this will be my no.1 Breakfast stop!

( Also check out the pictures, they seem to have seasonal specials rotating throughout the year which are really cute and...