Ichizen — Restaurant in Kyoto

We had a nice dinner at Ichizen (Food & Wine) last night. We'd had a hard time finding an izakaya with seats available for dinner Thursday night, so we walked around the neighborhood near our hotel (close to Kyoto Central Station) and came across Ichizen. We were able to get seats at the counter and ordered an assortment of small plates, including cucumber with miso, sashimi (kanpachi, maguro, and tai), a wonderful small bite of tempura nori topped with a generous portion of ikura (salmon roe), a tempura salmon with "uni sauce", tempura shishito peppers, tempura conger eel (a fish that is in season now), tempura scallops, and a bowl of rice with seared salmon and ikura. The staff was friendly and accommodating, and the restaurant has a nice atmosphere - we got there on the early side and it was filling up with locals as we left. Definitely...

Great experience. The prices are relatively higher than what we have seen so far in Kyoto but super reasonable and still very cheap compared to most major cities (especially considering the quality).

The food was excellent (both the chef special and the fried chicken). The main menu was translated into English but that didn't cover the specific chef specials (Google translating the Japanese menu didn't exactly describe what the dishes were either), but everything was Delicious so that didn't matter much for us, but definitely mention ahead of time if you have allergies or food preferences.

The service was also great, we speak no Japanese and they spoke limited English but we didn't have any issues with communication. They were also very accommodating for our 3-year-old, including...

Very pleasant dinner, good quality and good atmosphere. Language is for me here a limit, but both sides willingness makes everything easier. Good product, very good selection, too young service (in terms of experience) and a master cooking. As a seafood lover, the wagyu served was unbelievably good. If I were asked to repeat, yes, I would, but I'd rather test first the remaining interesting izakaya...