Indian nepali restaurant Jai kalika — Restaurant in Kyoto

16 April 2025 Lunch... My wife and I are from the USA, visiting Japan for business. We started in Tokyo and thought we'd take a long day trip to Kyoto. We walked all around the city and eventually stumbled upon this wonderful Indian restaurant. We were standing outside the restaurant reading the menu when the owner (I think he was the owner) approached us and suggested we go inside and see the full menu. We've eaten in many different Indian restaurants at home, but several items on this menu were new to us so we decided to stay for lunch. As you can see in the pictures, the food looked great! The colors were bright, the aroma was tempting and the flavors were bold and delicious. And... Can you believe the size of that piece of naan?! It was as wide as my hand and almost as long as my forearm! It was fresh and delicious! The staff was very friendly and accommodating and appreciated our business... And we appreciated the delicious, high quality food they served us. We may never be back to Kyoto, but we will always remember the excellent experience...

I’ve had Indian curry in Japan and the U.S. but this isn’t it. It’s pretty flavorless and expensive. The sets are also weird. The set consists of the curry of the day and chicken curry, salad, and a drink. And that’s like 1400-1800. No, you cannot choose from the other 30 curries they have. I had the mutton palak curry, as I usually do, and I think they just used a spinach drink or something. The price difference of my curry ala carte, and the set you see on the picture is 1150 and 1790. I don’t understand the very small size difference. Oh and the curry of the day was “shimeji and keema” curry. So the shimeji, was enoki instead, as you can see here. I can’t comment on the keema part of it because I don’t eat them, but you can check it out here. They also forgot the chai in the set, and then the naan was sweet. I don’t understand how the 4.8 got on here. Ohhh and the dinner is from 11:00-22:00 lol but they DO have a lunch menu, that is listed outside. I can’t anymore. Oh ok, at the end they gave me a 2000 yen bill, which is rare lol...

At first, I was hesitant about whether this Indian and Nepali restaurant would meet my high standards for authentic Indian cuisine. After conducting some research, I decided to give it a try and was absolutely blown away by the incredible flavors and top-notch customer service.

We decided to order the Chicken Tikka Masala, Mutton Briyani, and a unique Nepali rum called Kukuri, which was unlike any rum I had ever tasted before - it was truly exceptional.

I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Kyoto as it truly is the best Indian restaurant in the area. The restaurant is independently owned and operated by a very kind gentleman. My only regret is that I didn't discover this gem earlier in my trip to Kyoto.

I give this restaurant a perfect 10 out of 10 for their delicious food, excellent service, and...