Isomatsu — Restaurant in Kyoto

I honestly cannot recommend this lovely restaurant enough. Food was excellent, very tasty and they were very accommodating to vegetarians. The staff were also impeccable. The level of English was good and they were very happy to help with our complicated requests.

We had been failing to find a good vegetarian restaurant for the week we’d been in Japan so far, and although this restaurant is not fully vegetarian (there’s mostly non-veggie options on the menu, though there were some very tasty veggie things too!) the staff were kind enough to create a custom meal for us.

The seasoned rice on the menu usually has fish in it, so we asked if it was possible to have it without. They said they can’t make the same recipe without the fish but the chef offered to make a special seasoned rice dish for us with no fish or meat, just rice, veggies and spices. It was delicious!

Overall, we had probably the best meal here from our whole trip and if we find ourselves in Kyoto again we will...

We came across Isomatsu on a whim and managed to get counter seats for dinner on a Tuesday night.

Isomatsu did not disappoint, we had such an amazing time here. The staff were super friendly and welcoming, greeted us with huge smiles, and were super helpful with the menu in giving us their personal recommendations.

We got the duck, beef & arugula salad, and the crab clay pot rice. Every dish was incredible and the ingredients were so fresh, as they are grown in an ideal environment. The manager was so nice and made sure we had a great time, even with the language barrier he delivered the best hospitality we’ve ever seen.

Highly recommend this place for guaranteed great...

We had a great dinner here while visiting Kyoto. The food was great, mostly a vegetable hot pot style meal. When we showed up we were informed it would be a pre-set menu. We didn’t remember booking that way but were fine with it.

We sat at the bar and had a great conversation in English with the waiter, even though his English wasn’t great, we made do.

The only negative for us was the drink selection. The drink menu was only in Japanese, which was fine, but they only listed items as “French chardonnay” etc. so if you are into wine or sake and can’t speak Japanese like us, you will struggle to find something of quality.

That said, the food and service...