Izakaya Dining SO-SO — Restaurant in Kyoto

One fine rainy Kyoto night I found myself walking a mile to an Indian restaurant which lo and behold was happily closed (the number of times google has lied to me about restaurant hours in Japan makes for a separate rant). So I map around and find this place and sneak in. I'm met with some sweet smiles and a clearly adept chef behind the bar, who takes one look at my nonplussed rain-soaked face and knows I don't speak a lick of japanese. He's patient with me and makes some chat, and I manage to translate the menu to find out they have a vegetarian mapo tofu dish. I requested him for that and he got to work on the wok behind him. The tofu came out splendid, hot and full of spice! It went wonderfully well with the rice. Mr. chef also made me a nice umeshu drink to soothe the schezuan spice and then we talked about life and what not.

He also gave me some squid appetizer (assuming that was the otoshi) which I'm not a fan of at all but ate to be polite. Extra protein, oh well. They were also cash-only but then I found a lot of places in Kyoto are. I appreciate them feeding me some excellent fare at...

A true hidden gem. Hidden away in a location that is easy to walk past. This humble establishment has quite the proprietor at the helm. Walk into a cozy, hip decor that is right at home in Williamsburg Brooklyn or Telegraph Oakland. Of note, it is this way without even trying. Plenty of top shelf spirits and two draft beers at the ready. A good sized menu for a one person operation. English menu available. Taste the food and you can tell the owner hand selects the top shelf, fresh ingredients. The sauces and dressings are carefully crafted as if he was making them for himself. I take pride in trying places off the beated path. 1 in 100 meet this eschelon of quality. Bravo! A very well earned 5 stars in a HIGHLY...

Tried to walk into the bar, saw multiple people drinking and laughing we walked in and said hello suddenly the bar went silent and the owner walked up and said sorry we are closed and even though there where about 5 ppl eating and drinking. We left and found another place to eat that accepted us and walked past over a hour later to find this bar still open with almost 10 ppl now inside drinking. Very disappointing to see this type of sever racism still exist in 2024. Kyoto was one of my dream destination spots to visit since I was a child and finally coming here to be received like that puts a real sour taste in my mouth. Happy the other place we went was so kind and...