Kyo-Tofu Fujino — Restaurant in Kyoto

Kyoto takes tofu seriously. Kyotofu Fujino is one of those restaurants that embodies that. They have this convenient branch in the upper levels of Kyoto station Isetan (great if you are waiting for the shinkansen). They have good views over the city if you can score a window table and are all about serving soy/tofu cooked in many different forms. Fresh curds (oboro), boiled skin sashimi (nama yuba), vinegared yuba, marinated, deep fried then braised, with wheat gluten and each of yomogi/mugwort and sesame (namafu dengaku), in a croquette, deep fried in a rice bowl, soy milk, as beans, and as dessert in baumkuchen even. Pick your set menu and try it. Their dedication to making such a subtle flavoured specialty into such a wide array of dishes is amazing. It's something you should try if you, like myself, grew up on Iron Chef and imagine Chairman Kaga unveiling the theme ingredient for tonight's battle to be tofu. Or, if you can appreciate tofu. Funnily enough, Not something you should try if you're vegetarian or vegan, since there is dashi all over this meal which they give you fair...

July 2024

My friend who visited Kyoto often recommended that consuming Tofu needs to be part of the trip. I guessed due to the religious nature of this city, this vegetarian cuisine rooted deeply here.

The visit was a delightful surprise. I didn’t expect there are so many ways of eating and preparing tofu. Additionally, I was surprised by the different texture of tofu. All of us were not disappointed by this experience. This location is not cheap, but why not trying the premium preparation.

For the full experience, I recommended the set meal. You will get to try the different versions of tofu. Furthermore, I’m unable to understand the menu.

Here’s my rating. 5 is very satisfactory. Bear in mind, I’m a little bias since tofu is not my favorite food. 😀

Taste 4 Temperature 4 (I’m not sure should this be serve hot or room temperature) Attentiveness 4 Speed of service 5 (very proficient) Cleanliness 5

Will I recommend? Yes. Will I revisit?…. I’m not sure.

Overall, we enjoyed this...

I went on 5 Dec 2017 at 3pm plus. The service staff asks if we are ok with non window seats, we are fine. No prob with that. We were given an Eng menu with 3 choices. Ordered 2 lunch sets with my mom. The starting soya milk was very nice! We had wanted to ordered another cup each but did not due to our lack of Jap language as I believe the soya milk is part of the set. I thought better not make things complicated for the staff. Both lunch sets was excellent. The yuba sashimi was very smooth and cooling to eat. My set had a crispy potato croquette which I think had beancurd mixed in. The ending 丹波黑豆 coffee was very smooth and aromatic and not bitter. It was superb with sweet cakes. Maybe the lack of a 5th star rating is the limited 3 choices of lunch sets and the slight uneasiness of the staff with me, a tourist speaking Eng and I can feel it which makes me uneasy as well, hahaha. Overall, a very nice lunch...