Kyogoku Kaneyo — Restaurant in Kyoto

This place came highly recommended by a friend from Kyoto. It was also awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand. Naturally we went with anticipation. We were greeted by a short queue 20 min before the restaurant opened for lunch. The exterior is a beautiful 2 storey building, and one can view the grilling through a long glass window. We were ushered into the ground floor and into one of the shared tables. The interior exudes a retro vibe, quite charming. Service is prompt but pleasant. The food is a different story, creating more questions than satisfied customers by the time we finished our meals. We ordered a kinshidon (きんし丼), unagi set (ちょっといっぷく赤出汁セット), and Yawata Maki (八幡巻). Two major grumbles-1. The volume of rice and egg overwhelms the miserly small pieces unagi, similar in both the set and the kinshidon; 2. The sauce is light and runny, unlike the typical the sweet, slightly viscous type. Not sure which is the main dish, the egg or the eel? Where's the trifecta of Kyoto-style tamagoyaki, Kanto-style kabayaki eel, and rice with sauce of the Kinshi-don as advertised? The Yawata maki was ok, with it's charred unagi and burdock root flavours coming together, but overpriced IMO. Perhaps the fluffy egg, light sauce differentiated the establishment from other unagi eateries. But it leaves us with yet another question: what really made this...

I first stayed in Kyoto directly opposite Kyogoku Kane-yo some 9 years ago wondering what this ancient blackened looking shopfront across the road was selling - I was mesmerized and was determined to get in. Unfortunately they didn't open that time, but many years later I'm back looking for an unagi fix and here I am. Other places around Kyoto will give you the royal treatment with una-don in a lacquered box - it is expensive, a luxury, and you'll wonder if the price point is right. Kaneyo is a una-don specialist with 100+ years of history, and except for taking credit cards they haven't changed the way they do business very much, ending up comparatively more affordable than the fancy ones closer to Gion. Delicious dishes too: umaki - baby eel in a blanket of omelette, grilled eel wrapped around burdock root, unagi kimoyaki - eel liver skewer (super delicious! Possibly better than the actual eel), unakinshi - an eel topped with bowl retopped with a blanket of omelette. They feel like a cosy family rather than professional staff, I...

Had lunch here and it was one of the coolest experiences we had during our 3 days in Kyoto. Totally authentic, local place that specializes in Unagi (eel). As you enter you’ll see them grilling the eel over coal-fire and the menu is pretty much various versions. We opted for Unagi-don special which was basically grilled eel over rice with a hot, fresh made omelette over it. Also tried side dish of ‘eel liver’ on a skewer which was interesting and worth a try as well as a eel-wrapped (like a maki roll w/out rice) around a Japanese vegetable they called ‘burdock’? that was similar to a tough-asparagus – also nice. Mostly Japanese speaking but managed in English and had English menu which was great. If you like Eel or want to try it DEFINITELY...