Tanto — Restaurant in Kyoto

Favourite food so far!

Two weeks into our trip across Japan and this is my favourite place so far!! The Isakaya is a small family run shop (about 12 seats) and it’s clear the food was cooked with love! Everything we ate was delicious and felt like a home cooked meal / comfort food. The dishes of the day were laid out across the cook side of the counter making it easy to pick and choose what you wanted to try. We really loved the “local” atmosphere and authenticity.

Note for travellers, there is no English menu but nothing that Google translate and a couple of basic words in Japanese won’t solve. The chef (mom) invited us to try some squid which was amazing! It was like dried shredded squid but marinated to give it a sweet and tangy flavour. The portions were very decent sized with lots of variety. My kids loved trying the different dishes and the price was very fair. I wish I could have eaten...

One of the best meals we had across our Japan trip. The couple who run the restaurant are lovely and took a real shine to our 4yr old daughter, and showered her with attention. The food was fantastic, a bit hard to order since it is 100% in Japanese and handwritten so Translate struggled. You just pick from the premade food in front of you. Everything we ate was great, so it barely mattered. I definitely recommend. It was a little bit expensive compared to what I was expecting to pay,...

We came to the restaurant not knowing what to expect. Inside you seat yourself at a curved bar, and tasty food is presented along the bar top. The feeling is more like being invited into someone’s home than a restaurant. The friendly couple spoke little English but we managed to order just fine with hand gestures. The food was incredible! Truly the highlight of our trip, all felt really authentic and a lot of love goes into the food you can tell....