Warajiya — Restaurant in Kyoto

The dinner course consists of 4 parts starting with a motley collection of seasonals which varied greatly in flavors to unagi nabe, eel congee and fruit for desert. I think the starters were really unique. The main courses are both served in hot clay pots. The nabe and congee are quite similar in that both are quite minimalist in their flavors, really subtle. The unagi is charred In both and that aroma carries over. Otherwise not much sweetness or saltiness. You will have to like the natural taste of the components or you might be disappointed. The congee was cool since it's served so hot, it continues to thicken over time. Good textural balance. The fruit was a nice touch at the end. Honestly a bit pricey but the dining room was an amazingly traditional setting and the whole place looks gorgeous. Between that atmosphere and the waitresses dressed very traditional it feels somewhat formal, and English was limited. Plus, after a certain time they cease serving the typical grilled unagi over rice hence why I opted for the dinner course. My advice if you aren't the biggest fan of the more subtle dishes or want to save money is to...

Amazing appetizer and eel soup. Started with high quality matcha followed by matcha starter, pickled carrot, pickled seaweed and simmered small fish. All of them were seasoned delicately and perfectly. The next dish was eel soup with very good tofu skin. It came with special green seasoning spice. The spice was very unique and really added layers of flavor to the soup. By far everything was perfect. But the next main course Eel Porridge was a little disappointing. Taste was similar to the soup, lacking diversity of flavor. Eel was not seasoned. I guess the essence of Japanese cuisine was to bring up the true flavor of the food itself. But the soup and porridge had too similar flavor dynamics, so I don’t think I will come back and pay 6k+ yen for the set meal. I hope there would be a la carte for the eel soup, for which I will definitely come back. Waitress barely...

Very nice historic restaurant. It is named after the straw shoes of warlord Hideyoshi. The restaurant itself is very beautiful, and old. Nice ambience. Quiet and traditional tatami mats (have to sit on floor). The price is a bit high because it’s local eel speciality dishes.

Ordered the lunch sets - one was a porridge/soup which was the house specialty. I personally did not find much flavour in it, it was quite bland for me. I much preferred the marinated rice dish, but even then it was not out of this world. The portions were good. Service...