Tou no Chaya — Restaurant in Nara

Was looking forward to trying one of Nara’s specialties, the chagayu. Objectively everything tasted fresh, but personally it didn’t suit our tastes.

There was a lot of variety in the whole meal in terms of texture and flavors, though overall there was more tange and bitterness, and not a whole lot of saltiness (in other words, the meal tasted rather bland, especially the bowl of rice with tea). I thiught it might taste similar to ochazuke, but it was wildly different. A unique dish for sure, but not one I’d look back at fondly nor will I eat again.

There are tatami seats and table seats. They only take reservations by phone, but if you come just before they open you’re likely to get a seat, just like we did; we even got seated in the private tatami room. Staff didn’t speak english but quickly improvised using google translate...

Make reservation! My heart sank when they hanged the “fully booked” sign outside but thank God I went into the resto to ask if they could just make an exception and so they did… but I try not to push my luck too far in Japan esp when we’re just tourists..

Food was done exquisitely despite being very reasonably priced… Its a very different way of eating rice, ochazuke but with proper green tea soup base. My first time seeing sushi wrapped in leaves, which they used tender persimmon leaves.. some places use tougher leaves, yeah the leaves shouldn’t be eaten but it’s so tender here that u might mistake it as part of the food…

This is also the place I discovered pickled ginger could be...

Was extremely surprised by the chagayu bento! Every single bite is well seasoned and taste very fresh! The rice porridge uses green tea and matches well with the side dishes. Overall the whole meal was very delicious, down to warabimochi at the end, which is probably the best I’ve had so far. I felt very welcomed by the lady serving me even though I only speak very limited Japanese. There are table seats and seats in a tatami room. I got the latter and it definitely uplifted the experience, but if you’re uncomfortable sitting on the floor for the whole meal you can opt for the table seat. Would strongly recommend to have your meal here when...