East City Travel Guide

With such an august history, it's not surprising that Kyoto is home to Japan's most refined cuisine, Kyo-ryori (Kyoto cooking), which is known for its subtle flavours and use of only the freshest ingredients. The ultimate Kyoto dining experience is kaiseki , originally designed to accompany the tea ceremony, and a feast for both the eyes and taste buds. Everything about the meal is an expression of cultured refinement, from the artful arrangement of seasonal delicacies, each on its carefully chosen lacquer or earthenware dish, to the picture-perfect garden outside the window. Of course, such meals aren't cheap (generally ¥10,000 per head), but at lunchtime many kaiseki restaurants offer a usually excellent-value mini- kaiseki or bento - a boxed sampler of their specialities.

Kyoto's other gastronomic highlight is fucha-ryori , a Zen version of the exquisite Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, shojin-ryori , and still mostly found in restaurants near the great Zen temples of Daitoku-ji and Nanzen-ji. Fucha-ryori includes a good deal of yuba (dried soya-bean curd) and fu (wheat gluten), dressed up in the most appetizing ways, while restaurants around Nanzen-ji also specialize in yudofu , which is tofu simmered in a kelp-flavoured stock. Though generally cheaper than kaiseki , the best of these restaurants are also found in lovely old houses overlooking a classic garden.

It's well worth treating yourself to at least one traditional Kyoto restaurant, but after that there are plenty of more modest establishments to choose from. Some of these have been serving their simple home-cooking for a century or more and are as much a part of Kyoto life as the high-class places. There's also a fair sprinkling of Indian, Italian and other international cuisines nowadays, as well as a growing number of vegetarian and health-food restaurants.