Kyotofushimishinseishuzo Torisei Honten 鳥せい本店 @ Kyoto Fushimi

Yuka and myself weren't feeling that hungry so we decided to eat nearby Fushimi. She brought us to a yakitori place that's operated by a sake brewery. It has its own carpark, so we didn't have to hunt for a parking lot.

Quite a cool shop. Lots of wooden beams, shelves and shelves of sake bottles and sturdy tables.

similar to housewine so this is their 'house' sake

Had my first taste of matcha sake and it was delicious! It is pretty sweet so, guys might not like it. Similar to dessert wine but not as sweet. Very nice and kind of regretted not getting a bottle home! But the otoshi (お通し) was quite horrible. It was just grated radish with soy sauce?! Ugh.

matcha sake ¥440

Didn't order alot and they ran out of chicken hearts. See, this is one of the favourites. The yakitori prices were reasonable and between ¥140 to ¥210 each stick.

tebasaki and pork belly - salted

chicken liver and momo - sauce

For carbs, we had the autumn seasonal kamameshi. It came with pickles and tofu. The flavours are mild and the hot rice was comforting as it had started to drizzle a bit and night time was pretty cold in autumn.

chicken and mushroom kamameshi - autumn limited edition @ ¥950

Interesting place and too bad Yuka can't drink as she's driving. A nice place to enjoy yakitori and sake.

Torisei Honten 鳥せい本店

Location: 186 Kamiaburakakecho, Fushimiku, Kyoto 612-8047
Contact: +81 75-622-5533
Website: http://www.torisei.com/shop/fushimi/

Tatsumiya 辰巳屋 @ Uji Kyoto

As I was nursing a fractured wrist due to an accident while I was in Kyoto, my landlady Yuka took pity on me and offered to bring me around Kyoto via her car for a day. A chance to explore Kyoto with a local? Yes, please!

Uji is located at the outskirts, so the scenary changes from buildings to farmlands and river.

view from Yuka's car

look, Uji river~

We parked the car and strolled down to the restaurant. Tatsumiya is about 12 minutes walk from Keihan Uji Station or about 15 minutes walk from Uji JR Station. Nearby, is Byodoin, a World Heritage site.

Tatsumiya

The restaurant has wooden sliding doors and one sits on tatami flooring. Yes, one needs to take off shoes before being seated.

counter seats and this is the door where the hostess will enter

Tatsumiya serves traditional Kyoto cuisine and one could opt for Kaiseki as well. We took the lunch bento. I had mine with sashimi while Yuka opted for one with chawanmushi.

The bento was served with a brown leaf folded to cover the small dishes. Was pleasantly surprised by the colourful and pretty looking items. The bento was served with seven rolls of Akita rice that has Uji tea leaves on it. I understand that the small dishes in the bento changes in accordance to season.

宇治丸弁当 ¥3800

many many small items in here

There's mushrooms, chestnut, konyaku, fish paste, a slice of duck, juicy brinjal, quail's egg, gingko nut, shishito, snail etc. Interesting eats and one would get quite full at the end of the meal. Allocate at least an hour to an hour and a half to eat all of this.

The sashimi was slow to arrive but it was super fresh. The fish was fatty and firm.

sashimi of squid and hamachi

Very interestingly, there's a mochi wrapped in green leaf in there. This was one of the best mochi that I've eaten!

mochi

By then, I was seriously full. But, there's desserts! There was a grape, pear and matcha chocolate.

desserts

Had an enjoyable lunch and appreciate the company. Special thanks to Shinichi (for treating us lunch though he's not present to join us) and Yuka for introducing a slice of Kyoto.

Tatsumiya 辰巳屋

Location: Togawa-3-7 Uji, Kyoto Prefecture 611-0021, Japan
Website: http://www.uji-tatsumiya.co.jp/
Other websites:  
https://gurunavi.com/en/k010600/rst/
https://tabelog.com/en/kyoto/A2607/A260701/26000038/
Contact: +81-50-5890-8703
Business Hours:
Lunch: 11:00 - 14:30 , Dinner: 16:30 - 20:00 

Kendonya 手打うどん けんどん屋 @ Fushimi Inari Station Kyoto

Again, our instinct of trying out the foodshops near our Inari House paid off well. This time round, we wandered into Kendonya, an udon noodle house. This shop was more spacious as compared to Ramen Hiwamatanoburo which is just a few doors away.

shopfront

counter seats and Chef

Most of the sets came with carb-on-carb, meaning you'll get a bowl of udon and a bowl of rice. Tourist friendly and English menu is available. The shop's bestseller seemed to be their pork cutlet sets. Bucking the norm, we decided to choose something else.

I went with my karaage set (minus the rice) and my friend opted for the udon and oyakodon set. Both are priced below ¥1000.

draft beer

It was rather late at night, close to 830pm when we dined there plus it was drizzling, so there were only one or two tables occupied.

favourite condiments in Kyoto

Mini chicken and egg rice bowl with hot udon @¥860+

Hot udon with karaage set @¥980+

The mini oyakodon here looked good, especially when eaten while it was still hot!

mini 親子丼

The owner had been making udon since his 20's and he ventured out and became his own boss in his thirties. Handmade udon, we loved! The udon served at Kendonya is of the plump and chewy variant. Slurpiliciously good! Because it was a cold day, we chose the hot broth version. Otherwise, one could also have it as chilled udon.

温麦

While the star is the udon, must mention that the karaage was very good too! The menu mentioned that this is different from American-styled fried chicken which made me thought of how to describe the taste of Japanese fried chicken to our foreign friends?

 から揚げ

The karaage was well-fried to a crisp skin and still moist and juicy on its insides. The meat was marinated adequately and each bite was thoroughly enjoyed. Though its size is not comparable to the one from its neighbour, I didn't regret ordering this. Plus, fried chicken and ice cold draft beer...need I say more?

Kendonya 手打うどん けんどん屋

Location: Japan, 〒612-0012 Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Fushimi Ward, Fukakusa Ichinotsubocho, 41, パールハイツイナリ1F
Website: https://tabelog.com/en/kyoto/A2601/A260601/26003538/
Contact: +81 75-641-1330
Business Hours:
11:00～15:00 (lunch)
17:00～20:30 (dinner)
Close on Wednesdays and one extra day off a month.