There’s nothing quite as good as Chinese hotpot and I always make an effort to try hotpot whenever I’m travelling. So while I was in Kyoto, I also needed to find a good restaurant. It wasn’t hard.
Kyoto is full of restaurants serving up all kinds of cuisines. I decided to go to Gyukahachiba for Sichuan Hotpot.
Gyukahachiba Kyoto: My Sichuan Hotpot Experience
There was a lot of eclectic art and art of food on the walls of the restaurant. Bright green bamboo plants were scattered around the place, adding a very homey atmosphere.
I saw that they had tables for two people or four people, each with a space at the center where the hotpot dish could be placed. There were huge menu cards that were standing on the tables.
At one end of the room was a table with a variety of condiments and sauces that customers could make use of.
It would be a big problem for tourists though, because nothing was written in English. They would have to rely on the pictures.
In one corner stood a water jug with rows of paper cups and a coffee machine. Customers could serve themselves.
Then I went to look inside the giant fridge. I saw cans and cans of soda, like Coca Cola and ginger ale. There were some local Japanese drinks too, which I couldn’t recognize.
Large bottles of what looked like juice or ice tea filled one shelf. I could also see empty beer mugs.
The beer came in bottles of different sizes as well as cans. Guests could choose whatever drink they wanted. It was almost like a self-service restaurant.
I wandered around the whole place, looking at the options.
Then there were baskets of vegetables and mushrooms.
From trays of greens and noodles to eggs and meat, they really had everything.
There was tofu, Chinese cabbage and tiny mushrooms.
The skewers were really interesting.
They contained all sorts of things, from different cuts of meat to vegan options.
I carefully looked at everything, even though I wasn’t fully confident about what exactly it was.
The food was kept cold so they wouldn’t go bad.
And they had already been skewered for the convenience of the customers.
Even the broccoli was on skewers.
I ordered what I wanted.
There was a mushroom soup and a spicy soup.
The first thing that I got was lamb slice, served on a bed of ice.
Then I ordered a tray of tofu skin and fresh, leafy vegetables.
The beef had been sliced so thinly and there was a marbling effect on the meat. It wouldn’t need to cook for very long in the soup.
Giant oyster mushrooms had been threaded on the skewers. That would make it easy to dip into the soup and it wouldn’t fall to the bottom.
Obviously I had to order the wagyu beef! After all, I was in Japan. The quality of wagyu beef was just unmatched and it made the price worth it.
Finally, the last thing that I ordered was shrimp balls, just for a taste of seafood. The shrimp was so fresh and almost sweet.
