Ichiba Kōji Karasuma: One of the Best Place for Yakiniku in Kyoto
Yakiniku or Japanese style barbecue isn’t just about the food. It’s a fun and social dining adventure. So I obviously needed to try yakiniku while I was in Kyoto. I decided to go to a restaurant called Ichiba Koji Karasuma (by the way, I also tried wagyu yakiniku at Issunboushi here in Kyoto).
I could see the kitchen behind a large pane of glass. Colorful lanterns hung everywhere and the menu was taped to the glass.
I was shown to a private booth where I wouldn’t be disturbed by other diners. It looked very secluded and cozy.
The first thing that the staff brought out was a refreshing salad with lots of veggies and greens.
Then came the beef tongue. The meat was pink and looked juicy.
Another thing that they served was pig fat, which came in a separate bowl of its own.
The meat sushi was really tender and fresh and it was served with some wasabi on the side.
The beef sashimi was served in a beautiful bowl with some salad, oil and an egg yolk on top.
Then I ordered the namul, even though that’s typically a Korean dish. Sliced thinly, seasoned and topped with sesame seeds, the veggies tasted amazing.
When all the food had been laid out on my table, I wondered if I had over-ordered. But it all looked great!
Kimchi was served as a side.
And there was more food to come, including beef tripe with a whole pile of green onions in the center.
I obviously had to get some wagyu beef while I was in Japan.
And there was a whole dish of steamed rice.
Then I started grilling my meat. I wanted it to be perfectly cooked.
I had never tried salted hormones in Japan.
The last thing to arrive was some different cuts of wagyu. They were already seasoned.
Menu
The menu was so big that I could barely choose what to eat!
Pictures and prices were provided so customers would know what they were getting.
I saw cuts of meat like loin cut and shoulder cut.
There were options like the offal or grilled vegetable platter.
The place was renowned for matcha and I saw various matcha drinks. Soups like egg drop soup were also available.
There were various set meals at a given price. They included 120 minutes of all that you could drink.
I found some of the matcha desserts quite interesting but I didn’t have space left to eat them.
Everything was written in Japanese so the pictures were really necessary for tourists.
There were even pictures of the different cuts of meat being sliced.
The prices varied from 599 Yen to 2299 Yen. It was actually quite reasonable.
Pictures of the restaurant owner and staff were given at the end of the menu. I think there was a little introduction about the restaurant in Japanese.
I decided to pick the dishes that looked good in the pictures.
The drinks menu included a variety of local drinks like sake and shochu.
There were also large and small beers, as well as soda.
The all you can drink menu had a limited number of drinks.
