Kyoto, Japan｜Izakaya Dining SO-SO

One fine rainy Kyoto night I found myself walking a mile to an Indian restaurant which lo and behold was happily closed (the number of times google has lied to me about restaurant hours in Japan makes for a separate rant). So I map around and find this place and sneak in. I'm met with some sweet smiles and a clearly adept chef behind the bar, who takes one look at my nonplussed rain-soaked face and knows I don't speak a lick of japanese. He's patient with me and makes some chat, and I manage to translate the menu to find out they have a vegetarian mapo tofu dish. I requested him for that and he got to work on the wok behind him. The tofu came out splendid, hot and full of spice! It went wonderfully well with the rice. Mr. chef also made me a nice umeshu drink to soothe the schezuan spice and then we talked about life and what not. He also gave me some squid appetizer (assuming that was the otoshi) which I'm not a fan of at all but ate to be polite. Extra protein, oh well. They were also cash-only but then I found a lot of places in Kyoto are. I appreciate them feeding me some excellent fare at that late hour.

Very good small modern izakaya, very tasty food (chicken dishes, pita cheeze, salads!, good drinks). ... charcoal grilled chicken is the best ... again in 2022

I ate so much food here. I had the pork kimchi to start out and then I ate a lot of fried chicken that my girlfriend ordered. And then I finished her salad. I ordered fried rice and then my girlfriend ordered teriyaki chicken and I ate most of both of those. It was all delicious. Great atmosphere. Felt very much like a cozy little hole-in-the-wall spot. I highly recommend and would definitely return if I'm ever in that part of town again.