Kyoto, Japan｜a la Chalamont

If you carving for western food - this place is perfect. Very friendly staff - delicious food :)

We had rooms in a hotel nearby and were happy to get some European food for a change. The cook got his education in Chalamont near Lyon (France), and the very sweet owner of the restaurant served us an excellent dinner incl. French wine. We highly recommend this place to tourists as well as local people. Take care to make an appointment in time - the first time we went there all tables were booked out.

Looking for a restaurant late one evening close to our hotel (the Hotel Brighton, which is in a bit more of a residential area so not a large number of restaurants in the immediate vicinity), we came across a la Chalamont, which turned out to be a real gem! While you might come to Japan to partake in the local cuisine, after a while we had to mix it up, and the dishes here were all delicious and the service was terrific. The server spoke enough English to go through the specials menu for us (and to help ensure our daughter's food allergies were taken into consideration) and the regular menu had English and French options. Very reasonably priced for Japan, but they don't take credit cards so make sure you have enough cash with you (and there is a Y300 cover charge per person for dinner, which seems like more of an old-school European thing - but still worth it).