Teppanyaki With A View

Our first night in Kyoto, and it was raining. But this made heading out to explore the nearby Gion district even more special.

As the twilight came on, we found ourselves in the heart of Gion, walking along a particularly beautiful plaza along a canal, lined with cherry blossoms and lanterns.

It was magical and somewhat romantic. As we walked, we noticed that the other side of the canal was lined with restaurants.

'What are the chances of finding a seat in one of those, and it not be expensive?' we thought.

Well, after walking down the laneway we gave up on that notion, and came upon a small teppanyaki restaurant that my partner had heard/read of: Gion Tanto. And surprisingly, we found ourselves guided to a table with a wonderful view out onto the canal, the bridge, and the cherry blossoms.

This is quite traditional, seated on the floor with the teppanyaki (BBQ) plate as our table. Having experienced this the previous evening in Tokyo, we were looking forward to cooking our own meals.

The menu was not just okonomiyaki, but also noodle and rice dishes.

What we discovered was something we had been told about in Tokyo, and that is that there are regional differences to the same dishes. My partner ordered okonomiyaki, and it was considerably different to what we'd experienced the night before. I ordered vegetable Udon noodles, and my daughter orded a prawns (shrimp) and potatoes with a side of daikon salad.

What was disapoointing however was that the food came to us already cooked, and placed onto the teppanyaki plate merely to keep warm. Did they not trust us to cook our own food properly? Or did they think Gaijin tourists wouldn't want to eat in a traditional way?

The food tself was nice and tasty, I honestly couldn't say any of it was crap. My noodles were good, but they were standard. My partner's okonomiyaki was also nice, but what we had in Tokyo was better in my opinion. My daughter's prawns were quite amazing, as was the daikon salad.

And for what it was, it was quite expensive. We only had one shared bottle of Sake, and our meal came to about ¥6400. This place looked amazing, the view was stunning, and the experience of sitting on the floor with a teppanyaki hot-plate in front of us was great... BUT I would have preferred to cook my own meal (otherwise what is the point of the hot-plate?!).

Still, definitely well worth it.

Restaurant Information

Gion Tanto, Kyoto

372 Kiyomotochō, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, 605-0084, Japan