Rick L.
Yelp
Everything about our experience at Oagari in the Gion area of Kyoto was fantastic. This was our first meal in the city...One of the uniquely Japanes style course restaurants where they keep bringing you food, small course after small course. They are very vegetarian and gluten free friendly. Quick note, they're on the second floor of the building and there's another restaurant on the first floor, so make sure you head up the stairs to get to the good stuff.
It's small inside but you have your choice between tables, or counter seats where you can watch the chef prepare your food.
They're also very English friendly...and well, just friendly in general. They were happy to see us, serve us, and sit down and talk with us.
There was sweet, traditional Japanese music playing which added to the lovely atmosphere.
We started with the Kyoto sake sampler (specifically serving us 3 different sakes brewed within the Kyoto area.) You can choose a broader geographic region for your sake as well.
Then the food started coming. A salad with silken tofu and baby corn, followed by corn mousse with plum wine marinated tomatoes, then daikon radish with mushroom miso sauce, followed by two long peppers and a potato called dengaku which had a rubbery, fish like texture, and finally a soft tofu soft served in Japanese broth which super, super tasty
They brought as a palate cleanser of 2 flavors of shaved ice (citrus and lime). The lime was bolder then we would have liked, but orange was good. (These were served in tiny little bowls which delighted my wife.)
The main course was a Kyoto style "okanomiyaki" which is a Pancake with different layers of all kinds of things on top of it including a conglomerate of cabbage, onions, ginger, topped with a beautiful egg. This was our first time having anything like this and it was delicious. The fried egg was perfect, and the whole thing was especially good with French "Petit Point" sauce they served it with. Okonomiyaki is uniquely Japanese and different regions have their own style as we learned later on a visit to Hiroshima where they served "Hiroshima Style" Okonomiyaki.
We loved everything about our experience here. We felt well catered to as vegetarians. Their menu, and staff were super friendly and we had a fantastic conversation with one of the owners who sat with us and genuinely seemed interested in who we were and our experience so far in Japan. 5 stars all around.