While waiting for your set meal, try a little of each obanzai side dish; go back for more of anything you especially like, then enjoy it with rice. Lunch at Teramachi Yoshikura | Washoku Restaurant Kyoto cuisine is about more than choosing a main: you can put together a meal that suits you by pairing it with a selection of small dishes.
The restaurant’s lunch information says set meals include all-you-can-eat servings of 6–7 obanzai dishes. Diners have reported finding simmered pumpkin, deep-fried tofu, dried daikon, hijiki seaweed and okara on the table, with gentle seasoning and flavours infused with dashi. Choices include a daily set, Saikyo-yaki sets with Spanish mackerel or black cod, a shrimp tempura set and a sashimi set. One diner remembered ordering the Spanish mackerel Saikyo-yaki and enjoying the slowly grilled fish with obanzai and several servings of rice. Another visitor found the tempura set light rather than heavily battered, and said that refills of the side dishes and rice made for a satisfying lunch.
Rice is part of the pleasure, too. The restaurant says it uses rice grown by a farming family in Miyama, Kyoto, and cooks it in an earthenware pot. Diners have also mentioned going back for more rice with their set meals. Whether you come for the daily main, or choose fish or sashimi to eat alongside the obanzai, lunch is an opportunity to enjoy the small dishes as well as the main course.
In the evening, seasonal kaiseki courses bring together dishes such as a starter, clear soup, sashimi, grilled items and simmered dishes. The Ume course runs from a starter, soup and sashimi through grilled and simmered dishes, rice and dessert; the Take course also includes a small dish served between courses and a fried dish. One diner who chose the Ume course recalled the freshness of the ingredients and the care taken in preparing them. It is an option for a relaxed meal enjoyed course by course.
Alongside kaiseki, the restaurant lists a special Kyoto hot pot featuring Kyoto red chicken, Kujo spring onions, Kyoto mizuna and Tsurunoko tofu, as well as shabu-shabu courses with Shinshu pork or Shinshu beef. The hot-pot courses include a starter and sashimi, followed by rice or rice porridge and dessert, making them a straightforward choice when you want to build a leisurely meal around a warming pot. Sake, shochu and wine are also available to accompany the food.
