For the second stop of the night in Kyoto, of course we had to go for okonomiyaki! We visited Ryoan for the first time to try their unique Kyoto Higashi-Kujo style okonomiyaki. While waiting for the okonomiyaki to cook, we ordered doteyaki, kimchi stir-fry, water dumplings, tonpei-yaki, and highballs! When the okonomiyaki was cooked and placed on the hot plate, it had a slight Hiroshima-style twist to it. It was delicious and we enjoyed it thoroughly!

At Kyoto Station Hachijo Exit, "Ryoan" is the place to go for delicious okonomiyaki today as well. Lately, I've been teased about eating less okonomiyaki. On this day, I walked 5 minutes from Kyoto Station Hachijo Exit to "Ryoan". I thought I had visited almost all the okonomiyaki places around Kyoto Station, but I had overlooked this one. The restaurant has table seating and even tatami seating in the back, with more seats than I expected. There were many regular customers, and even though I visited late, the atmosphere was lively. I ordered the Ryoan Okonomiyaki for 1100 yen, which is similar to the Tonk (Higashi Kujo) style manbo-yaki. The noodles are generously mixed with a creamy batter that clings to them. The light sauce, along with chikuwa, octopus, beef cheek meat, and plenty of other ingredients, allows you to enjoy different flavors with each bite. I also tried the Grand Cheese Okonomiyaki for 1490 yen, which is a classic mixed-style okonomiyaki. Covered in gooey cheese, with shrimp, sausage, and ketchup, this combination may seem unconventional, but surprisingly it works well. The fluffy and creamy egg-based batter is also delicious. With so many different types of okonomiyaki available, I definitely want to go back again.

I visited the okonomiyaki and teppanyaki restaurant "Ryoan" near Kyoto Station Hachijo-guchi at night. There were no other customers. All seats come with a teppan grill. I decided to order the "Mambo" okonomiyaki (¥690 excluding tax) with a topping of "abura-kasu" (¥100 excluding tax). The "Mambo" is a popular type of okonomiyaki in this area, with a famous nearby restaurant called "Yamamoto Mambo." I recalled that in Wakayama Prefecture, there are interesting okonomiyaki varieties like "Mambo," "Jiruba," and "Twist." However, I am not sure if there is any connection between the "Mambo" in Kyoto and Wakayama. The menu describes the "Mambo" as "a modern-yaki with soba noodles seasoned with sauce," which may seem peculiar to those familiar with okonomiyaki from Settsu, Harima, Bizen, Aki, and the Geiyo Islands. The dish was cooked in the kitchen out of sight and then served on the teppan grill at the table. It consisted of a thin batter topped with cabbage, pickled ginger, tenkasu, chikuwa, abura-kasu, soba noodles, and more. The dish reminded me of Western-style one-sen dishes from various regions, Osaka's yoshoku-yaki, Hyogo, Okayama, Bingo's modern-yaki, and Aki's okonomiyaki. The soba noodles were indeed coated with sauce, but it was unclear whether they were mixed with the other ingredients or placed separately. I was curious about the cooking process. The amount of cabbage used was less compared to the Chugoku region's layered okonomiyaki, which was also the case at this restaurant. The inclusion of chikuwa added an interesting touch to the dish. The abura-kasu, a residue obtained from heating beef intestines to extract fat, was soft and flavorful. I enjoyed the meal with condiments like flour, nori, and shichimi togarashi provided at the table. I thought adding an egg topping to the "Mambo" would have been even better. In regions like Bizen and Aki, eggs are often included without request, but I forgot that in Harima and beyond, eggs are usually an optional extra unless specified in the dish name. In addition to the "Mambo," I also ordered the "Crispy Chicken Skin" (¥530 excluding tax) and two bottles of Asahi Super Dry beer (large, ¥550 each), bringing the total bill to ¥2,660 with straightforward pricing.

The local restaurant we visited around 6 pm had one customer when we arrived, but it quickly became crowded after we got there. It seems like a popular place. We will definitely visit again when we go to Kyoto.

A unique style restaurant that serves yakisoba and okonomiyaki with squid as the base, but you can add pork as a topping if you want. The taste of the okonomiyaki is okay, so I often go there after work. Draft beer is 420 yen for a medium size.

I'm not sure how many times I've been here, but this is my first post. This shop is not in a touristy area. Recently, new hotels and restaurants have opened nearby, making it more lively. It used to be quite empty and easy to get in. Back then, my friends and I used to order fried eggs even though it wasn't on the menu. Recently, it has been added to the menu for 100 yen. Surprisingly, the simple fried eggs are still delicious. Of course, this shop is generally a hit - everything I eat is delicious.

The place is located near Hotel El Inn Kyoto, south of Kyoto Station's Hachijo exit. I had heard about this okonomiyaki restaurant before, but I never had the opportunity to visit because I don't usually eat okonomiyaki. Today, on a whim, my colleague and I decided to stop by on our way back from a business trip. It was around 7 pm and there was only one group of foreign tourists in the restaurant. Since we had to catch the bullet train back, we only stayed for an hour. The beer was delicious, especially in the hot weather. We started with a beer and looked at the menu. We ordered the standard okonomiyaki for 890 yen, yakisoba for 500 yen plus pork for 50 yen, kimchi for 320 yen, and crispy chicken skin for 420 yen. Honestly, I couldn't really tell the difference in the taste of the okonomiyaki, and I don't feel the need to come back specifically for it. It wasn't bad, but it didn't make me want to come back. The appetizers were decent. The beer, however, was very cold and refreshing, which I highly appreciated.

At the monthly gathering, we went to Ryoan, a teppanyaki and okonomiyaki restaurant located on the south side of Kyoto Station. It's about a 7-8 minute walk from the Hachijo exit of Kyoto Station. The restaurant has table seating in the front and tatami seating in the back. The menu mainly consists of teppanyaki dishes, with options like okonomiyaki and yakisoba as well. I arrived a bit late, but ordered dishes such as dashimaki, agiyaki, yamaimo tororo yaki, surume no tempura, buta no shioyaki, pirikara sausage, meibutsu u-chan shio soba, meibutsu Ryoan okonomi, suji shioyaki, horumon udon, pirikara kyuri, hachi no su, and age dashi mochi. The yamaimo tororo yaki was delicious with a generous amount of yamaimo and a creamy texture. The hachi no su was moist and not too strong in flavor. Overall, the teppanyaki dishes were decent, with no particularly standout dishes. It's worth noting that their okonomiyaki comes with chikuwa, which is their original touch. Being able to take the leftovers of dishes like yamaimo tororo yaki home would be convenient.

The other day, I visited Kyoto with his family. We wanted to eat okonomiyaki, so we decided to try this restaurant we passed by. Since we were driving, we couldn't have alcohol, but we toasted with oolong tea! It was so refreshing as we were coming back from the public bath. We ordered the okonomiyaki listed on the menu first. Wait, what is this? It's more like stir-fried onions and cabbage rather than the traditional okonomiyaki with yam and flour. We also ordered chicken skin yakitori, yakisoba, and a dish similar to grilled yam. The chicken skin yakitori was seasoned perfectly with salt and pepper, and the crispy texture made us want to order more. The okonomiyaki was a new and unique style that we had never tried before. Perhaps this restaurant specializes in creative cuisine. In any case, I highly recommend the chicken skin yakitori!

On a normal night, I was lured in by the red lanterns of an okonomiyaki restaurant and decided to step inside. Each table had a hot plate, giving off a typical okonomiyaki joint vibe. Looking at the menu, they had about 6 types of okonomiyaki, but there were also many teppanyaki options. I ordered shiitake mushroom teppanyaki, squid teppanyaki, ham and pineapple cheese teppanyaki, okonomiyaki with seafood, grated yam teppanyaki, and soba tea pickles. The dishes were cooked in the kitchen and then brought to the hot plate in front of us. The shiitake mushrooms and squid, which I usually don't like, were surprisingly tasty, perhaps due to the seasoning. The ham and pineapple cheese teppanyaki was also delicious! But the standout was the grated yam teppanyaki, which was really tasty! We ended up fighting over it. However, the okonomiyaki with seafood and soba tea pickles didn't leave much of an impression, as the flavors were not very distinct. There are very few places to eat around Kyoto Station, so I think I'll be using this restaurant more often. As a side note, I found it strange that chikuwa and squid were default ingredients in the okonomiyaki dishes. Is this a characteristic of Kyoto (or Kansai) cuisine?

We met at Kyoto Station and went out for drinks. It's within a 10-minute walk from Hachijo-guchi, so it's easy to get to. The okonomiyaki was okay, but the yam yakisoba and squid yakisoba were delicious. However, I made a bit of a mistake with the squid yakisoba and vegetable stir-fry, as the ingredients seemed to overlap, which was disappointing. I often have meetings at night where we casually drink, so I might visit again.

I returned to Kyoto and decided to eat Okinawan food, but the popular Okinawan restaurant at Hachijo-guchi was fully booked, leaving me with limited options. So, I ended up at this place, which I had noticed before because of the red lantern with "Yakisoba" written on it. The beer was ice-cold with a hint of floating ice, perfect for the first drink in the middle of summer. However, it was a bit too cold, which diluted the flavor and made it more like a carbonated drink. I tried the spicy cucumber dish with doubanjiang, but it lacked the punch and freshness of the cucumber, possibly due to too many seasonings. The tofu steak had a subtle gochujang aroma and was well-cooked without being watery. The asparagus with mayonnaise was a delightful dish that captured the natural aroma of the asparagus. The grilled yam dish, simple yet surprisingly delicious, made me wonder how such a straightforward dish could be so tasty. The vegetable and pork salt-grilled dish, consisting mainly of cabbage and pork seasoned with just salt and pepper, was perfectly cooked and seasoned, making it impossible to replicate at home. Finally, the yakisoba with added pork toppings was outstanding. It was not overly sauced, allowing the sweetness of the vegetables, the flavor of the squid, and the deliciousness of the pork to shine through. It was a yakisoba that stood out among others I have tried at teppanyaki or okonomiyaki restaurants. It may just be one of the best yakisoba dishes in Kyoto, contrasting with the famous establishments in the area.

I think it's just an average place. It's like a newly opened okonomiyaki restaurant in a residential area, where the interior is oddly clean and the owner is someone who quit their previous job. However, in Kyoto, it's unfortunate that these types of places end up being considered "delicious." In my opinion, local restaurants that have been around for a long time have inherited the level of "Kyoto-style okonomiyaki" from their parents or former mentors, and they have continued without needing to develop it further. But when they are discovered by "secret Kyoto" enthusiasts among tourists and suddenly become nationally famous, they may be misunderstanding the evaluation of not just their own okonomiyaki, but okonomiyaki as a whole. In Osaka's Tsuruhashi, there are not many tourists who come just to eat okonomiyaki, and there are no other notable tourist attractions in that area, so it doesn't stand out much. Also, many people in Osaka think "the okonomiyaki place near my house is the best," and they don't have the habit of going out specifically to eat okonomiyaki. In Kyoto, it's convenient to go anywhere, so if you hear that a place is "popular locally," you can easily go there immediately, even if it's in a less accessible location. On the other hand, chain restaurants and new restaurants that are not the type of "long-standing establishments" in Kyoto learn how to make okonomiyaki in Osaka (there is a legitimate okonomiyaki school called "Wakatake Gakuen" and specialty stores for okonomiyaki ingredients along the tool street), so they finish with a standard okonomiyaki taste that is considered "delicious." Unfortunately, these types of places are not well-received by the people of Kyoto. In Kyoto, where everything is considered delicious nowadays, it's strange how there is a biased perception towards okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki is somehow famous, but personally I don't think it's anything special. There are plenty of okonomiyaki restaurants in Osaka and Hiroshima, so it's quite common. The real delicious dishes are the teppanyaki menu. Among them, I highly recommend the grilled salted pork and grated yam dishes. You should definitely try them. Fried tofu with dashi, fried mochi with dashi, and grated mushroom dishes are also delicious. Salt yakisoba used to be tasty in the past, but I feel like the flavor has been declining over the years. If you have high expectations for okonomiyaki, you might end up feeling a bit disappointed. Teppanyaki dishes are quite delicious. In Kyoto Station area where many touristy restaurants are overpriced, I think this restaurant offers good value for money.