Kyo Tominokoji Yoshikawa

A ryokan that cooks

Yoshikawa is a ryokan in central Kyoto, founded in 1952 near Tominokoji and Oike, whose tempura dining room is open to non-residents. Listed at one Michelin star by one guide, it is closer to a small inn dinner than to a specialist counter: the dining room surrounds a central cooking station, with a garden outside, and dessert is served afterwards in a lounge overlooking a larger garden.

A meal usually begins with small appetisers and sashimi before tempura arrives piece by piece, with prawns, vegetables, scallop, kisu, lotus root, sweet potato and sablefish among the ingredients, and a kakiage on rice to finish. A cooler critical view is worth knowing: Andy Hayler thought the tempura pleasant but lighter in finesse than the best of Tokyo, and the prawn less carefully prepared than at a top counter, while praising the service, delivered by staff in traditional dress.

Who it suits

The appeal is the setting and the sense of occasion, a Kyoto inn at ease with visitors, not a pursuit of the finest tempura in the city. For that, Tenyu is the sharper comparison.

Sources: Andy Hayler: Yoshikawa; TableJourney: Kyoto fine dining. Check the official websites for current information.