Everything I Ate During My Kyoto Food Tour
Updated: Aug 26
If you've been following along, you already know I built my entire Japan trip around eating, but the Kyoto food tour we did was on a different level entirely. This wasn't grazing through a market or grabbing snacks between sights. This was course after course, guided by a local, at little spots we never would have found wandering on our own. I walked away not just full, but genuinely educated on traditional Kyoto food.
Here's the full rundown, course by course.
Welcome Drink:
Our first drink of the tour, and easily one of my favorite combinations of the whole trip. Umeshu (plum wine) is already a favorite of mine, but adding yuzu and a splash of club soda turned it into something brighter and more citrusy. I had three more glasses throughout the tour, and I've been trying (and mostly failing) to recreate it at home ever since.
The Appetizers:
Green Onion and Duck
We started strong, and with something I'll admit I never would have picked off a menu on my own. Peking duck is really the only duck I'd had up to that point, so this was a completely different introduction to it, and pairing it with green onion wasn't a combination I had any real frame of reference for. But it was delicious. Tender duck against sharp, fresh green onion, light and savory and just enough to make you hungry for what was coming rather than filling you up. It set the tone for the whole tour in more ways than one: trust the guide, order the thing you wouldn't normally order.
Scallion Pancake
Crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle, and loaded with scallion in every bite. It disappeared fast, and there was a little bit of quiet negotiating over the last piece. It's a simple dish, but there's a reason it shows up on so many menus, and when it's done well, it's done really well.
Tofu Flight: Red Miso, Charcoal, and Mugwort
I have to be honest about this one, because I went in with high expectations that didn't quite hold up. I'm a huge agedashi tofu fan, so a whole flight of tofu variations should have been right up my alley. But if I'm being real, I couldn't really tell the difference between the three — one with red miso worked into it, one with charcoal, and one with mugwort — and to me, they all just tasted like plain tofu. Visually they were distinct, three different colors lined up next to each other, but flavor-wise it didn't click for me the way I wanted it to. Not every course is going to be a home run, and this was the one that just didn't land for me personally.
The Entrées:
The Sashimi Course: Tuna Cheek, Celebration Sea Bream, Golden Fish & Yellowtail
This course alone could have been the whole meal. Tuna cheek was a first for me, and it was rich and fatty in a way that genuinely surprised me. Celebration sea bream (a variety traditionally served for special occasions) was clean and delicate, golden fish brought something a little different in texture, and the yellowtail rounded it out with that classic buttery finish.
Two Wagyu Dishes
I already knew wagyu was going to be a highlight of this trip in general, but getting two completely different preparations back to back on this tour took it to another level. One came out closer to raw, delicate and almost melting on its own before you even chewed it, and the other arrived on a sizzling hot plate, still cooking right in front of us at the table. Same beef, two totally different experiences. This was the course where the table actually went quiet for a minute.
Sea Bream Dashi Soup
A warm, savory reset after all that richness, and exactly what the table needed at that point in the meal. The dashi broth was deep and comforting without being heavy, and the sea bream inside picked up all that flavor perfectly. It's the kind of dish that seems simple until you taste how much depth is actually in the broth, and it ended up being the course I found myself thinking about again days later.
Sea Bream Rice
This was another one I owe entirely to this tour. I'd never even heard of sea bream rice before our guide introduced us to it. The whole fish gets cooked right in the pot with the rice, so everything absorbs that deep, savory flavor as it steams, and then it's flaked apart and mixed through table-side.
The Dessert:
Mizu Shingen Mochi (Raindrop Cake)
Mizu shingen mochi, nicknamed "raindrop cake," is this nearly transparent, water-like mochi that looks like a droplet of water somehow holding its shape on a plate, usually served with a dusting of kinako (roasted soybean flour) and a drizzle of brown sugar syrup. It barely tastes like anything on its own, which is honestly the point. It's more about the texture and the sheer novelty of eating something that looks like it shouldn't exist.
Japanese Pudding
Silky, lightly sweet, and the perfect way to close things out. Japanese pudding has this custardy, almost caramel-like quality that's a little different from Western-style pudding, and it was the ideal note to end on — rich enough to feel like a proper dessert, light enough that I didn't regret how much I'd already eaten by that point. It honestly reminded me of flan.
The Sake Tasting:
Once the food wrapped up, the tour closed with a proper sake tasting — three different sakes, poured one after another so you could actually compare them side by side. I was pleasantly surprised with how much range there actually was. One lighter and almost fruity, another richer and warmer, and tasting them back to back like that, rather than just having a glass alongside dinner, made it so much easier to actually pick up on the differences. I ended up liking the lighter sake the best.
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If you're planning a trip to Kyoto, I cannot recommend a proper food tour enough. It's one thing to wander into restaurants on your own and pick things that sound good and familiar, but having someone walk you through a meal like this, course by course, pushing you toward things you'd never choose for yourself, turned it into one of the best few hours of the entire trip. I left the table not just satisfied, but with a genuinely better understanding of Japanese food, and a new favorite or two I never would have found on my own.
A huge part of what made this tour so memorable was our guide. She was this incredibly sweet young woman, genuinely funny, and her English was excellent, which made it so easy for our whole family to actually follow along with what we were eating and why. Beyond the food itself, she was happy to give us a whole list of other recommendations — things to do around the city, other places to eat, and a few bars worth checking out.
Click here to see the exact tour we did here.
A Few Other Kyoto Food Tours Worth Considering:
Ours wasn't the only well-reviewed option out there, and if the timing or style of our tour doesn't fit your trip, here are a few other highly-rated ones worth a look depending on what you're after:
My Top 3 Hotels in Kyoto
Once you’ve got your food plans sorted, the next big decision is where to stay. These are the three Kyoto hotels I’d start with for location, comfort, and overall experience.
⭐ The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto — best for riverside luxury and central location. Click here for rates and availability.
⭐ Park Hyatt Kyoto — best for the ultimate Kyoto atmosphere. Click here for rates and availability.
⭐ Hilton Kyoto — best for first time visitors who want convenience. Click here for rates and availability.
Ready to Plan Your Kyoto Trip?
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Reach out to us about our travel planning and booking services to start planning your Japan trip.
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