Kyoto Style Sushi at Izuju

I know I keep saying this about the food on this trip, but we just came back from a most amazing meal! By the suggestion of the concierge at our hotel, we went to a restaurant called Izuju in the Gion area of Kyoto.

Basically, we asked for a suggestion on where to eat, and realized while we were there just how special it was. It was one of the few times that I can remember noticing that I had never had food like this before.

I learned tonight that Kyoto-style sushi is unlike any other. Izuju has been around for about 100 years. I read that Kyoto style sushi is different because years and years ago, fresh fish was very hard to get because the city is 70km from the Japan sea. Because of it's geography, special recipes were made. Saba-sushi is typical of Kyoto sushi. It is eaten without soy sauce because it brings out the special qualities of mackerel with salt and vinegar. (I'm getting this info off the English menus that they presented to us. I took photos of the front and back, which I'm posting photos of towards the bottom of this post.)

We ordered the Steamed Sushi which is a classic special winter dish in Kyoto. Thready egg on elaborate sushi rice with prawn, squid and sea eel on the top. I also took a photo of the English menu and am including it below)

We also had one order of Saba sushi (described above). Both were AMAZING, and like I said, unlike anything we've ever had before.

We finished our meal with a Kyoto-style soup, which was a clear, slightly smoky broth which we believe had the white flowered gourd pictured in the menu.

The entire meal was fantastic. We may have to go back for more!

When we returned to our hotel room, I looked the restaurant up online and found the following detailed review. It's describes the restaurant and experience so much better than I can, plus there's a lot of great photos! I highly suggest you click on this link to read.

Here are my photos from the evening:


Dick, enjoying the largest bottle of beer ever.


The beautiful Steamed Sushi


Steamed Sushi with the Saba Sushi. We were instructed to peel the kelp before we ate the sushi.


Kyoto-style Soup


the English menu that they gave us explaining the history of Kyoto style food and the restaurant


page 2 of the description


the menu description for the Steamed Sushi


Izuju was right across the street from the Yasaka Shrine


one of the quaint side streets in Gion