Dinner at Aoi Jaya in Eat Paradise Isetan (Kyoto Station)

Singapore to Narita Airport > Narita Airport to Kyoto > Kyoto AirBnB > Kyoto Station > Dinner

The restaurants and the floor they are located on. We wanted to go to the 11th floor, where there are 15 restaurants!

Waiting to board the lift at ground level.

The sight that greeted us when we alighted on the 11th floor, tempting us to eat them!

There were many restaurants to choose from and we were at a loss what to have for dinner.

Italian-Japanese Fusion? Tonkatsu? OmuRice? Sushi? Ramen? Our mouths started watering the more we walked down the restaurant aisle.

Italian-Japanese Fusion Restaurant

One of the many Japanese restaurants on the 11th floor

In the end, we settled for Aoi Jaya, a Japanese restaurant that specializes in seiro-mushi - food (i.e. rice, meat and vegetables) steamed in a bamboo basket which concentrates the flavors and apparently helps to retain their health-giving nutrients. Since it was not dinner time at around 5pm, there wasn't that much of a queue which was perfect! [Other Resturants at Food Paradise]

We were greeted by a waitress in a kimono and brought to our seats where we were hand steaming hot towels (to wipe our hands with) and hot tea (I think it was roasted barley tea) which was refillable.

Dinner at Eat Paradise in Isetan (Kyoto Station)

The interior of the resturant

This restaurant did not have an English menu, so we used the pictures in the menu to take our pick.lol There wasn’t much of a crowd yet as it was around 5 in the evening, but the crowd soon started coming in when we were midway with dinner. The conversations all around were in Japanese, further solidifying the fact (and feeling) that we had finally arrived in Japan!

The menu

Our dinner consisted of 2 sets.

Set 1:

Rice and Soba served with Tempura, Salad, Edamame with a side of Arame and Omelet, Tofu, Boiled Vegetables (i.e. Pumpkin etc...), Sashimi (e.g., Tuna), and Pickles on the side together with delightful dessert.

Set 2:

Rice and Soba served with Tempura, Sashimi (more than Set 1), Egg Salad, Pickles and delightful dessert.

Dinner was satisfying to the max! The soft fluffy yet chewy rice, together with the tempura dipped in the sauce was simply heavenly. The rice grains while chewy, were not clumped up together in an unidentifiable mash as with some Japanese rice you would find in some Singapore foodcourts. (>.<) The soba soup base was nice and not too blend, balancing out the flavor of the tempura. The soba itself was just the right consistency, with a tinge of chewiness making the meal an enjoyable one. And the sashimi slices… So fresh and delectable!

Interesting Fact: One interesting thing to note about Japanese dinning is that they would provide a piece of hot towel or wet towel for each customer before the meal. Also, unless you are eating ramen, there are no spoons served with your meal. You are supposed to manage eating with just a pair of chopsticks. Not that we had any complains since we are proficient in using them.

Our dinner cost us a total of 4,169¥, which is about S$55, still much cheaper than if we were to have the same in Singapore and the food would not be as fresh.

The bill

Interesting Fact: Japanese use 10,000¥ (about S$130) as casually as we use our S$50! The fact that they use such big note to pay for (probably) lesser value items (e.g. 500¥ etc…) was a little shocking at first, but what I appreciated was that when it came to payment time, the cashier would patiently wait for you to count your money (if you had many coins) and then carefully count the money to make sure it is correct.

Even collecting the change is a different experience: they actually count the money in front of you and show you the amount for you to countercheck the amount before carefully handing it back to you, stacking it properly so that it is easier for you to put it back in your wallet. Unlike in Singapore, where the cashier waits impatiently for you to find your change and then ‘throws’ back at you a stack of cash that has been haphazardly counted and lumped together.

With our tummies filled and happy, we made our way out of Kyoto Station and explored the nearby areas.

Aoi Jaya

Address: 11F Kyoto Isetan, Higashi Shiokoji-cho Karasuma-dori, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto / 京都府京都市下京区烏丸通塩小路下る東塩小路町901 ジェイアール京都伊勢丹 11F
Tel: 075-352-6233 (+81-75-352-6233)
Operation Hours: 11:00 – 22:00 (Last order: 21:15)

Price Range: 1,000 ~ 3,000￥

Exploring the area outside Kyoto Station >>

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