Lunch Time: Oyako Donburi at Toriiwaro (西陣鳥岩楼)
Sometimes I like to get creative with how I define things. For example, freshman year (3 years ago! Wow, time flies!), Huei-yu and I watched Detective Conan to “study” for our Japanese final.
I’ve recently discovered another euphemism: eating = history lesson
Kyoto is old, like seriously old. And with age, comes decades, even centuries, of culinary expertise. There are many restaurants in Kyoto that have been around longer than the United States was formally in existence, perfecting their special dishes and technique for generations. These time-honored restaurants are called shinise (老舗). This semester, I plan to visit as many shinise as possible.
A couple of weeks ago, my Obaachan (“grandma”) and father visited me in Kyoto. Their trip was short, so I wanted to make sure that they experienced the best of Kyoto at a reasonable price! Kyoto has some incredible kaiseki restaurants, but they are $$$$. However, if you know where to look, you don’t need to break the bank to enjoy Kyoto.
For lunch, we headed to Toriiwaro for arguably the best and definitely the most famous Oyako Donburi in the city.
With this many shoes and the line of people waiting, I knew we had hit the jackpot.
As their name suggests, Toriiwaro specializes in chicken (“Tori”=chicken). At the heart of their dishes is their chicken stock, which is prepared by slowly simmering 30 chicken carcasses overnight to prepare for the next day’s meals. At Toriiwaro, there is no menu because they only serve one item, oyako donburi, making this restaurant very tourist friendly. Upon entering, you just tell the waitress how many people are in your party.
Once seated, we were served some soothing hot tea.
And mere minutes later...
So what, it’s just oyako donburi. What’s so special about it?
Well, the oyako donburi at Toriiwaro was the best I’ve ever had. Usually, donburi come in massive bowls with excessive amounts of rice, so you are left eating plain white rice after you eat the top layer. But here, the bowls are smaller and there is less rice, which allows the rich chicken broth and egg-y mixture to seep deep down into the rice, making every single bite as flavorful as the first. When our donburi first arrived, I was a little afraid that it would not be enough food for my dad. But, despite the smaller size, we left pleasantly full and very satisfied.
Oyako literally translates as “parent and child” and refers to the mixture of chicken and egg. Therefore, sharing this dish with my father and grandma—three generations—was so poetic.
Besides the food, the ambiance is wonderful. Housed in a traditional Japanese machiya, you feel transported back in time as you sit on zabuton cushions on the tatami floor and look out over a beautiful Japanese garden.
Just like lunch, there is only one item on the dinner menu, too--Mizudaki Nabe (chicken hot pot). But, I will probably never try it. While lunch is a reasonable 800 yen (it might be 850 yen, I forget), the dinner price skyrockets to 6,300 yen per person.
Toriiwaro (西陣鳥岩楼、にしじんとりいわろう）
Kyoto-shi Kamigyo-ku Gotsuji-dori Chiekoin Nishi-iru Minami-gawa (京都市上京区五辻通智恵光院西入南側)
(map)
075-441-4004
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~mao_utty/toriiwa/ (Japanese only)
Lunch served from 12-4pm; Closed on Thursday.
Directions: Walk west from Doshisha University Imadegawa Campus. At the intersection of Imadegawa and Chiekoin streets, turn right (north) on Chiekoin, and then make a left at the first intersection onto Itsutsujicho. Toriiwaro will be on the left (south) side of the street. Look for a crowd of bicycles and people. The line may seem intimidating, but the service is very fast, and the wait isn’t too bad (we waited about 15 minutes).
