Dinner at Onikai in Gion

Table of Contents

Dinner in Gion

Onikai, Where the Vegetables Shine

We had dinner in Gion and headed to Onikai, which I’d booked in advance. It was fully booked again that day with reservations only, so it’s clearly a popular spot.

http://onikai.isozumi.jp/

An evening view of the Kamo River — The Kamo River is beautiful at dusk

Onikai is known for its seasonal Kyoto vegetables. The first thing we ordered was shiitake mushrooms stuffed with pike conger fish paste and tempura-fried.

Onikai’s tempura-fried pike conger fish paste

From the category called “simmered vegetables”—a category I’d never even heard of before!—we chose one with water spinach and clams from Kujukuri.

Onikai’s simmered vegetables with water spinach and clams from Kujukuri

Then we had agedashi with Tamba shimeji mushrooms and golden eye snapper.

Onikai’s agedashi with Tamba shimeji mushrooms and golden eye snapper

For an à la carte dish, we had lightly seared first bonito from Kochi Prefecture with mizuna pickled in ginger soy sauce. It was seriously delicious eaten together with the mizuna…

Onikai’s lightly seared first bonito from Kochi Prefecture with mizuna pickled in ginger soy sauce

Everything was so good that we just kept ordering, and the drinks kept flowing too. On the left was grilled beef wrapped around white celery; on the right was Onikai’s gyeran-jjim. It was packed with whitebait.

Onikai’s grilled beef wrapped around white celery, and Onikai gyeran-jjim

To finish, we had seasoned rice cooked with cherry salmon. So good!

Everything we ate was delicious, so we ended with desserts: hojicha ice cream and rich black yuba.

Onikai’s hojicha ice cream and black yuba

We left the restaurant completely satisfied and were about to head back to the hotel… but on the stairs right outside, I missed a step badly and sprained my left ankle. It hurt so much…

I went back to the hotel and iced it, but the pain didn’t ease up, and I was worried about what I’d do if it stayed that bad. By the next day, though, it was at least at the “it hurts, but I can walk” level, so I kept sightseeing. A steep staircase, in the dark, while drunk—please be careful, everyone…