25. Veggie Table, Great Salads on Kiyamachi-dori (Downtown Kyoto)--Ken
Quite by accident, one night on our way down Kiyamachi-dori on our way to another place, we found Vegi Table or maybe it was Veggie Table, or Vege Table.?Whatever. You can't miss the place. It's all white inside, and has a second floor we didn't go to. It's about 1 block North of the top of the Pontocho, but on Kiyamachi-dori.
We were acutally on our way to 844 Store (R.I.P.), but when we found out that it was no longer in business, we headed back to Veggie Table for dinner. It may or may not be a vegetarian restaurant, we figured, but a place with the name Veggie Table is not exactly going to deter garden variety (pun intended) vegetarians like ourselves.
You kind of tell them what you want and they build the salad and meal for you. The salad comes in a big wooden bowl, with brown rice. I think we used chopsticks! It actually makes sense to me to eat salad with chopsticks--I should do that at home!
Everything was really delicious. Vegetarian bean soup (yum), salad with some steamed or stewed veggies (The kabocha was my favorite part. It's a flavorful Japanese winter squash you see all over at this time of year.) There was a little plate with yummy sides. The second soup, I think, had cream, so I didn't try it. I wasn't sure from my conversation with the staff of whether it did or didn't, but when travelling, I've learned not to risk it.
My Meal at Veggie Table
We also each got some kind of fruit smoothie drink. Which was about 400Yen ($4) for a small cup. Maybe mine was carrot ginger and kabocha? Anyway it was quite good, though costly. For $4 in the US you get a 20-ouncer or something. They had three or four different kinds to choose from.
The meal came out to about $15/person if memory serves. And I left there still hungry. That's not really their fault. For better or worse, Japanese restaurant portions are typically smaller than the amount I would make for myself at home.
According to bento.com it's Kawaramachi Sanjo-sagaru Narayamachi 291, De Lido-kan 1F. [from Sanjo south on Kawaramachi, turn left at the fifth corner, at the Haagen Dazs] Open 11:30am-3:30pm, 6-10pm (LO) daily. Tel: 075-241-0359