Kyo Club

I’ve been meaning to check this place out for a while. As you can see they have a big friendly sign out front with a very clear message in English “Organic Food Cafe” and “Vegetarian Friendly”. Naturally I took this to mean that they would have a fair few veggie dishes on offer…

Once inside and seated, I checked out the menu. They have a lot of different soft drinks, flavored teas, coffees, deserts and even a couple of nice 京地ビール (local microbrews): an Alt and a Kölsch. The meals though didn’t at first glance seem to have an awful lot to offer in the vegetarian department. There were set meals with meat, set meals with fish… The only thing I could see that looked vegetarian was a rather unappealing onion rice ball set with miso soup and some side dishes. I thought I would double check with waitress – perhaps “Vegetarian Friendly” meant they could re-fashion one of the other sets to suit the customer…

“What do you have that’s vegetarian?” I asked.

“Well,” she answered, “We have this wiener bagel set.”

“But that has sausage and ham in it.”

“Yes.”

Pause. “What do have that doesn’t have meat or fish in it?”

Confused look. “Just a moment please.”

She disappeared for a moment and then came back with a friend.

“Yes, can I help you?”

“What do you have that’s vegetarian?”

“That would be the onion rice ball set.”

“That’s the only vegetarian meal on offer?”

“Yes.”

“But it’s completely vegetarian?”

“That’s right.”

“OK… I’ll have that then.”

溜息

The meal when it came was ok, if rather boring. Vegetarian was a teensy-weensy bit of a misnomer though. In fact this “vegetarian meal” contains processed fish (kamaboko) in one of the side dishes and pollack roe (mentaiko) in the  potato salad. I think perhaps they ought to change that sign – unless of course by “Vegetarian Friendly” they simply mean that they will smile at vegetarians but they won’t give you any food.

The Tamanegi Onigiri set - rather boring and definitely not vegetarian.

Meat-loving Mewby however really enjoyed her “Delicious Local Chicken Table d’hote”.

As you can probably tell, I’m not really recommending this place. I wouldn’t black-list it either. It’s not a bad place but neither is it great. Actually I probably wouldn’t post this at all if I didn’t feel I should warn our vegetarian bretheren: If you are looking for something to eat here you will be sorely disappointed.

Here’s some more pictures for those of you who like to eat dead beasts.

Kyo Club is on the north side of Nishikikoji street in between Fuyacho and Gokomachi. Here’s a map and some coupons. Officially they are open every day between 11 and 9 pm but often close earlier if they run out of ingredients. They serve organic food but vegetarians should probably go elsewhere.