Update August 2010: The Hill of Tara is now under new management and named “Dublin”.
In Search of … the Craic Part 3
This is the third in a series of posts on Kyoto’s Irish pubs. Earlier this month my friend David Ewen and I went on a pub crawl of five Irish pubs in Kyoto to see what they had to offer in terms of food, beer, music and the craic. Tonight’s post is on…
The Hill of Tara
Irish pub and restaurant The Hill of Tara works hard at it’s Irish credentials. The owner Hanai Yoko, out of a love of Irish culture had the entire pub designed and built by an Irish design company. Three days a week they have live Irish music and traditional Irish dance is taught here too. The pub works closely with Irish Network Japan to organise Kyoto’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. And the menu features authentic Irish meals such as Irish stew, whisky cured salmon, mussels, soda bread… Ah, soda bread! I have this idea that you can tell a lot about an Irish pub from it’s soda bread, so I ordered some with a nice red chutney. This is how it looks: 
Looks good, eh? And as bread it tasted good. But as soda bread it was a little too light for me and not quite sweet enough. Something was missing. Some secret ingredient. And for me the pub feels the same way. It’s nice enough as a pub, but the awkward narrow shape of the building seems to take something from the vibe and it doesn’t quite feel as warm and as cosy as an Irish pub should…
That aside however, there are still many things to like about The Hill of Tara. One is the music. There is live Irish music here, played by excellent local musicians every Friday (from 8.30 pm), Saturday (from 9.00 pm) and Sunday (from 6.30 pm). Another is the mix of people you can meet here, both foreign and Japanese. Whereas other pubs are clearly dominated by one group or another, The Hill of Tara somehow strikes a balance between the cosmopolitan and the local. Finally, David and I both enjoyed talking with Nina the friendly barmaid. It’s the staff that make a place tick really, isn’t it? Here are some pictures for your perusal:
And here is a video of musicians Leslie Denniston and Taro Kishimoto: Another musician who regularly performs here is Felicity Greenland, and you can get a free download of her and Leslie singing The Grey Funnel Line here: LINK The Hill of Tara is situated on the north side of Oike a short walk east of Kawaramachi. There is a map on their website at the bottom of the page: LINK
Open: 17:00 – 24:00 ( till 1:00 am on Friday & Saturday)
Open for lunch: 12:00 – 17:00 (Saturday, Sunday and holidays only) Tel: 075-213-3330
Next post: Field
Related articles: Mc Loughlin’s
The Gael
Irish music at Cafe Woodnote