YAYOI KEN Karasumaoiketen

If you're out and about late at night when all the other restaurants are closed in town, this is a great gem. You put your money in a machine and then click the items you want to order, it'll print out a ticket and you give it to the server, so if you don't speak Japanese, no biggie. Food quality is... great imo and you get unlimited rice too. One of my favourite stops in the area. Old guy who works nights is a bit snappy, though.

Visited July 2019

We had lunch there and were all perfectly happy with our meals. The food was good and tasty at reasonable price. The service was very quick and efficient. We went as a family and it was perfectly OK. I would recommend this place.

Visited July 2018

Maybe not the best food in Kyoto, but pretty decent, and it’s part of a chain of restaurants so you can expect some consistency, quality-wise. Reasonably priced. Clean. Bright. Great if you can’t think what else to eat, or if you just need to grab a quick meal and don’t want to have to think about w...here.

Visited June 2018

This restaurant has a good range of meal 'sets' that you order with a machine and which are delivered to the table. The machine has an English language option, but you need to put money in before making the final selection. I ate here on a number of evenings and the food was consistently good. There... is unlimited rice as an opttion. It's very close to the Hearton Hotel in Kyoto and the subway station at the intersection of the two subway lines.

Visited June 2017

This is a good choice for an inexpensive, filling Japanese breakfast. We always stay at the Hotel Gimmond just down the street and walk here for breakfast on our way to the Karasuma Oike station. We had dinner here once too - nothing fancy, just good basic food. After a long day when we didn’t wan...t to go far afield it was a perfect choice.

The coin operated vending machine from which you make your selection is easy to master - the pictures are almost good enough for you to be able to know what you are ordering. Be sure to look at all the options rather than jumping to select the first one that looks good. There also are plastic replicas of several of the options in the window. And remember there is a side table with extra rice should you want more and pickles are on all the tables. 

Someone from the staff is usually available to help decipher the pictures if you have trouble. Especially when they see a gaijin trying to operate the machine, someone shows up from the back kitchen to help. Often, another diner will offer advice if no one else does.

Visited April 2014