Stylish Dining by Kiyomizu
With white plush couches, black wooden furnishings, and red theatre curtains before a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Gojo Dōri, Sherry bills itself as an ‘atmosphere restaurant.’ Certainly, the door to the women’s washroom alone is worth a look as a quirky tribute to over-engineering.
On the second floor above a dry cleaner’s three blocks east of Gojo Station, Sherry Bar and Restaurant offers style at more than reasonable prices.
The menu is in Japanese, but it doesn’t really matter—just pick anything and it will be gastronomically and even aesthetically appealing. The shrimp and avocado mille-feuille (‘ebi to abokado no miru-fiiyu,’ ¥720) looks and tastes like a work of art, while the fresh tomato and mozzarella salad (‘furesshu tomato to mottsa-rera chiizu sarada,’ ¥720) is so remarkably fresh that one actually stops to note, ‘Now that’s fresh!’ White crackers with pepper corns and cheese serve as a complimentary appetizer, while those with a real hankering for the stuff can order a bubbling pot of camembert fondue (‘kaman-beru chiizu fondyu,’ ¥780). Or you could just accentuate your meal with a ¥500 plate of chocolate—considered a side order here.
Everything on the menu comes in below ¥1000, with two distinguished exceptions: The cheese plate (‘chiizu morawase’) and the avocado prosciutto wrap (‘abokado no paruma-san puroshūto maki’), ¥1200 each. Dishes of note include the home-made bacon and olive tomato spaghetti (‘bēkon to oriibu no jika-sei tomato sōsu s'pageti,’ ¥900), mixed spring rolls (‘harumaki no sanshu mori,’ ¥750), pork cutlets (‘buta kaku-ni,’ ¥550), and whitefish with mushrooms (‘tappuri kinoko to shiromi-sakana no atsu-atsu oiru-yaki,’ ¥880).
Open from 5:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. daily except Wednesdays, Sherry is just a twenty-minute walk from the entrance to Kiyomizu-dera, and makes an excellent stop on the way home from Kyoto’s temple-filled east side.
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Published November 2008. Photo © 2007 Michael Kanert.