Junsei: Tofu Restaurant

This time, I’d like to mention a different kind of restaurant, a different kind of food. It is about a well known “Yudofu” restaurant located near Nanzenji temple.

Junsei serves “yudofu”, or boiled tofu in English, a popular dish around Nanzen-Ji and around Arashiyama. People say that these two places produce different Yudofu tasking differently. This one, “Junsei”, is the perfect exemple of what to expect from Nanzen-Ji.

There are lots of Tofu restaurants in Kyoto, but what makes this restaurant more interesting than others is its beautiful garden with the building “Junsei Shoin”. This place was originally built in 1839 as a medical school and became quite popular as such. It was later restored as a part of the restaurant.

The main building entrance. The text on the sign reads “Junsei Shoin” from right to left. “Shoin” means “place to study”

Shoin view from garden

They also have a beautiful garden which you can visit before or after meal.

What I like the most is the “Yuba Kaiseki Cuisine” (for Yen 6,170 at the time of this writting). Yuba is the Tofu skin and this Kaiseki course includes a hot pot of Soy milk. You wait till the skin becomes film then using a bamboo stick, you get the skin. It’s fun and it’s delicious!

Here are a few photos of our dinner!