Café Sarasa, Kyoto
Address: 2F Wood-Inn, 534 Asakuchi-cho,
Tominokoji-dori,
Sanjo-agaru,
Kyoto, Japan
Phone: 075/212-2310
Holiday on Tuesday
Open from 12.00 to 22.30
Lunch 12:00-15:00
Hood rust lunch 21:30
Drink rust order 22:00 Café Sarasa, Kyoto is located in an area where trendy new designer stores recycle old kimonos and rub shoulders with traditional art supply shops, there's a lovely old café where you can sip the largest café au lait in Kyoto. The exposed beams and mud walls of this Edo-era house lend the café woodsy charm. The laid-back eatery serves light meals. Sarasa is all about reasonably priced food in a huge old tobacco shop. The menu is broadly Mediterranean with a Japanese fringe, and most dishes come on large white platters that lend an air of celebration to eating here. You try the Okinawa-style fried rice with vegetable and tofu, or the Vietnamese-style pancakes. There is a range of moriawase plates that start at Y580 and include roasted vegetables, sardines in oil and tortilla with sausage among the choices. The smoked tuna and avocado salad caprese with wasabi mayonnaise is part of the Japanese fringe and the dressing is truly delectable. On a busy Saturday night giggling groups of female university students and a housewives' reunion are tucking into the seafood and grill plates (around Y1500 each). Value is writ large on the Sarasa menu and there is no doubt that the servings are big by Japanese standards.
The cheesecake, dusted with icing sugar, matches completely over the top with the breakfast-sized jar of Bonne Maman jam that accompanies it. The house wine (Y580) is just ordinary, so it would be far wiser for you to order Trapiche (red) or Casal Garcia (white, Portuguese frizzante) for Y2600 a bottle each. The cavernous space and array of seating lend themselves to lingering. The counter has front row seats to the open kitchen while the small room out the back beyond the garden is for trysts of a more intimate nature. Café Sarasa is three blocks west of Teramachi-dori and a little south of Sanjo. Look out for a tiny bicycle shop and head up the stairs to the left of it. Credit cards are not accepted.
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