🍢 Akagakiya 赤垣屋

Founded in 1934, and now in its fourth generation, Akagakiya 赤垣屋 is a special kind of Kyoto institution where the interior makes you feel like you've stepped back in time with its warm incandescent light, tatami raised platform, and fire stove heating up the vat of oden.

Here, the food is Kyoto drinking food like oden, shimesaba, katsuo, yakitori, seasonal sashimi, and more. It felt like one of those places where the menu is handwritten in hard-to-decipher hiragana and you're unsure if ordering something like a Lemon Sour is okay to do (it isn't, they don't serve those here). It was also on the Tabelog 100 izakaya four years running.