A note on the words: zosui is rice simmered in seasoned broth until soft, somewhere between a soup and a risotto, and uzosui is the version made with unagi, freshwater eel. Unabe is an eel hot pot. Mamushi is an old word for eel served over rice. Kabayaki is the standard way eel is cooked in Japan: split open, skewered, and grilled with a soy-and-mirin glaze brushed on in layers. Kimosui is a clear soup made with the eel’s liver, and it usually comes alongside. Matcha is powdered green tea whisked with hot water; rakugan is a dry sweet of pressed sugar and rice flour that is eaten with it. Mitsuba is a Japanese herb tasting somewhere between parsley and celery leaf. Waraji are the woven straw sandals travelers wore.
Table of Contents hide
Warajiya on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. I had business in Kyoto, so I was staying just a short while. Kyoto has a thing called uzosui — a rice soup made with eel — and since I was going all the way to Kyoto I really wanted to try it, so I booked a table and went. From Kyoto Station it’s maybe thirty minutes on foot if you take it slowly and look around on the way. The outside has an amazing old-establishment feel to it. This is promising.
Mamushi set: 4,500 yen
Mamushi set, top grade: 5,800 yen
Uzosui lunch: 3,900 yen
Lunch is uzosui at 3,900 yen. The usual way is a course at around 7,000 yen where you eat unabe — eel hot pot — and finish by turning it into zosui, but at lunch you go straight to the zosui, and it’s pretty reasonable. That’ll do nicely, I thought, so I chose the uzosui. And since we were here, I wanted kabayaki too, so we made one of the orders a mamushi set. Calling eel “mamushi” has a nice old-fashioned ring to it.
Now, while I was looking around at things, it turns out this place was a favorite of Toyotomi Hideyoshi! Amazing. Apparently he came here to rest every time he traveled from Osaka to Hoko-ji, and because it was the place where he took off his waraji — his straw sandals — it came to be called “Warajiya.” That is a ridiculously long history for a restaurant. Maybe Hideyoshi ate the uzosui too.
Once we sat down, first came matcha and rakugan, a dry pressed sugar sweet.
This was our first meal after coming from Tokyo to Kyoto, so we took a moment over tea and a sweet and let the travel tiredness go.
And once the tea was drunk, a beer first, I think.
The appetizer arrived, which is just right with a beer!
And then the uzosui appears. Ta-daa!
An amazing smell drifts up. How long has this pot been in use, I wonder. A fine, well-seasoned old pot. I’m sure the flavor has soaked right into it. I take a first sip of the broth and…
SO good!!!!
Wait, this is seriously delicious. The seasoning is delicate, and yet the scent of eel comes through properly.
The mitsuba floating on top makes a nice accent. Such a gentle, faint flavor, and such a soft zosui. So good.
The eel itself is fluffy and steaming. The Kanto style, steamed before grilling, is wonderfully fluffy too, but this simmered eel is just as fluffy.
It goes well with the burdock root and egg as well, and I thought, this is a happy thing to eat!
And this is the mamushi set.
Not a lacquered box but a big bowl. Let’s pop the lid off!
This looks good too! About one whole eel’s worth, I’d say. Cut into three.
One bite and… delicious! Well, of course it is. The kabayaki is great too!
This is Kyoto, so it’s the Kansai way, grilled straight over the fire, I think. Crisp on the outside and still plump inside. When you want that crisp bite, it really has to be the Kansai style. So good. As for the rice, rather than the sauce being poured over it, it’s closer to being tossed through it. It’s on there evenly. The sauce is very gentle and light. And yet it still lifts the flavor of the eel properly, which is impressive. They know their way around an eel here. Delicious!
And dessert to finish. The apple was good.
So, our first meal in Kyoto was at the long-established eel restaurant Warajiya, and I think I can see why Toyotomi Hideyoshi kept coming back. If they served you something this good back then, of course you’d keep coming. I wonder if the taste has stayed the same all this time. Very delicate, and yet delicious. Seasoning gentle enough that even a modern palate, thoroughly used to strong flavors, still thinks “that’s good!” — that alone says it all. If you go to Kyoto, do give it a try!
Warajiya (Unagi (Eel) / Shichijo Station, Kiyomizu-Gojo Station, Tofukuji Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.8
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
