Visiting Restaurant Monk in Kyoto, Japan

If you're planning a visit to Kyoto, Japan, be sure to stop by restaurant Monk for innovative wood-fired pizza, intricate dishes, and locally sourced, farm-fresh ingredients.  

Eat

Monk

Kyoto

Typical price per person

$25-50 $$$$

Scenic Views Farm-to-Table

Monk restaurant sits near the insanely picturesque Ginkakuji Temple (a whole ass temple dripping in gold), which is off the beaten path about eighteen minutes from central Kyoto. It is located by the river on a very small one way street also known as the Philosopher’s path. When I visited in June, it was the season of fireflies. 

Inside of the restaurant is limited seating, with six bar seats and a family style table that could maybe sit eight. Though Kyoto is mostly a ghost town from Monday to Wednesday due to travel restrictions, Monk had a full house on a Tuesday. Reservations are a must. And if you know you might be in Kyoto, book soon because it will be near impossible to get on the reservation books in the future. The menu is set daily — chef’s omakase (Japan loves a set menu) — and is created and inspired by the morning local harvest from partner farmers in Ohara (up north) and farmers market finds.

The moment we entered the restaurant, I felt a warm and calming energy of the peaceful, fire lit restaurant. Seated at the bar, I ordered an Umeshu (plum wine) on the rocks and took in the open kitchen, which could have been mistaken for a staged rustic art piece with big heads of cabbage, cucumbers, jars of wheat, and camomile all beautifully stacked on wood. Throughout the night this art piece transformed as each of the ingredients were cooked into precise dishes in the seven course menu. In the corner sits the big clay dome of the wood fired oven. Everything we ate, from vegetables to pizza, was cooked inside by the hands of Yoshihiro Imai, head chef.

Menu highlights:

*Note: these menu highlights are specific to the date and time as the daily menu changes.*

• Charred sashimi using bintan charcoals, which hold the smokey flavor and umami.
• Saba Pizza, a Monk’s take on sardine 'za.
• Flecks of chunky salt on seared eggplant and pork. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

As we closed our the restaurant, Yoshihiro Imai shared how he wants to visit Berkeley, California one day, my hometown. “It’s world famous” he says. And it dawned on me why this restaurant felt so much like home in California. He is using the techniques of sourcing locally farm to table to create rustic dishes using the basics like fire. He obsesses over his sourcing like I do for my own small business. And he creates a darn good pizza even though he’s never trained outside of japan.