01 / ABOUT THE PLACE
About this place
Some diners have returned for another helping of daikon radish after enjoying it, while others say they always choose chikuwabu and potatoes. The oden at minaka is not the kind that simmers away for hours. Choose your preferred ingredients, such as daikon, thick fried tofu or chikuwabu, and enjoy them in a subtly flavoured, savoury broth. At lunchtime, the oden set meal is another option: rice cooked in a hagama pot comes with oden centred on daikon and thick fried tofu, plus 2–3 other items.
Obanzai—the assortment of Kyoto-style home-cooked side dishes—makes it easy to build a meal from small plates with contrasting flavours. The rolled omelette has been praised for releasing a rush of dashi as soon as you bite into it, while the deep-fried yuba is described as a dish that invites a drink alongside it. The menu also features dishes made in different ways and with different ingredients, including fried eggplant with meat miso sauce, mushroom and pumpkin tempura, and pork rolls with shiso and ginger. Several kinds of Kyoto sake are available to pair with the oden and small plates.
Soup curry is also served at lunch. The menu lists a version with summer vegetables, chicken and chickpeas; one diner found a mushroom-rich soup curry an unexpectedly fresh change. It offers a different sort of lunch from oden. For dessert, there is cheesecake with a black sesame and kinako caramel sauce and rum-soaked dried fruit, as well as an ice cake made with roasted sweet potato. The latter is described not as ice cream, but as a chilled cake centred on roasted sweet potato. One diner found it gently sweet and easy to enjoy after a meal.
Located in Higashiaburakoji-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, minaka has counter and terrace seating.
