Nakau - Kyoto, Japan

Nakau is a chain restaurant in Japan which serves very affordable and a varieties of day to day Japanese food. We first found Nakau in Kyoto and we ate there twice and later on we found another location in Sapporo.

On our first night in Kyoto we were walking to this sushi place when we saw Nakau. First we thought it was Matsuya which is another chain restaurant and could easily be found almost every where we went. But when we were closer and got a chance to look at the menu we realized that hey this restaurant's menu is way better than Matsuya. Matsuya is popular for its gyudon which is simmered beef in dashi served on a bowl of rice.



Another thing we liked about Nakau was the ordering process through vending machine. Lots of restaurants in Japan use vending machine to accept payment and spit out coupons. I guess it's more hygienic and also more accurate. To make the ordering process even easier was the big picture menu outside the store actually shows number and price. So what we did was to write down the number that correspond with the dish we wanted to order. So when we went in and used the machine we could just press the button to order by number. When we punched in the number it would show the price and the name for us to verify. Feed the bills in based on the amount shown on the machine and the machine would spit out coupons. Take the coupons, sit down and wait for the waiter to come and collect the coupons. The food was made to order and brought to the table. Freshly made.

I ordered beef udon (niku udon) and hubby ordered a tuna bowl. That was the beginning of my love for beef udon. The beef udon offered a simplicity of noodle with broth less fattening than most ramen. And the size at Nakau was just perfect for me. It's filling enough without feeling overwhelmed. Hubby liked his tuna bowl as well. And total bill for those the meal JPY 1480 (about USD13). It's good enough for us to keep us from starving and yet gave us enough room for other snacks we may encounter. Which was pretty high chance.




Comments