Shokudo Ogawa (食堂 おがわ) Kyoto

Awards

OAD

Japanese Restaurants 2024, 168

All OAD Japanese in Kyoto All OAD Japanese in Japan

Tabelog

2024 Bronze

All Tabelog in Kyoto All Tabelog in Japan All Tabelog Bronze in Kyoto All Tabelog Bronze in Japan

Gault & Millau

2 Torques, 2020

All Gault & Millau in Kyoto All Gault & Millau in Japan All Gault & Millau 2 Torques in Kyoto All Gault & Millau 2 Torques in Japan

Gault & Millau Public Mark

14 / 20

Ratings from the web

Tabelog

4.31

Chef

Yosuke Ogawa

Cuisine

Japanese Cuisine

• 2023
• 2020

Dinner at 食堂おがわ

on 18 Feb 2023

by Margaret Lam

Pictures 2-4 are the anago katsu sando 穴子カツサンド you can see the thickness of the anago, with a crust glazed with Ogawa San’s homemade katsu sauce, a smear of Japanese mustard Karashi, and some cold slaw. The meat was moist and actually had a “fuwa fuwa” fluffiness to it. My head went 🤯🤯🤯 , it was like none of the katsu or none of the anago sando I had ever tasted. So crazy 😱.

What make Shokudou Ogawa so special to me is how unpretentious the food and vibe is, yet... More

Pictures 2-4 are the anago katsu sando 穴子カツサンド you can see the thickness of the anago, with a crust glazed with Ogawa San’s homemade katsu sauce, a smear of Japanese mustard Karashi, and some cold slaw. The meat was moist and actually had a “fuwa fuwa” fluffiness to it. My head went 🤯🤯🤯 , it was like none of the katsu or none of the anago sando I had ever tasted. So crazy 😱.

What make Shokudou Ogawa so special to me is how unpretentious the food and vibe is, yet the food is so real and so delicious. There are no luxurious ingredients but Ogawa san manages to make simple things like Udo or Gobo into irresistible delicacies. Sardines are confit in oil with sansho, young ginger with corn kakaiage, etc, all are flavorful, wholesome, nothing unnecessary added.

The last visit there was a shirako noodle dish 白子煮麺 which he made shirako into paste and mixed with dashi, added the natural juice of shiro baigai (japanese babylon whelk) 白バイ貝 into it, then use this for the broth and add noodles, baigai and nanohana (rapeseed flowers). It was so outrageously good.

You can swipe through the pictures to see some dishes I had in the past few visits. Many places have gone downhill after covid while the price continues to go up. Shokudou Ogawa is the reverse. The price remains around ¥10000 (same as before covid) for a 12-13 course omakase menu, and the level is even higher than before. There are new dishes and the quality remains so consistent (actually I think higher and higher). Ogawa san makes most items from scratch at the counter - he slices, cooks, deep fries, stir fries, makes dashi, even make fried rice and dashimaki himself, and still have time to interact with customers with the most genuine hospitality. AND he is so talented he makes his own stamps for packaging, receipt and signatures (pic 8), as well as wrote a recipe book which was released last year. How insanely multi-talented he is.

Shokudou Ogawa has no Michelin, not on 50 Best, or any list that many chefs try so hard to get on. But here I have some of the best food and best time in Kyoto. It is rustic, it is not fine dining, but it is real food filled with good taste and good heart ❤️ Less

Dinner at 食堂おがわ

on 23 May 2020

by Margaret Lam

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS) One more post on product takeouts from Ogawa which I found to be very cute are these boxes of condiments. One is ちりめん山椒　Chirimen (Japanese anchovies) Sansho (mountain pepper). The tiny fish were cooked in soy based sauce and mixed with sansho pepper seeds, and they are extremely delicious and great for eating with rice (pic 1 top, top 5, pic 6 left) . In the shop you can order Cha-Han (fried rice) stir fried with these chirimen sansho. I liked it so much so I bought... More

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS) One more post on product takeouts from Ogawa which I found to be very cute are these boxes of condiments. One is ちりめん山椒　Chirimen (Japanese anchovies) Sansho (mountain pepper). The tiny fish were cooked in soy based sauce and mixed with sansho pepper seeds, and they are extremely delicious and great for eating with rice (pic 1 top, top 5, pic 6 left) . In the shop you can order Cha-Han (fried rice) stir fried with these chirimen sansho. I liked it so much so I bought one during COVID19 for my home cooking, not just on plain rice but also for scrambled egg, on top of cold tofu or tamagoyaki, and even with spaghetti (that was so yum 😋). I already got a second box and going to get one for my mom when I go to HK.
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The other box was 独活土佐煮 UDO TOSANI. It is a plant called Udo, some called Japanese mountain asparagus, cooked with katsuobushi and seasoning (pic 1 bottom, pic 6 right). Slightly sweet and the udo became very soft. When you heat it up, it also had a melty consistency. Love it so much with my steaming hot rice!
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Once again the two packaging were so adorable! For the chirimen sansho, the paper wrapping was printed with Ogawa san’s carving of a man eating a bowl of rice. The Japanese words said 「食堂おがわのちりめん山椒」”Shokudou Ogawa’s Chirimen Sansho” and 「注意:ご飯がとまりません」　“Attention: Cannot Stop Eating Rice” 🤣🤣🤣.
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And for the Udo it simply said the shop name and Udo Tosani.
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Both are so cute and actually a lot of quantity and you can keep them in the fridge to use as condiments anytime 😋

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#littlemeg_japanesetakeout #littlemeg_fightcovid19
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8 / 10

Dinner at Ogawa (食堂 おがわ)

on 08 May 2020

by Gerhard Huber

Back at the phenomenal izakaya of Ogawa

9 / 10

Dinner at Ogawa (食堂 おがわ)

on 23 Apr 2020

by Gerhard Huber

This very casual izakaya has an astronomical tabelog rating. And trust me, for a good reason. Ogawa-san and his team produce very competently fantastic and varied food. Go there and try to eat as much as possible of the daily menu which they draw up on the back board.
You will thank me!