Toriyasu: Kyoto-style Chicken Donburi Shop

Toriyasu: Kyoto-style Chicken Donburi Shop (とり安 丼・鳥料理)

Toriyasu serves several donburi (ricebowl) dishes that are unbeatable. This tiny and charming restaurant with about 50 years of history is an offshoot of the 120 year old poulterer just next door.

Toriyasu serves three classic donburi dishes and the most famous of which is karaagedon.

Toriyasu is located on Karasuma Street just north of the Oike Street intersection. It is within easy walking distance of the Imperial Palace and Imperial Gardens (Gosho) and is right across the street from the new Kyoto International Manga Museum.

Toriyasu’s donburi are unsurpassed in taste, generous in portion and are very reasonably priced between 680 and 780 yen. Surely the cheapest shinise I have visited. By the way, the ‘yasu’ in Toriyasu means both ‘cheap’ and ‘peace of mind’ (safe to eat).

Karaage Donburi (からあげ丼)

Kaage is deepfried food, usually chicken. And donburi is a rice bowl with various ‘toppings’. Toriyasu’s Karaage Donburi is unique because the karaage is served over rice (as usual), but then on top of all this is a generous serving of egg cooked with dashi (soup stock) and tender Kyoto scallions. Karaage Donburi comes with red miso soup and tsukemono.

Karaage Donburi

Served with miso, tsukemono and tea.

Karaage Donburi

Notice the pieces of deepfried chicken under the layer of egg. The brownish powder on the egg is sansho.

Toriyasu Interior

This restaurant is tiny. The counter seats about 6 people and there are two tiny tables to the left, out of view in this photo. You might have to stand in line but customers usually move through in a timely fashion.
The restaurant interior is about 50 years old. The cook told me that they was an older interior, but that was before the war when the restaurant was smaller — being smaller than this is a little difficult to imagine.

Toriyasu Menu

Toriyasu lunch set
Oyako-don, Karaage-don, Tamago-don
Sake, Beer
Other chicken dishes

Toriyasu Exterior

Don’t be put off by the exterior.

The Original Toriyasu Poulterer Exterior

If you want to buy fine chicken meat for cooking at home, this is the place to come! This tiny shop is probably the most well known place to buy chicken in Kyoto. It is so tiny that they don’t even have chicken and eggs on display. You tell them what you want and they bring it out from the back room.

All the dishes at Toriyasu are cooked and portions are generous, so we have included this in our ‘budget’ category.

Famous Dishes:
Oyako-don 親子丼 (chicken and egg simmered in dashi) 780yen
Tamago-don 玉子丼 (egg) 680yen
Karaage-don からあげ丼 (deepfried chicken and egg) 780yen

English: No English menu, no website, staff does not seem to speak any English. The cook is a warm and polite young man and the staff is very friendly.

Hours:
11:30 – 2:00
5:00 – 8:00

Closed: Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays.

Near Sightseeing Spot: Gosho, Kyoto International Manga Museum
Also, just south of Honke Owariya

Access: Two minute walk from Karasuma Oike Subway Station