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• 庵 (いおり)　High Quality Food and Service

庵 (いおり) Iori - Natural Food Restaurant. Reservations Only Near 宇多野駅 Utano Station The restaurant is located in a suburban neighbourhood in the living-room of a house. It was a nice train ride on a smaller quieter side-line which reminded me of small-town European tram-cars with single platform stations. We got a day-pass so after going to the restaurant, we could journey along the line to the {Arashiyama station} river and walk around the touristy places and across the other side on a nature walk. Do a search for Arashiyama and you'll see that it's worth it. The restaurant was, as I said, in livingroom, with two tables on tatami. Very quiet, relaxed, and peaceful. If I recall, there is a set menu (or at least, that's what I always got/ordered). It was probably $60 or something like that, and one small dish was brought out at a time. It was nice, because you would eat slowly while chatting and thus chew properly and take your time without any interruption as the staff were absent. Once everyone was done, another dish was brought as they mysteriously appeared when needed, and left us alone again. The food is Shojinryori [精進料理] and macrobiotic style, 100% vegan, and little cared-for works of art. I typically eat a LOT of food, but by the end of our meal, I was absolutely stuffed -- I think that if it was all served at once, I would have been hungry for more -- there's something to be said about eating in a quiet, calm manner without a sense of time or rush; I think we could all live on a lot less food this way and probably more healthily as well as we'd extract more nutrients from less food. I was so impressed by this place that I went back a couple more times while in Japan. Update: Blog article about Iori http://www.healthyfoodmalaysia.com/blog/page/2/ Tabelog listing http://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2604/A260402/26005102/