Downtown Kyoto’s prominent Gion (祇園) neighborhood is where Rutubo is at. Past the antique store-ish facade of Rutubo is a moody Euro-pan Asian bar with a soul of a Japanese dive bar. In other words, it’s a vaudeville with Southeast Asian decors sans shows or a newfangled izakaya with food. The air was downright smokey and garlicky. There’s no way one enters to dance by mistake.
Rutubo’s entrance.
Rutubo’s counter.
Rutubo’s menu.
Rutubo’s menu was well-curated and explained in Japanese and English. Their food in one sentence would be ‘yoshoku (洋食 / Japanese Western food)-inspired Japanese izakaya repertoire with kicks and twists of their original smoked food’. Bottles of their original ‘smoked salt’ and ‘smoked soy sauce’ were on standby at tables.
Rutubo’s French carottes râpées (carrot salad) was simple and sweet. It was good. 400 yen ($3).
Their concoction of Japanese potato salad with mint leaves had some smokey bits. Fair enough. 580 yen ($4.50).
Fish and chips came with sriracha sauce and smoked mayonnaise. I thought the mayonnaise was genius. 700 yen ($5.40).
Thai-style Japanese karaage fried chicken came with cilantro and an exotic sweet sauce. 800 yen ($6.20).
And dainty roast beef. It was priceless.
Everything was great at Rutubo. The food was great, waiters were friendly, and legal smoking was totally allowed.
Rutubo | 54-1 Kameicho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 〒605-0803, Japan
