Itosen

Spring rolls, sweet-and-sour pork and mapo tofu: if you are unsure what to order at Itosen, these three make a good starting point. Some diners name the spring rolls as a signature dish, and one account found them, along with shumai and roast pork, so tempting that it was hard not to order more. The flavour of the sweet-and-sour pork has stayed with some diners, while others describe both it and the spring rolls as gently flavoured. Mapo tofu offers a different note among the milder dishes, with the option to add Sichuan pepper to taste.

Mapo tofu makes a substantial meal with rice, while spring rolls and shumai are easy additions to share around the table. For noodles, options include noodle soup, fried noodles with a thick sauce, and crispy fried noodles topped with sauce. One diner describes the noodles as thin and flat, and says both the soup noodles and fried noodles had a gentle character. The style of the meal changes depending on whether you have the noodles in broth or toss fried noodles with the sauce, making them suitable either as the finish to a dinner of shared dishes or as the centrepiece of a simpler meal.

Itosen is a Cantonese restaurant in Kamishichiken, in Kyoto’s Kamigyo Ward. Alongside meals, it serves small dishes and beer, making it a good fit for a dinner shared by several people. Dinner reservations are available and recommended, so contact the restaurant in advance once your plans are set. Almond tofu and sesame dumplings are among the dessert options.