Originating in Kyoto, Katsukura has become a popular tonkatsu chain restaurant thanks to its healthy ingredients and the light and crispy texture of its fried food. With such popularity, it is no surprise to see queues outside of Katsukura outlets. In 2014 Katsukura was named one of TripAdvisor’s top 30 restaurants in Kyoto, leading to a rapid increase in foreign customers. Renovating its Kyoto Station branch to serve larger numbers of foreign guests, Katsukura not only increased its number of seats, but also its English speaking staff. In addition, Ki-Yan’s Kyoto vegetable motifs- shishigatani pumpkins and lucky bottle gourds-adorn the restaurant walls, welcoming travelers at ‘Kyoto’s gate’.
Open for more than 50 years, the popular Takabashi Rāmen restaurant is one of Kyoto’s oldest rämen shops and is known for serving straight noodles with shōyu-based tonkotsu (pork stock) soup. Following renovations, the restaurant now features Ki-Yan’s dynamic ‘Sunflower’ which enhances customers’ ramen-experience and adds some style to the eatery’s motto of ‘cheap, quick and delicious’. Though the restaurant has long been popular among ramen fans in Kyoto, the vibrant atmosphere created by Ki-Yan’s artwork has helped to increase Takabashi Rāmen’s popularity among a wide range of customers. Experience dining at this modern ramen restaurant with its sensational sunflower painting, innovative menu and polite, yet energetic staff!
Goh-no Tora serves obanzai style Kyoto cuisine while also specializing in inventive menu items such as charcoal grilled duck from Kyoto’s Tamba region, or Kishuumedori- an original brand of chicken from Wakayama raised on ume plum vinegar. The name of the restaurant (‘five yellow tigers’) comes from the chef’ s astrological data: the combination of the year of the Tiger, the number five, the colour yellow and the Earth Star according to the Nine Star Ki form of astrology. In line with the name of the restaurant, Ki-Yan, who usually doesn’t paint his subjects with realistic colours, decided to use yellow for the tiger and expressed the number ‘5’ by using five colours: yellow, red, black, orange and gold.