Let’s start with this place’s name. The owner named the restaurant after the things he wished to have there:
Yama means ‘mountains’: the store sells some hiking equipment.
Shoku means ‘food,’ as you’d expect to find in a restaurant.
On is an abbreviation of ‘ongaku,’ which means music. Indeed, you’ll find music playing in the restaurant 😃
This place is a little hard to find, although it is in the heart of Kyoto. It’s on the second floor of the building, which it shares with a small language school. If you’re on the street level, you won’t find a sign indicating that the restaurant’s there, so look out for the red building in the picture below. From the second floor window, you can see the main street of Kawaramachi, and the restaurant’s not too far from Demachiyanagi Station. I really liked that there’s an open kitchen – or maybe I should say that the ‘bar’ is actually the kitchen (just like all the restaurants from last time). The place is designed as a nice urban space, with the option to sit at the bar or at a large dining table that all customers share. The hiking equipment, on the other hand, can be found near the door. Overall, the design is clean with a little personal touch (in the form of heaping piles of books, as well as sound equipment and lit-up decorations).
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