Saryo Tsujiri Gion 茶寮都路里 祇園 (Kyoto, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

I didn't expect this. We got back to our hotel so late last night from dinner at il Centrino. I thought it would be impossible for us to get up early this morning for our day trip to Kyoto. But everybody did their job; even little nugget decided to wake up on time. By the time, we arrived at Osaka Station, it was only 10:15am. Amen!

Better yet, we managed to hop onto a rapid train by accident. Little nugget was so looking forward to the ancient city of Kyoto. He just can't wait to get his adventure started. 

In about 40 minutes, we finally arrived at Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station (河原町) in Central Kyoto! This is much better than taking the JR line to Kyoto Station.

Once we emerged from the underground, we took some photos around the famous Kamo River (鴨川) before starting our march towards the tourist attractions.

While everyone was concentrating on the souvenier shops, I had my sight set on Gion Tsujiri (茶寮都路里 祇園), one of long-running traditional tea houses in Kyoto dating back to 1978. This is the best place to enjoy a Uji matcha dessert.

As there were only a couple of seats on the ground floor level, I had no choice but go up to the second floor honten (tea salon).

I remembered them having a wider variety of Uji matcha desserts but this ain't bad.

Tokusen Tsujiri parfait – Typically, one can't go wrong by ordering the most expensive item on the menu.

This is a very busy dessert with a lot of different textures thanks to the matcha whipped cream, matcha sponge, chestnut, matcha jelly, matcha ice-cream, azuki red bean paste, glutinous rice dumplings, matcha sorbet, vanilla ice-cream, matcha syrup and agar jelly cube. For 1,600 yen, treat yourself to one of the most delicious matcha desserts in town.

Shiratama – Interestingly, mom decided to order the handmade sticky rice balls served with red bean paste, soy bean powder and brown sugar syrup instead of any matcha desserts, thinking that they would taste like their Chinese counterpart (糖不甩). Bad move!

It was nice to get this out of the way quickly so that we could focus on the rest of my to-do list in Kyoto.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 573-3 Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, 605-0074, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Kyoto-Kawaramachi

Tel: +81 (0)75 561-2257

Website: www.giontsujiri.co.jp/store/saryotsujiri-honten/

Opening Hours: 10:30am - 6:00pm (Mon - Fri), 10:30am - 7:00pm (Sat - Sun)