川床料理 Robin 先斗町 魯ビン

Last time I visited Kyoto, I passed by this row of restaurants along the Kamo River and really wanted to experience dining by the river while enjoying the scenery. This time, I booked a place at this Kawadoko restaurant, and I can only say: make sure the weather is cool enough before coming here...

We arrived at noon in early September, with a room temperature of 34 degrees Celsius. After sitting for just two minutes, I immediately asked if there were any indoor seating with air conditioning because it was just too hot 🥵.

The interior decor of this restaurant is also very beautiful, and the atmosphere is nice. The staff's English is excellent, and they introduce each dish in English, explaining the ingredients and how to eat them, so communication was not a problem at all.

However, when it comes to the food itself, it can only be described as mediocre. Firstly, they reused too many ingredients. For example, that fugu appeared in about three dishes, but I didn't particularly enjoy its taste, which meant we had to eat the same ingredients repeatedly.

Next, the flavors were really quite bland. Although the presentation was good, there were no memorable tastes; I can barely recall any signature dishes now.

Overall, the experience was nice, but the food is still the most important element in a restaurant!

Additionally, even though we moved indoors, we were still charged an extra fee because our original reservation was for the Kawadoko seating. It's something to be particularly aware of when making a reservation!