If you thought Wednesday’s review of Alma was stretching the definition of belated, coming five months after the meal was eaten, here’s a report on a meal eaten almost one year ago. You’re welcome. This was our penultimate meal on our first trip to Japan (we’ve since been for another week this summer) and was eaten in Kyoto, within walking distance of the place we stayed at for three days. We’d wanted to eat an unagi-centered meal and our hosts recommended Doi Katsuman. Well, they recommended another place in the vicinity more highly but they lived up to their reputation for having unpredictable hours and were closed for lunch even though they were supposed to be open. Doi Katsuman was open, however, and we had a very nice meal there. Here’s a quick look at it.

The vicinity referred to above, by the way, is that of the famous Fushimi Inari Taisha. We stayed where we did—outside central Kyoto—because we’d planned to climb the mountain trail behind the shrine early one morning and wanted to make as quick a start as possible. We’d accomplished that goal on our second day in Kyoto. We’d had a very nice lunch that day, featuring soba at Sanmikouan (and a slightly odd sushi dinner at Sushi Komatsu). On our third and last day we headed to Doi Katsuman for lunch.

The restaurant is located a five-minute walk from Fushimi Inari and presumably usually attracts a large tourist clientele. I note this both because they have a bilingual menu and because of the instructions in English outside about lining up and so forth. As it happens, there was no need for a line when we arrived for lunch (nor when we left). The restaurant was fairly empty and we were seated right away. There’s some traditional tatami seating available but we were happily at a regulation table.

The first order of business was to get some cold drinks—it’s very hot and humid in Kyoto in early July. Cokes for the boys and a large beer for the missus and me. So fortified, we made our choices from the menu. I have to admit that while I like a piece of sweet eel at the end of a sushi meal, unlike the missus and the boys, I was not terribly enthused about a meal focused entirely on unagi. And so I was very glad to see that they had a set featuring grilled eel sans the sweet soy sauce glaze. The missus, the older boy and I got one of those and a large set of glazed eel over rice to share. The younger boy got a smaller set with a little bit of grilled and glazed eel and a rolled omelet. In addition, we got a rolled omelet with eel and two side dishes featuring eel liver: one steamed with ponzu and one grilled with sweet soy sauce.

Everything is prepared to order but it was well worth the slight wait. I’m sure there’s far better unagi available elsewhere in Kyoto but we were not disappointed in our meal. I enjoyed the un-sauced eel and the two liver dishes the most, for what it’s worth.

For a look at the restaurant and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it cost and to see what’s coming next.

I failed to take a picture of the receipt but my credit card statement tells me the meal cost 15,400 yen or just about $107. That’s not a cheap meal in Japan (our sushi-heavy dinner the previous night was only a bit more expensive) but if you like unagi as much as the rest of my family does, you will probably not complain.

Alright, I have one more meal report to come from that Japan trip last summer—that’ll go up in a week. My next belated restaurant report will come from Los Angeles (one of a few meals eaten in December before I had to high-tail it back to Delhi). That will go up on Sunday.