Shigetsu (Tenryu-ji)

Shigetsu is Tenryu-ji's own restaurant, tucked inside the temple's grounds in Arashiyama and serving the shojin ryori that Zen monks have eaten for centuries — a meal built entirely without meat, fish, or fish-based dashi.

The kitchen offers three fixed courses — Yuki (¥3,800), Tsuki (¥6,500), and Hana (¥9,000) — each a procession of small seasonal dishes served in lacquerware, built around kombu and shiitake stock rather than bonito. Expect a bowl of clear soup, a handful of vegetable and wild-plant sides that shift with the season, and usually a square of house-made goma-dofu (sesame tofu), the dish most associated with Kyoto's temple kitchens. The dining hall itself is the draw as much as the food: a wide, tatami-adjacent room that looks straight out over Tenryu-ji's Sogenchi Garden, a UNESCO World Heritage site, so lunch here doubles as one of the best seats in Arashiyama.

A few things worth knowing before you go. Parties of two or more booking the Tsuki or Hana course need to reserve at least three days ahead (two days for Yuki); solo diners on the Yuki course can sometimes walk in. The ¥500 garden admission is charged separately from the meal. And — a genuinely useful tip — Shigetsu currently takes cash only, after its card processor went under; don't plan on tapping a card here. On dietary questions: the shojin tradition avoids fish dashi by design, but the kitchen doesn't publish a full ingredient breakdown, so if you're strictly vegan (no egg, no honey) it's worth confirming by phone when you book rather than assuming. Hours are 11:00–14:00, closed Thursdays, a five-minute walk from Randen Arashiyama Station.