Tsujiri (Gion)

Thanks to our massive tofu meal in the afternoon, we didn't really need a full meal that evening. We wandered the streets of Gion to see a bit of this historical district of Kyoto and also because we were told the Ebisu Matsuri/Festival (Ebisu Shrines are dedicated to Ebisu, the patron deity of business) was happening in the area. We were hoping to try another Kyoto favourite, green tea desserts and sweets and came across a few restaurants and cafes exhibiting green tea dessert models along Shijo-dori . We knew we came to the mecca of green tea dessert heaven when we saw Tsujiri (茶寮都路里) and a massive queue. When you see people queuing for a place down the stairs and out along the street, it's probably a good sign:



We really wanted to try this place but were a bit deterred by the queue. We decided to check out the festival first and ate some yummy street food at there to hold us over. We returned to Tsujiri and found the queue luckily got a bit shorter. We joined the wait on the street, and turned out it was moving quite quickly. We later spoke to a Japanese friend about this, and apparently there is always a wait there! While you are waiting, you can see what is in store from the food models:



We got seated after 15 minutes. You could find all sort of green tea food items including assorted types of hot or cold drinks, shaved ice, anmitsu, dessert sets and even green tea udon! We eventually settled for some green tea parfaits (抹茶 パフェ). For those who haven't tried green tea icecream it may seem a slightly odd idea, but the sweetness and creaminess mixed with a hint of bitterness from the tea is a delicious combination. And for anyone who has tried and loved it, Tsujiri is the place to go. The enormous parfaits are not cheap (the pictured below were ¥880 and ¥1,200 respectively), but seriously, we can almost let the picture speak for itself here:



That's orange pieces, cream, sponge cake, mochi, grass jelly and azuki beans mixed in there, and it was every bit as delicious and luxurious as it looks. The one on the left was the 'basic' Tea & Parfait (茶々パフェ) and the one on the right was the 'greedy' monthly special parfait.

There are 2 other branches of Tsujiri in Kyoto and 2 branches in Tokyo.

〒605-0073 京都市東山区祇園町北側275倭美坐（わびざ）祇園くろちくビル2F
Kyoto City, Gionmachi-Minamigawa 573-3