The hotel is a short walk from Jujo subway station, which is just a three-minute ride from Kyoto Station, the city’s primary transportation hub. But the real appeal starts before you even step outside the building, because the Ariston Jujo has an amazing all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet that includes unlimited sushi and dishes made with locally grown Kyoto vegetables.

Starting things off with the star, the first thing we grabbed was a few pieces of sabazushi, Kyoto’s signature sushi dish made with mackerel. While some all-you-can-eat sushi deals slice their fish extra-thin, the Ariston gives you luxuriously thick cuts.

The fish isn’t entirely raw, but rather seared, giving the outside layer a subtle but enticing crispness. Beneath the surface, though, the fish remains moist and flavorful, which are also things you can say about the vinegared rice that forms the foundation of each piece.

The buffet also has a wide variety of Kyoyasai, as Kyoto proudly calls its locally grown vegetable produce. These are served in a number of different dishes that are meant to be eaten in combination with one another, which are collectively known as obanzai.

The buffet also offers items that might be more immediately accessible to those with more Western palates, though even some of these have a slight Japanese twist, like the egg sandwiches made with dashimaki tamago, sweet Japanese omelets.

The buffet even gives you the opportunity to be creative with its customizable ochazuke station, where you start by scooping rice into a bowl, adding your choice of toppings...

...and then pouring on a hot broth to make a tasty, fortifying porridge-like dish.

In Kyoto, ochazuke is traditionally served at the end of the meal, and after polishing off ours, we were ready to head out and spend the morning exploring, confident that we had enough high-quality food in our stomach to last us until the afternoon. Oh, and the Ariston Jujo’s buffet is available to hotel guests and walk-in customers alike, for 1,500 yen (US$14), so it’s still a viable breakfast option even if you’ve opted to stay somewhere else, like maybe in Kyoto’s cheapest guest house.

Hotel information
Hotel Arsiton Kyoto Jujo / アリストンホテル京都十条
Address: Kyoto-fy, Kyoto-shi, Minami-ku, Kami Tobakanjinbashicho 23
京都府京都市南区上鳥羽勧進橋町23番地
Breakfast served 6:30 a.m.-10 a.m. (seating until 9:30 a.m.)
Website

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