Gion Tokuya

Located in the famous Kyoto geisha district of Gion, Tokuya is a traditional Japanese sweetshop. One of the most popular items on the menu, the ‘Tokuya hon-warabimochi’ (a jelly-like dough confection made from bracken starch), is created using very fine-grain starch and wasanbon sugar hand-kneaded to perfection, and served with golden brown kinako (sweet toasted soybean powder) and brown sugar syrup.

The surprisingly light, easy to manoeuvre and delightfully elastic warabimochi have a flavour found nowhere else. In addition, the menu also features mochiyaki zensai and mochiyaki shiruko (grilled mochi rice cake in a sweet smooth/crunchy azuki red bean paste soup) which come with plump portions of freshly grilled rice cake and generous portions of bean soup that raise this humble sweet to the top of its class. Summer brings kakigori shaved ice sweets, most notably the incredibly aromatic ‘Extra Special Uji Matcha Kintoki’. Note that though the closing hours are 6pm, the shop will close when its stock of sweets has sold out for the day. Reservations can be made up to a day in advance, and takeaway hon-warabimochi are available (though they are best eaten on the same day). Shipping is available with a restricted area.