Rangzen is the only authentic Tibetan restaurant that I know of in Kyoto. It is located near the Kamo River, just west of the Marutamachi Bridge.
Rangzen is small and quaint and serves real Tibetan style momos (Tibetan dumpling). The restaurant has nice vibes and lots of Tibetan cultural items decorating the interior. The owner is very active supporting the protection of Tibetan culture in Tibet and raising money to build schools and hospitals. Rangzen also offers Tibetan language classes.
I had the momo lunch set and butter tea. The momo set contains 7 kinds of momos, two deep fried and the others steamed. All had different fillings; some were just meat and others various combinations of meat, potato, cabbage, greens and spices. The meat was mainly mutton and there was one with pork.
I spent a lot of time in Tibet and the refugee communities in India and Nepal, a total of about 7 months, so I have eaten plenty of momos. Rangzen momos were the first or second best that I have had. (The other best momos I ever were at a little restaurant in the Tibetan refugee community outside New Delhi.)
Now, Tibetan food on the whole is not much to write home about. The lowland in the country is the same elevation as the summit of Mount Fuji, that is a pretty high elevation country so there isn’t much to eat. Tibetans are smart and resourceful, but their culture traditionally was devoted exclusively to Buddhist practice and the pursuit of enlightenment, so Tibetans never put much energy into developing their culinary culture.
The butter tea did not have the ‘punch’ of real yak butter and heaps of salt but it was pleasantly rich with butter and milk and had a bit more than a hint of salt.
Rangzen is pretty expensive.
My momo set lunch, which included soup and yogurt was more than 1700 yen! Now the momos were cooked after I ordered them. The variety of flavors and obvious handmade quality was very nice, but 1,700 yen is a lot. The butter tea was like 480 yen. My simple lunch cost like 2,250 yen. I consoled myself by hoping that a good portion of the proceeds are going toward a good cause — protecting Tibetan culture and sending young, poor Tibetans to school.
Plus
- Good karma
- Authentic Tibetan food (to the extent possible in Kyoto)
- Organic, high quality and local ingredients are used
- Peaceful, Tibetan atmosphere
- Tibetan handcrafts and incense for sale too
- English menu
- Non-smoking
Minus
- Expensive
Tibetan food is not something that foodies are going to get excited about and Rangzen is not any kind of gourmet restaurant. I see it as a kind of place that Kyoto residents would like to visit occasionally and that travelers would dig, though it won’t really accommodate a backpackers budget. Rangzen is a nice ‘experience’ and worth visiting if you want to try some exotic food and you are not on a tight budget.
Service: The staff is polite but not particularly friendly.
https://www.eonet.ne.jp/~rangzen/
location: Rangzen is just south of Marutamachi Street on Dodemachi Street. The restaurant is about a 2 minute walk from Kawaramchi-Marutamachi and about a 5 minute walk from Keihan Marutamachi Station.
tel: 075-256-0859
address: Dotemachi-dori, Marutamachi-agaru, Komano-cho 554-3 (土手町通丸太町下ル駒之町554-3)
Map: OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map – Rangzen
