Grill Kodakara

In Okazaki, the tiled roof of Kyoto’s 1933 art museum gives way to the greenery of Heian Jingū’s gardens. A few streets from the museum, people queue for lunch. Grill Kodakara has 33 seats, dark wood and wide windows that let in the afternoon light. Before the 1992 refit, much of what came out of the kitchen went straight out on deliveries.

Kōji Hatanaka, the third-generation proprietor, pours water from a height. He heard somewhere that getting air into it improved the taste. The habit stuck. The kitchen’s signature takes rather longer. Nearly three weeks go into dobi, a demi-glace made with beef tendon, onions and carrots. The founder brought the recipe from Takarabune, where he trained in Gion, and borrowed a character from its name when he opened Kodakara in 1961.

The sauce goes over a thin omelette folded around a mound of ketchup-seasoned rice, beef, pork, onions and peas. Even a small omurice can make a full lunch. There’s a whole yōshoku menu to get through, though, from hamburger steak and fried prawns to beef cutlet sandwiches and macaroni gratin. The kitchen spells its beef-and-onion dish haishi rice, and it’s another way to get to know the brown sauce. The crab cream croquettes are reason to bring someone who likes to share.

When the cook changed, Hatanaka recalled, regulars asked whether the food tasted different. The kitchen had been making the same dishes as before. How often do you have to eat here to notice?

A long queue can take a bite out of a museum afternoon. If the line is short, order the small omurice and split the croquettes. The haishi rice gives you something to come back for.