Pochi

Kamameshi is one of the dishes visitors remember most at Pochi. It works well as part of a meal built around sashimi, tempura and oden, but is also substantial enough to anchor dinner. Some visitors who came specifically for the kamameshi have remarked that the portions were generous. There is plenty to choose from: one pot combines Hokkaido red snow crab with salmon roe; another pairs steamed whitebait with Kishu Nanko ume plum; and a third brings together sweet-and-savoury minced chicken and an oden egg. Go for the seafood, the fragrant plum or the familiar combination of egg and chicken. Kamameshi can be the final course or the main event, depending on your appetite.

Seasonal fish seared over straw and served as shio tataki is a natural partner for the rice. Depending on what has come in, the fish might be bonito, yellowtail or Spanish mackerel; it is served with garlic chive miso-vinegar sauce and sun-dried salt. One visitor particularly recommended the straw-seared Spanish mackerel and kamameshi, a pairing that makes a meal of fish and rice easy to imagine. For something more casual to nibble on, there is a crisp salad of Kujo spring onion with sesame oil and salted kelp, as well as Paripi: crisp green peppers served with minced meat miso containing Kinzanji miso.

Oden choices include beef tendon and konnyaku with Kujo spring onion and mustard, and chicken drumstick cooked with daikon. The warm potato salad is a playful variation: boiled egg and potato are combined just before serving, so it looks like potato salad but tastes like oden. Some visitors have mentioned ordering a potato dish alongside oden and ume-suisho, a crunchy preparation of shark cartilage with plum, and finding it memorable.

A menu listing says that local sake from across Japan is available at a flat price of 950 yen per go, a traditional serving measure. Whelk with wasabi is also described as a good match for sake. You could order several small dishes before choosing a kamameshi, or make the rice the focus and add oden and a few plates to go with it.

The restaurant is in a renovated machiya townhouse. Visitors have commented on the counter on the ground floor and the semi-private rooms upstairs; some have booked and sat on the upper floor. In Shijo-Karasuma, it suits a dinner of fish or oden followed by a rice dish of your choice.