Nishiki Food Market is one of the best places to visit in Kyoto for a break between visiting temples. Nestled in a busy shopping district, it’s a definite must-go for any self proclaimed foodie like myself. Before you enter, be warned- this street is really, really long and has lots and lots of food. If you love food, you’re going to be spending a ton of money here, so come prepared!

The place is extremely crowded, but this is not mean that it is not worth going to. It’s a wonderful cultural experience and allows you to try many local delights. It’s most famous for its extremely fresh and large variety of seafood.

You can get almost anything- fish, prawns, squid, octopus etc. My friend ended up buying a little octopus on a stick, while I bought some yakitori. The octopus comes with a stuffed quail egg!

I then decided to buy myself some matcha ice cream, best decision ever. Japanese soft serve matcha ice cream could and should be a national treasure. It’s not exactly cheap (350 yen), but it’s worth it. This is not the last time I bought that delicious ice cream during my trip, as they can be found everywhere.

We then saw a cute snoopy shop that sold all things with snoopy-fied, including the food and tea! We then bought small baked sweet potatoes, which were wonderful and warm on a particularly cold day.

We then stumbled across a little mochi shop with a sign on it saying that I could grill the mochi myself. Since it was only 200 yen, I decided to give it a go. This was probably where I had the most fun that day, accidentally burning one in the process. The shop tender was really nice and even made me another one in place of the burnt one!

Definitely check out this shop if you plan on visiting, it’s a lot of fun! After eating the mochi we bought some hand made onigiri for breakfast the next day, and I bought some wagashi (traditional sweets).

Nishiki food market definitely lives up to its reputation as Kyoto’s kitchen and is absolutely worth checking out! There is so much variety of fresh food and the prices are really reasonable.