Saryo Tsujiri Gion Honten

Gion Tsujiri is a tea company with roots in Uji, the tea-growing town south of Kyoto, where it was founded in 1860 by Tsujiri Eemon and his son Tokujiro. After the Second World War, in 1948, it opened a shop in Gion and took the name Gion Tsujiri. Its tea room, Saryo Tsujiri, followed in 1978, growing out of a casual tea-drinking space that was popular with maiko from the neighbouring teahouses.

The tea room occupies the second and third floors of the company's main building on Shijo-dori, above the ground-floor shop where you can buy matcha, sencha, hojicha and gyokuro. Upstairs, the menu is devoted to tea-based sweets made with plenty of matcha. The tall matcha parfaits, layered with green tea ice cream and other toppings, are the best-known items, and there are other matcha sweets and drinks as well as bowls of tea. Expect a strong, slightly bitter tea flavour balanced with sweetness rather than a sugary dessert.

The tea room opens from 10:30 to 20:30, with last orders at 19:30, and closes on irregular days, so it can be visited in the evening as well as during the day. Queues are common, especially on weekend afternoons and during the cherry blossom and autumn leaf seasons; arriving at opening time or in the early evening usually means a shorter wait. Cash, credit cards and QR code payments are accepted. There is no parking.

A visit suits anyone with a sweet tooth and is popular with families and groups of friends. It takes around 45 minutes once seated. Matcha desserts can be quite filling, so sharing one between two is a sensible option if you plan to eat a meal soon afterwards. If you are short of time, the shop downstairs sells packaged teas and tea sweets that make good gifts.

The building is about three minutes' walk east along Shijo-dori from Exit 6 of Keihan Gion-Shijo Station, and the Gion bus stop is close by. Yasaka Shrine stands at the eastern end of Shijo-dori a few minutes further on, and Hanamikoji Street and the Shirakawa canal are within a short walk, so it is an easy break during an afternoon in Gion.