I want you to buy delicious bread! Bakery in Karasuma-Oike recommended by locals.

Kyoto is a battleground for bakeries! You often hear that "Kyoto is a battleground for bakeries!
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Household Income and Expenditure Survey (Households of 2 or more persons) Ranking by Prefectural Government Cities and Government-designated Cities (2017-2019)," Kobe City is number one in bread purchases. However, Kyoto City had previously reigned at the top for many years. So, if the demand for bread is high, the number of bakeries will increase, and friendly competition will improve the level of bread. So we will introduce two bakeries in the vicinity of Karasuma-Oike, one of the central areas of Kyoto, that we actually enjoyed eating!

Table of Contents

• ■kurs
• Fiveran
• ■ Summary

A remarkable store full of originality and bread kurs

The first bakery is kurs, located on Nijo Ogawa, about a 5-minute walk from Nijo Castle.
Originally a stall at various bread events, the store has attracted a lot of attention among bread lovers and opened a physical store in December 2019!
Recommended here is the Merguez (Kawakitaya) and Potato Purée (560 yen without tax).

A baguette sandwich made with mergueze (a sausage originating in North Africa, made of spiced lamb or beef stuffed in lamb intestines) from Kawakitaya, a butcher shop in Shichiku, Kita-ku. The harmony of the savory baguette and the slightly hot, juicy goodness of the merguez is exquisite!

Another recommendation is the "Chestnut and Brown Sugar" (600 yen without tax). The dough is flavored with brown sugar and filled with chestnuts boiled in astringent skin. The dough has a firm, plump texture, and the brown sugar flavor and sweetness, combined with the flavor of the chestnuts, makes it a must for brown sugar and chestnut lovers.

The store is so popular that many items are sold out, so if there is an item you want, please call or check on Instagram before going out.

■kurs
Phone number: 050-1076-8960
Address: 1F Corpus Nijo, 334 Nishi-Daikoku-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto
Access: 9 min. walk from Karasuma-Oike Sta. on the Kyoto Municipal Subway Karasuma and Tozai Lines.

Breads are like a runway!

The second restaurant, Five Run, is located about a five-minute walk from Karasuma Oike.
When you enter the store, you will find a stylish space neatly lined up with more varieties of bread than you can count at a glance. It is like a fashion show of breads.

The specialty here is the cute shell-shaped "Patiere" (216 yen without tax). The soft and flaky dough with a moderate sweetness and the aromatic homemade custard cream made with vanilla beans from Tahiti will make you realize the quality of the ingredients. You will want to eat as many as you can!

There is a good selection of meal-type breads, and the egg, ham, and lettuce sandwich had a very good balance of bread, ingredients, and mayonnaise-based sauce, which I ate very quickly (laugh).

They focus on bringing out the full flavor of the wheat by keeping the sugar content as low as possible, and their "Mentai France" baguette stuffed with mentaiko (cod roe) is so delicious that it changes the preconceived notion of mentaiko French, which tends to bring to mind a bread topped with a little bit of cod roe. It is delicious. (I don't have a picture of this bread because it was sold out that day, sorry!)

Fiveran
Address: 377, Yakugyoja-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto
TEL: 075-212-5696
Access: 5 min. walk from Karasuma-Oike Sta. on the Kyoto Municipal Subway Karasuma and Tozai Lines.
227m from Karasuma-Oike Station

■ Summary

A variety of delicious breads only available in Kyoto. Why not buy some in between sightseeing or shopping for breakfast or a quick lunch on your trip?