Kyoto Café at Eastland Westfield – Ringwood – a must visit if you are in the area and want really nice, authentic Japanese and matcha drinks and desserts

When I am Ringwood, whether to visit the Costco or Eastland Shopping Centre, I always visit the Kyoto Café. It is located outside the shopping center and you can walk past it if you are walking to and from Ringwood Train Station. The restaurant used to serve some really big, well put together bento boxes but with the pandemic their menu has been trimmed. But even with this trimmed menu, the food is still incredible.

Kyoto Café does have a more casual vibe in terms of atmosphere, but it is definitely a good restaurant with all the hustle and bustle of what you would expect at a Japanese restaurant in Japan. The many waiters speak Japanese and many of the signs around the restaurant are in Japanese and English with the use of “texter” markers explaining the restaurant’s “specials”. These and more give that authentic izakaya feel to this restaurant.

The restaurant offers some incredible matcha desserts, both drinks and cakes. You can order matcha cakes for AUD$6, matcha cube puff for $6.50, matcha soda for $7 and matcha beer for $8. (I wonder what matcha beer tastes like…?) I have tried their iced matcha and it is worth the experience.

I would normally order their big bento boxes which had assorted mini sushi, assorted tempura, egg custard, miso soup and various rolls. They were so incredible, but I can understand that the pandemic has forced a change. I couldn’t ordered these bento boxes at my last visit. This is what I am talking about below:

I was surprised by the change of menu. The menu was definitely smaller when we visited again in May 2021. Despite that, there was still an incredible amount of interesting Japanese food.

We opted for Tempura with Udon and Teriyaki Poke Bowl.

The Tempura was nicely battered and came with a nice salt and tempura sauce. The batter didn’t feel heavy at all. The udon was nice and thick and the soup was light and easy to enjoy.

The Teriyaki Poke Bowl for $17.80 was excellent. It had tofu, chicken, avocado, kale, corn, rice and some nice dressing on top. I normally feel very bloated after eating rice, but I felt really good after finishing the bowl. It was made with some really good ingredients.

We also picked up their matcha parfait for $14, but on special for $11 on the day. This came with various layers of cake, corn flakes, cream, matcha ice-cream, raspberry and matcha sponge. It was oozing with delicious toppings. It was such a joy to eat. We started at the top and made our way slowly to the bottom, enjoying each layer.

We also ordered the Anpanman kids meal, which came with an assortment of food for our youngster for $7.80. It came with soba, karaage, tempura, sushi, edamame and fruit in a cute Anpanman plate. It was a really good deal and once you finish the meal, it also came with a good scoop of vanilla ice-cream. (Since my child didn’t eat everything on the plate, I was more than happy to finish it for them and also eat their ice-cream. She is a baby and she wouldn’t know.)

Here is some of their updated menu, which hasn’t been uploaded to Zomato:

Kyoto Cafe is located outside the shopping center (not inside it) and can seen walking to and from Ringwood Train Station at: R09/171-175 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood VIC 3134:

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