Snow crab and shrimp paste are wrapped in yuba, steamed and lightly fried, then served with a Kujo spring onion sauce. Ippinko’s snow crab and shrimp paste yuba rolls with Kujo spring onion sauce bring Kyoto ingredients together with Chinese cooking. The listed à la carte price is ¥1,200. Another dish stir-fries Kyoto yuba with vegetables such as broccoli and bok choy in a light salt-seasoned sauce. It makes yuba the focus, whether ordered as a main dish or shared at the table.
One visitor dining with friends chose a dim sum course that included xiaolongbao, shark fin dumplings, boiled dumplings, prawns in chilli sauce, fried rice and almond tofu. The fried rice with pickled mustard greens, they noted, grew more flavourful with each bite. It’s a useful option for a meal that moves from small dishes to rice and dessert. Another diner remembered the fragrance of Sichuan pepper in the mapo tofu. The menu also lists an extremely spicy mala tofu made with doubanjiang, Chinese Sichuan pepper, chilli oil and chilli peppers, as well as a milder, regular mapo tofu. Diners can choose between a pronounced heat and a gentler version.
At lunch, one diner chose a set with three kinds of assorted dishes and white rice, plus a choice of one dish such as ankake yakisoba, tantanmen, prawns in chilli sauce or mapo tofu. The yakisoba was described as lightly seasoned, and the set proved filling on its own. It’s a convenient choice for a substantial lunch centred on a dish of your choice. Groups can also consider a course for two or more, combining starters, dim sum, cooked dishes, rice or noodles, and dessert. The seven-dish Choose-Your-Own Value Course lets diners select some of the dishes, including a noodle or rice dish. Choices are made by the group as a whole, however, rather than individually.
Ippinko caters to solo diners as well as groups, with lunch and dinner menus. Drinks include Shaoxing wine and beer; a glass of Shaoxing wine can be a fitting accompaniment to an evening of dim sum and yuba dishes.
