Café Independants

Downtown Kyoto


Located beneath a gallery, this cool subterranean cafe offers a range of snacks, meals and drinks, including craft beer, coffee and cocktails, in a bohemian atmosphere (after you eat, check out the gallery space upstairs). A lot of the food offerings are displayed for you to choose from. Take the stairs on your left before the gallery.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Downtown Kyoto attractions

1. Kyoto City Hall

0.23 MILES

Built in 1927, this imposing building takes up one block on the corner of Kawaramachi-dōri and Oike-dōri.

2. Museum of Kyoto

0.26 MILES

This museum is worth visiting if a special exhibition is on (the regular exhibits are not particularly interesting and don’t have much in the way of…

3. Ponto-chō

0.29 MILES

There are few streets in Asia that rival this narrow pedestrian-only walkway for atmosphere. Not much to look at by day, the street comes alive at night,…

4. Nishiki Market

0.3 MILES

The covered Nishiki Market (Nishiki-kōji Ichiba) is one of Kyoto’s real highlights, especially if you have an interest in cooking and dining. Commonly…

5. Kaleidoscope Museum of Kyoto

0.3 MILES

This one-room museum is filled with unexpected wonders in a wide variety of kaleidoscopes. Not sure who will enjoy this more, children or the adults…

6. Rokkaku-dō

0.37 MILES

This tucked-away temple makes for a worthy detour when hitting the boutiques and restaurants downtown. The name refers to its unique hexagonal shape, and…

7. Kyoto International Manga Museum

0.45 MILES

Located in an old elementary school building, this museum is the perfect introduction to the art of manga (Japanese comics). It has 300,000 manga in its…

8. Shiori-an

0.58 MILES

Located in a large merchant’s house, this kimono-shop-museum walks visitors through the architecture of a traditional building built in the daibeizukuri…