Kagizen Yoshifusa Honten

Agreed with an earlier reviewer: the staff is do nice but I did not like their famous desert at all. I highly recommend their sister store Café Zen, but Kagizen can easily be skipped.

Lovely, peaceful setting. We ended up here for breakfast and even though it turned out to be just desserts, we stuck around to try something new. Limited menu of a few green tea items plus the two main desserts. One is flavorless arrowroot fettuccine type noodles, with your choice of white or brown sugar syrup. The noodles are served on I’ve, dipped in the syrup and eaten.
The other option are squares of a grayish mochi– type candy covered in soy powder and brown sugar syrup.
I enjoyed the flavor and texture of both but we were unable to eat even half. The presentation was lovely. But both items were so sweet! This was nice to try and I’m glad we stopped in but not my favorite meal while visiting Japan.

I love Japanese cuisine and I love me some sweets. There was no way I would leave Kyoto without stepping foot into Kagizen for some traditional Japanese desserts! There was a long wait but 20 minutes is nothing, especially after hearing about their Kuzukiri, the signature item.
Kuzukiri (1000 yen) — flat and clear noodles presented in an iced broth and dipped into brown sugar syrup. A very simple and delicate dish that is easily slurpable with a subtle aftertaste of molasses from the syrup.
Warabimochi (900 yen) — this was actually my favorite! It’s mochi like you have never had it before. It’s a lot more fragile and jelly-​like than your typical mochi made from glutinous rice flour because it’s made from a different type of starch (bracken fern). Dusted with roasted soybean powder and brown sugar syrup, this was the highlight of our dessert experience!
I forgot how relaxing it was in Kagizen until we stepped out into the streets of Gion. Damn, I wanted to go back inside this little oasis!

Tried the kuzukiri and didn’t like it at all. I had to give them a few stars because the staff was so nice and accommodating.

Kyoto is famous for its sweets, and Kagizen is a great representation of it!
One of the oldest restaurants in Kyoto, Kagizen is a classy yet traditional place that serves a very limited menu of Japanese sweets. The popular signature item is the kuzukiri, which is iced translucent jelly noodle to be dipped in brown sugar syrup. My personal recommendation is the bracken mochi squares powdered with brown sugar that is be to drizzled with even more brown sugar syrup. Sweet, huh?
Yet despite all these brown sugar addition, nothing is overwhelmingly sweet as well-​roasted brown sugar syrup produces just the right balance in sweetness with a subtle aftertaste. The highlight of anything you order here is not on the actual material like the jelly noodle or the mochi square, but on the brown sugar syrup that Kagizen has taken decades to master to its current perfection.
The nice thing is that you can indulge these delicious desserts in a modern Zen serenity even in a midst of the loud Gion district. Certainly the price of these desserts is not cheap with each order of kuzukiri costing 900 yen, but nonetheless, if you are in the Gion district, this is a traditional Japanese dessert experience that you should not miss!
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tl;dr version:
1) Great place for traditional Japanese dessert
2) Brown sugar syrup focused sweets
3) Somewhat pricy but still worth it!

Kuzukiri for breakfast? That’s what I did to avoid the afternoon queue when I was in Kyoto. Kagizen has a very nice dining area with a garden view. It makes the most sense (to me) to come and enjoy in the morning when majority of the tourists are still sleeping (or sight-​seeing) :)
I love the kuzukiri here. It’s one of their signature items and just by examining the ice block will tell you why the desserts here is simply superior. Try it with the kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup) and you will cool off immediately even in the hottest summer day. I also enjoyed their warabi mochi a lot.

On a scorching hot summer day, shaved ice is awesome, but sometimes how about having decent sweet kuzu noodles called Kuzukiri?
Probably foreigners imagine Japanese confectionery as rice cake stuffed with sweet red beans, but this shop and café provides a different kind of sweet, Kuzukiri as representative. It is not novel but first appeared in the early Showa era. It looks like a mixture of noodles and jerry made from kuzu starch, dark molasses, and water. I ate this Kuzukiri with chopsticks after being dipped in brown sugar syrup, which matches well. I was impressed by its light and simple taste. But very yummy. It is different from showy gem-​like Western cakes, but you feel Japanese tasteful dept culture in this simple confectionery.
You can buy some confectioneries here but never fail to enter its tasteful café. A small garden is annexed, which made me refreshing and relaxed. It is located in Shijyo street, near Gion area, very convenient for shopping or sightseeing!

I agree with Ryu S that this is a really excellent place for Japanese style dessert in the Shijo/​Gion area of Kyoto. They have been in business for quite a long time.
The Kuzukiri noodles with kuromitsu brown sugar syrup are most likely the most popular and standard items on the menu.
For those unfamiliar, they come out in chilled water. They’re translucent hand sliced sort of noodles made of arrowroot paste, so they have a very soft squishy texture and are pretty neutral in flavor but incredibly delicate. You eat these by dipping them into the sweet syrup provided, as you would eat soba for example.
Cute old shop too, with various items for takeaway and a garden in the back. Apparently around lunch time the line goes down the block.

It is recommended the best of me in Kyoto.
Kuzukiri (translucent sliced arrowroot) is too much delicious.
And you must choose Kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup).
京都で一番オススメの甘味処。
と、言ってもここでは葛切りした注文しません。
黒蜜の葛切りがオススメですよ。