Shizenshoku buffets may be a good option for you. Shizenshoku means natural food, but it's not necessarily organic. The concept is a little bit difficult to explain. Lots of veggie stuff but some meat and seafood items also. These places will have a good mix of Japanese and Western style items (but more Japnaese). There'll be a lot of Japanese items that I'm sure you and possibly even your husband will enjoy. They'll have various veggie dishes, tempura, curry, pasta, noodles, meat/fish stuff, large selection of hot/cold teas, desserts. There're several chains that operate shizenshoku buffets and they're all over. There's one called Harvest in one of the complexes surrounding Kyoto Station.

Hotel breakfast buffets are a big thing in Jpn, and you should definitely consider trying that out at least once at each of your hotels. Standards tend to be higher and the variety definitely much more than breakfast buffets in US hotels. There'll be all the usual Western stuff (inc bacon/sausage, eggs, bread, cereals) plus all kinds of traditional Japanese stuff (one or two different kinds of grilled fish, natto, various pickled veggies, miso soup), salad bar, sometimes corn potage, sometimes curry or ratatouille, sometimes soba/udon.

You will manage fine at just about any establishment you set your foot into. Yeah there're some Kabukicho places that you'll need to stay away from, and occasionally you hear stories of racism at Jpn restaurants. But by and large, you can rest assured that you'll be served well and manage to get what you want, whether/not anyone speaks English. I know it's easy to overestimate the language barrier before you're there, but you'll be fine. But if you really want things to go without a hitch at all, then maybe go to department stores' restaurant arcade floors where all the restaurants have display windows of menu items in form of plastic models... or check with the staff at the entrance to see if they have English menu available. Just say "English menu?" and anyone will understand you.