Kagura gyumentai — Restaurant in Dazaifu

I had high expectations for this restaurant based on a YouTuber's glowing recommendation of its service, atmosphere, and especially its food. However, my visit turned out to be quite disappointing, as nothing lived up to the excitement I had anticipated.

The most disappointing aspect by far was the service itself.

My family, totaling four people, were seated separately by the staff due to a shortage of seats for groups of four. Oddly, there were two tables for two right in the corner, leaving me puzzled as to why they couldn't combine them for us instead of separating us. The planning system as for the restaurant felt incomplete and especially when we were informed that our dining time was limited to less than an hour. This was due to the restaurant being understaffed, with only one person managing all the tables order and payments. The food were serve significantly delayed, leaving customers expected to finish their meals within just 30 minutes.

What the most unbearable customer service that I experienced from here was the ordering process. There was no English menu available, which was understandable, but the staff (same staff that I mentioned earlier) didn't handle our situation well. Knowing we were foreigners and needed time to read and translate the menu, she rushed us. Both the set and à la carte menus were confusing, leading us to misunderstood what the staff had explained. When we tried to clarify, the staff became impatient, raised her voice loudly, and forcefully confirmed our choices before abruptly taking the menu away. It was an unpleasant experience, unlike any we've had in Japan before, solely due to the restaurant staff's behaviour.

The food was alright, but felt overrated a little. Overall, the entire mistreat experience wasn't worth the price paid. There are definitely better restaurants worth trying instead of this...

The “wagyu” they serve didn’t really taste like wagyu to me and my daughter. We ordered the めんたいうどん which was not the “wagyu beef rice” that the manager recommended as the signature dish. The dish my husband ordered though, was the signature one, and he said his beef was a bit more tender than my daughters and mine and the めんたい was much spicier and less salty than ours. If I hadn’t known better I would’ve ordered the signature dish, that according to my husband didn’t taste as good as the waitress claimed it to be. Didn’t hold high expectations beforehand as this is a restaurant that gains the majority of the income from tourists, but this was just even lower than my expectations. Deeply disappointed. Here’s evidence of me and my family actually having eaten the previously mentioned dishes. See the...

Had a very long queue during lunch, got in after an hour.

Food presentation was impressive and had a good variety of dishes. Tempura that came with the set was light and crisp, although the main rice dish for the meal was somewhat lacking.

The rice, egg and seaweed toppings did not taste very seasoned, beef was average. The mentaiko was the only component that had saltiness to go with other components but there was small amount so you had to portion it carefully throughout the meal.

Overall, a decent value set meal that comes with a bit if everything (and included drink) but the crowd can be...