Kobe Beef MIYABI Sankita Store — Restaurant in Kobe

TLDR Save your money. Quite possibly a tourist trap.

Overall Impressions It’s beyond me how this restaurant has such high reviews. This was our first time going to a specialty Kobe beef restaurant, and we made the mistake of not doing enough research and booking in advance. This was one of the only places that had same day reservations—clearly there was a reason why. The whole experience felt subpar and tacky, from the venue to the service to the food itself—certainly not worth the price point of over 10,000 yen per person. You’d be better served going to a high end yakinuku place at comparable prices. Lesson learned to research more thoroughly, book at least two days in advance, and look at the menu/cuts of meat in advance.

Dishes Ordered Kobe Beef Combination set (tender red meat, premium rare part, premium rib eye roll) with A set (salad, miso soup, and garlic rice) addition: 2/5 This was the wrong thing to order. None of the cuts of meat were particularly good—certainly not up to the reputation of Kobe beef and in particular, one of the cuts was extremely tough. The meat tasted completely ordinary and evidently not too fresh as later I experienced some stomach trouble. Perhaps other cuts would have been better, however, this particular set was disappointing. In the future, I recommend looking at the menu/researching cuts of meat beforehand. The beef set came with an assortment of small grilled vegetables, toast, and grilled beansprouts. These tasted simply average. The A set addition included miso soup with some small and tough cuts of beef inside. The garlic rice was grilled on the teppan at the end of the meal with small cuts of beef. This also tasted simply average. The salad was quite good and was perhaps the best part of the meal.

Ambiance/Vibe: 2/5 The restaurant is close to Sannomiya station where a large number of Kobe beef restaurants are concentrated with garish advertising signs. It’s unclear to me if it’s this particular restaurant that feels tacky/scammy or if the whole enterprise of Kobe beef chains in this area has a similar business model/vibe. In any case, the premises itself has multiple stories and we were led by the chef to a rather dingy dining area on one of the upper floors. There were perhaps ~10 seats in front of the teppan and all English menus were already placed on the counters. The chef offered a photo opportunity with the cuts of meat in front of various awards/trophies the restaurant has received. How they received these awards is a mystery to me. In any case, it’s clear this restaurant is not quite a regularly operating upscale restaurant, but one designed for especially for tourists.

Service: 2/5 Service was utilitarian bordering on careless. For a price point of over 10,000 yen per person (almost $100 USD), I would have expected exemplary service at American restaurants let alone a Japanese establishment. Perhaps working conditions were less than optimal, perhaps they were short staffed, however, there was limited communication (despite the fact that we could understand some Japanese), dishes were set down carelessly, and ingredients were tossed about and dropped on the counter. In general, it seemed like the chef was not having a good day. Normally, I don’t like to complain about service, because I understand that service and staff attitudes are often a product of poor management and working conditions. However, at a so-called “upscale” restaurant charging its customers fine dining prices, presenting service that is of lower quality than I’ve received at some konbini registers is simply unacceptable. 2 stars because at least basic civility was still maintained.

Bathroom: N/A Not used.

Things to note: English menu available. Servers speak some English.

Rating Scale 1: truly awful, 2: below average, 3: average, 4: above average, 5:...

A Disappointing Experience – Overpriced and Unprofessional

I usually don’t leave bad reviews, but my experience at Restaurant Sankita Kobe Beef Miyabi yesterday was so upsetting that it ruined my trip and left a bad impression of this city. I feel it's important to warn other travelers to be cautious before choosing a restaurant based solely on Google reviews.

At first, the lady on the 2nd floor was friendly and helpful, which gave us a good initial impression. But once she left, we had to deal with an older chef men who barely spoke any English. Communicating with him was really difficult, and he seemed impatient and rushed us into ordering.

We came to enjoy some Kobe beef, but instead of allowing us to relax and savor the experience, the chef felt more like a pushy salesperson, pressuring us to order beef sushi and other expensive items we didn’t really want.

To make matters worse, the final bill was not what we expected. We ended up paying ¥140,470 (around $1,000 USD) for an hour of poor service from someone who wasn’t professional or welcoming to foreign guests. The service barely felt like it was worth $100, let alone $1,000. I had ordered two types of meat from the menu: 300g Kobe Prime Beef Sirloin (¥37,000) and 180g Kobe Prime Beef Fillet (¥43,200), which should have totaled around ¥80200.

Furthermore, before cooking the meat, isn’t it standard practice to inform customers about what they’re being served? It felt like we were being taken advantage of as foreigners, with no clear communication about the meal and price of the order.

If this kind of overcharging and poor service happened in North America, like in Canada or the USA, people would definitely refuse to pay and decline such unprofessional service. It’s shocking to experience this here.

To the owner: I noticed I’m not the first person to leave a one-star review. I would strongly recommend addressing these issues. I’ll never return to this restaurant and will make sure to warn others about this experience....

As a few other reviewers have attested, this place is 100% fishy as hell! Their basic spiel is to discriminate customers based on their appearance.

We were 3 of us (myself a long-time Japan resident and my brothers traveling from overseas) looking for this restaurant in Sankita street when this big guy in an apron came and told us they were full (they didn't look like they were full at all) but that we could go for Teppanyaki at a nearby restaurant which they would guide us to. He kept pushing us to go for Teppanyaki for an "authentic Japanese experience".

There seemed to be something fishy here right from the get-go because the staff inside the main restaurant couldn't decide if they were actually full or not. Finally they decided they indeed were full and handed us over to the guy in the apron.

After some deliberation we decided we'd like to try Teppanyaki as the prices seemed reasonable at the main store - ranging from 3000 to 15000 yen. We were guided to the store across the street (in picture). Don't make the mistake we did by agreeing to come here!

The chef in this new restaurant waited for us outside, and mouthed a loud expletive as soon as he set eyes on us. We thought we must have misheard him, so we walked in and were rudely asked to close the door and be seated immediately. Clearly he didn't like having to serve the likes of us. He pushed an English menu in front of us with extremely high prices (most dishes costing over 20000 yen, and some going all the way up to 90000 yen). We asked for the basic course which seemed reasonable, but he said they were out of stock.

We decided to leave because we weren't made to feel comfortable. None of us have been treated this badly at a restaurant in our entire lives.

We can't comment on the food here - maybe it has the character that the chef sorely lacks - but we certainly wouldn't be surprised if there's some fishiness at play...