La maison de graciani — Restaurant in Kobe

I had the pleasure of dining here on a few previous occasions when it definitely merited 5 stars. Unfortunately, I need to revise downward after my most recent occasion which left me disappointed, despite the overall good service. The small portion of Kobe beef they charged extra for was actually pretty hard and chewy, which had me wondering if it really was Kobe beef. Likewise, both the foie gras and the boxed portion of the desert were surprisingly lacklustre. Everything but the desert and espresso at the end seemed to be served too cold. Matching this, one previously warm and welcoming staff member seemed rather offstandish this time, which felt awkward. Most disappointing though were two mistakes, one at the beginning, and one at the end of our visit. The first was from what may have been a new staff member, obviously unprepared to welcome a "foreign" customer, who seemed to think that acknowledging my entry by rudely clearing his throat as he looked at me was an appropriate thing to do. It wasn't. The second came at the end when our server handed the bill presenter with expectant eye contact to my partner who was being treated instead of offering it to us with a more non-assumptive approach for who would be handling it. Really not good. If things improve again to 5 star levels after future visits, I'll consider updating this rating...

Impressive setting in a wonderful historical house with impeccable service. We selected the Menu du jour and "upgraded" to the Kobe Shintama Rotei beef for an extra 1,800 each. All the dishes were beautifully presented with a nice balance on flavours. Unfortunately, the small piece of beef, which looked fantastic, was not very tender, quite chewy and lacking the depth of flavour expected in a top-class beef. We had much better beef in the company’s Sankara restaurant in Yakushima and a number of leading restaurants in Osaka. With the benefit of hindsight, we would have been off better sticking with the lamb rather than upgrading. Kobe is renowned globally as a great beef centre, unfortunately, this restaurant failed to show it in...

A beautiful meal in a beautiful house. If there's a meal you wish to splurge in Kobe, it won't be the boring Kobe beef that's been spammed to death on YouTube by 'touch & go' travellers, but a slow delightful French meal here. Despite coming from Singapore without speaking an ounce of Japanese, we had no problem communicating with our table staff Misa who spoke fluent English. The quality of service she delivered is a fine example of what a Michelin restaurant should be - professional yet not robotic ; personal yet not intrusive. So thank you Misa for the delightful 3 hours spent. We will be back again on our next...