Ｏbanzai & Wagyu Sala — Restaurant in Kyoto

We walked in with no reservation on a Sunday night and were immediately seated. After one of our party was asked for drinks and requested water, our server immediately left the table to get waters rather than ask the rest of our party what they would like. Then, after coming back to the table with waters, he immediately left again, to return with a small dish of salmon and onion for each of us as part of the cover charge. We asked the server what the dish was, and he was brief and unhelpful with details. This is all while the restaurant is mostly empty. If this description does not make it clear, we were not being treated well by our server in any way.

I’m sure that this restaurant, like all the others in Kyoto, deals with its fair share of obnoxious foreigners. However our specific party of three are all Japanese speaking on various levels, including one of us being very, very proficient. Never before have I received such cold and hostile service in a restaurant in Japan. It was made perfectly clear to all of us that we were not going to be considered anything more than a nuisance here. We decided to leave the cover charge on the table and look for another izakaya.

As we left the restaurant, we were chased to make sure that we had paid the cover charge when we had already left it on the table. He spoke to us in solid English, furthering our correct assumption that he could have easily communicated with us if he had wanted to, in Japanese or English. I responded in fluent Japanese that we had left the cover charge on the table in cash.

It is the worst, most unwelcoming service I have ever received at a restaurant in Japan, and if the ownership is reading this, our server was an elderly man waiting tables on Sunday night, September 10th, 2023. I left feeling totally...

We found this place accidentally wandering through streets. The restaurant itself wasn't busy, but we were amazed by the food served and service! Many compliments to the chef and waiter on their work. We had 8 course set menu by chef, and was absolutely delicious. Starting with smoked bluefin tuna, side dishes, tofu sashimi, duck, deep fried shrimp with bubu arare, charcoal grill skewer, rice ball with mushroom miso and yuzu sorbet! Beautifully presented and tasted...

Deceptively amazing food! It looks unappealing from the outside and is easy to walk past, but it was basically like a 7 course degustation meal, with drinks and dessert for ridiculously good value. The chicken skewer was the best I’ve ever had. The one let down was the beef dish I had. All the vege dishes were fantastic and the yuzu ice cream was a perfect palate cleanser. Sadly very quiet for the quality of food...