Adachi — Restaurant in Kyoto

Don't even consider this place unless you are a glutton for punishment.

Small shop with 1 woman waitress and apparently 1 cook. The service - unless you are Japanese - is incredibly like stupid slow. Took 15 minutes after my wife's fish was served to get tempura that consisted of 1 heavily battered shrimp, 1 slice of tomato, a piece of onion and a glob of some kind of mushroom which I'm allergic to. Beyond that it all smelled bad. I couldn't figure out the odor until later.

The woman was very unhappy that i wanted to exchange the food for something I could actually consume. I chose the grilled flounder. Bad choice.

If a person caught a 8 inch flounder in Washington and you were caught by the Fish and Game people, you'd be fined for killing undersized fish.

It was waaay overcooked and served with no lemon but a spoonful of what was supposed to be horseradish. I don't think so.

I then realized that the odor and taste of everything in the place was -- rancid cooking oil.

Food in Japan is not generally of a high quality, not plentiful and not even attractive, sushi being the exception. BUT cooking with bad oil !! Short of deliberately poisoning patrons, this is not good.

It took a few hours of gargling to get the taste out.

Let me put this place into perspective. Imagine the worst greasy spoon meal at a diner somewhere on the road late at night. THIS PLACE IS MUCH WORSE.

They only take cash. The receipt was a number scrawled on what looked like toilet paper.

I can...

My partner and I walked 20 minutes, in the rain, from our Airbnb for a late dinner at Adachi and it was WORTH IT! Tonight's dining experience was one of the best we've ever had! The gyoza and salmon were perfection, and the added touch of all the extra side dishes (which the chef selects) was so homey. The lady who runs the restaurant was the kindest person we have met on our trip to Japan; she made the experience what it was. She was kind, explained how to use the side dishes, and chatted with us afterwards about Australia - her English is very advanced. We raved about our experience the whole walk back to our Airbnb!

We ordered a main each, which came with 5-6 side dishes, and had Japanese brown tea and the meal came to under $40 AUD (and we were very well fed). This is definitely a to-do when and if you're in Kyoto! Amazing food for a great price!

*As a side note, we got there around 8:40pm which was the perfect time - it is a small space so avoid peak eating times if you don't want to miss out or wait...

If I could give 6 stars I would. Not saying that lightly either.

The hostess wasn't terribly busy when we sat down so she gave us extra attention. Starting with warm hand towels and a blanket for my wife because it was cold outside! Dinner consisted of the tastiest fish I've ever had in my life, my wife had the Mackerel and I chose the "Miso". Both were extraordinarily tasty (sweet and savory fish... who knew?) and I generally don't like fish.

It's a small venue and maybe only 20ish customers could fit, but understand that this is a family owned type restaurant so that's the kind of service you can expect if they get busy.

So, the only downside might be if they get too busy you can expect less amazing service, maybe 5/5 stars instead of 6/5.

We had 10 sides between us and two exquisite slabs of fish totalling around 2900 yen. Worth every...