enen — Restaurant in Kyoto

I felt kind of scammed. YOU NEED TO PRE-ORDER THE SUSHI BALLS. There is a huge problem with service in this restaurant, and it was one of my worst experiences in Japan.

When I made the reservation (in person the day before), I asked the waitress if I needed to pre-order any food. She said no. Only later I found out that she said no because she doesn’t understand English, which is perfectly fine - but don’t pretend you understand when you don’t, this just creates problems.

When I arrived at the restaurant, i was about 20 minutes early. The waiter said that my seat wasn’t ready, which is understandable. I asked if I could seat anywhere and have a drink and he said “sorry we are full” when half of the seats downstairs were empty. Ok. I went for a walk and came back at the right time. I had to wait a little and they gave me a glass of water while I was standing, which I thought was nice. I was then seated upstairs at the “counter”. Upstairs the atmosphere is very grim, there is zero decor and the room looks rather cheap. The “counter” seat (which usually is in front of the kitchen or a bar) was in fact a small desk at the window. You cannot even see outside because the window pane is darkened. Luckily there was no one else so I didn’t have to squeeze, but I thought the seat was really not nice enough for that type of restaurant. Also what was extremely bizarre, the restaurant had a sign outside saying “sold out for today” but upstairs it was literally more than half empty when I arrived at 7pm.

The waiters were really friendly, and literally went on their knees to serve you. However, they are very young and inexperienced. It’s not their fault probably, but they definitely need more training.

I asked for the sushi ball menu and I was told “sorry, you need to preorder the menu”. So the sushi balls were not really an option. I heard another customer being told the same thing, so it’s obvious that this is not made clear in the menu or at reservation. I told the waitress that I was told I didn’t need to preorder the food just the day before. The waitress apologised then mentioned that she could make 3 sushi balls. I agreed because I wanted to try them. I also got two nigiri and one serving of meat. The servings are very small, maybe 50 grams ? The quality of the meat was nice, but it just wasn’t filling at all. I asked for another serving, also this one was the same size. With beer, the check was 6,900 yen. I felt that for what I ate, this is very expensive. Although the quality of the meat was good, I think there are many options in Kyoto for nice quality meat at a much better price. When I was in Kobe, you could have a beef steak of 180 grams for the same price.

There were other issues with the service. When the waitress came with the bill, she just told me the total price. I asked to see the single items, and found out that the 3 balls of sushi where priced at 1,091 yen. This is quite expensive for the quantity of meat on the balls. I mentioned the issue with the reservation and she just said “sorry”. In a normal restaurant, they would have given a discount or something, but not here. The waiters are just kind of clueless. Eventually I paid without complaining although I was very disappointed. I left the restaurant and realised I was never given the receipt. I went back and asked for the receipt and they thought I wanted to book for dinner ?? I don’t expect restaurants in Japan to have staff that is fluent in English, but the worst thing is that they pretend to understand when they really don’t and make a lot of mistakes in the process. I would say that this restaurant is a tourist trap. Also, the restaurant was only half full when I left at 8.30pm.....

I went to en•en while visiting Japan on my honeymoon.

We had to make a reservation online but let me tell you it was well worth it. We had the seven course wagyu meal and it was about 7,700 yen per person,roughly 50 USD. For the price this meal was beyond amazing. There were only two places I revisited while in Japan and en•en was definitely one of them.

Every single course was amazing and offered a different perspective.

We started off with the salad and wagyu sushi. We had 3 pieces of nigiri, each seasoned differently. All 3 were extremely tender and flavorful, my favorite being the one with the many small pieces.

The next course had a thin tongue with cabbage. The meat was again tender, and was quite good with the cabbage filling.

The third course had a small egg drop soup which I absolutely loved.

The fourth course had 4 different types of wagyu beef, and one was the stomach. 3 of them were tender and the stomach was quite chewy, we enjoyed them with the sauce and some wasabi.

The next course is my favorite, an extremely thin wagyu steak with rice and an egg yolk. The rice with egg yolk was marinated in a sauce and together it was soo creamy and savory. I absolutely loved it and can't stop thinking about it.

The last course was the dessert, it had a creme brulee with just such a light custard that was still sweet. The perfect level of lightness to not feel like I overindulged.

My absolute favorite...

Honestly, the meat quality was good but one of the waitress was racist or super rude. As soon as we entered he said “wait a minute.” With the hand gesture of pushing us away like he want us to wait outside. I understood that because the space were small and floor were full (only 1st floor I saw at the time). So we waited outside and he could see us waiting directly through the big window. We stand and waited like 20-30 minutes and then some two guys just walked in and that same waitress took them to the second floor for the seat. ?????. I went in and complained and all he was saying is “sorry.” that’s all. With no explanation to my questions & complains. he just say sorry like he just wants to get out from this situation and didn’t really care. I wanted to get out as soon as I saw there were plenty of the seats on the 2nd floor but I had a company with me so I just sat and ate. I don’t know if it’s just this guy being racist or it was a coincidence but the restaurant were full of Europeans (there were like 10 tables all white lol). Not sure why the review says they’re all nice but what I experienced today totally ruined my vacation and it’s not a cheap restaurant. I would have gladly paid $9700yen for the food for us 2people but with that rude attitudes I would never visit again.

내가갔을때만 그런지 몰라도 안에 백인들만 있고 우리 밖에서 30분씩 기다리게만들고 백인 두명이 들어가니까 바로 2층으로 안내 ㅋㅋ 뭐라하니까 우리도 자리 안내받앗는데 4테이블 비어있었음 ㅋㅋㅋ 어이; 2명 90만원내고...