Giro Giro Hitoshina — Restaurant in Kyoto

If the vibe of the restaurant you are looking for is several dozen trapped foreign tourists desperately debating the sunk costs of a prepaid reservation as they wait 2 hours for a handful of tiny dishes to be served then this is the place for you. Not. Do not eat here.

Absolutely disasterous dinner for my 4th wedding anniversary, I was so desperately disappointed. In the only "fancy dinner" I reserved in advance the whole trip. Every other meal we had this trip has been lovely. This was a disaster. Half the dishes served weren't even worth eating the fish did not seem fresh it was very fishy smelling (and I've dined japanese kaseki style many times before. I am not a picky eater) the dishes were simply bad and we were waiting 20-30 min between plates while the waitress butchered our drink orders, brought drinks to the wrong table and let our water run dry while we waited for food hoping desperately to be fed.

I have never come so close to walking out mid meal as I did during our visit. The tea I was served tasted like cigarette ash tray drippings it was utterly undrinkable, foul tasting and smelling. Desert was an ice cream dish served to us mostly melted. The fish meat balls were inedible.

The meal would have been subpar but fine if we'd been served in a timely manner but dragged out across a full two hours it was miserable.

They have no business accepting so many reservations if the kitchen can't get dishes out to that number of diners in a reasonable amount of time.

The only good thing I had was the yuzu beer but I opened that bottle myself and know the restaurant and it's staff and "chef" had nothing to do with the preparation. After finally being released at 8pm from a6pm reservation we went to 7-11 for a proper meal. I can't believe this place is so highly rated. I can't believe I wasted the time and money booking reservations

They are banking on foreign tourists who won't ever come back locked into prepaid reservations to stay open. If I hadn't already paid $80USD to eat here we'd have walked out after waiting 45 min for the first dish. A complete disappointment and one of my worst dining experience in over a month in Japan. I watched them serve the poor french couple at the table next to us meat and fish despite the couple explaining repeatedly to the waitress that they'd specified the wife was vegan in the reservation and trying to correct the problem multiple times. They were ignored and the wife...

My wife and I came here for our 10th anniversary and it was the best meal we had in our two week trip! After reading some of the negative reviews I was nervous. I think it actually hurt my experience because I was so worried that something would ruin our anniversary dinner. But the dinner did not disappoint! We sat at the counter and the atmosphere was great! This little gem is tucked away in an alley like street but that just adds to the atmosphere. We were eating at the chef's "home" as guests and he and his staff were wonderful hosts. Being at the counter we watched as the chef interacted with his guests in a variety of languages while he and his team cooked and plated our dishes. He and his staff were attentive and regularly checked if we wanted more to drink (we didnt because we didnt want to risk getting drunk and ruining the tasting experience, but theres plenty to be had if your tolerance is higher). It was far from the "rude" or "dirty and smelly" place that some of the reviews here said it was. It's certainly not a white table experience, but rather a kitchen table experience which my wife and I love!!!! Most importantly, the food was AMAZING!!!!! It started with a bang with some melt in your mouth wagyu before ending with the best ice cream I've ever had. Everything in between was great and my wife and I left satisfied. I got over my nervousness finally at the end of dinner and asked for a picture. The chef was more than happy to oblige and one of the other customers helped take the picture. It was a meal that brought people together, a real home kitchen table experience. Highly...

A little bit disappointed overall to be honest.

The good: food quality was ok, especially for the price point (but don’t expect anything amazing). Wasn’t super full by the end of it though. There is a bit of soul about the place, the head chef seems to be a bit of a character and greeted us at the end. We were seated at the counter and got to see the chefs work away at preparing the dishes.

The bad: The servers spoke minimal English. They tried their best, however, it was hard to understand (e.g. the kept pronouncing fish as “piss”), and they kept describing things by their Japanese names which didn’t mean much to us. Even with my elementary Japanese level and the use of a translator didn’t help. So we eventually had to ask different servers or the head chef (whose English was very good and was explaining to the other patrons on the other side with no problems), to piece together what it was we were eating.

There were 2 dishes we were served that was incomplete. I’ve attached the pictures. The middle brown dish came with an orange sauce, which I only realised much later on when I saw other people’s. The rice dish had small crackers, which I realised when I had nearly finished. I asked the (?sous) chef to give me some in my bowl as it was missing, he gave me some to try but I’m not sure he understood that he forgot to put some in our bowls. Watching the way the sous chef worked, I could see how he would have missed it, as it sometimes seems a bit chaotic and unsystematic.

Overall I probably won’t come back. However do wish that they can take on this feedback to improve...