Grill French — Restaurant in Kyoto

Friendly chef (who was really cute when he was concerned that I’d burn myself and tried to mime “hot” at the crab croquette), and comforting food. Was worried that the course meal was pricey at first, but it turned out to be a reasonable value given the generous portions.

Starting with the appetiser platter of seared scallop, wakasagi in saor, and a crab-fennel salad, you can already tell that they are one step up from normal yoshoku restaurants in terms of ingredient quality. An everyday-priced yoshoku restaurant might have attempted to bulk the crab salad up with more mayo or fennel (or even use crabstick), but here it’s generously filled with real snow crab.

The hokkigai “bourguingon” gratin — so called because it’s stuffed with the same bourguignon butter as escargots — was my favourite dish, the chunky clam bits being perfectly cooked.

Even in dishes where cooking isn’t as precise as in fine-dining environs (e.g. the beef katsu was slightly more cooked than I’d have liked), ingredient quality prevailed. For instance, the kagoshima wagyu used in the beef katsu elevated it to a comparable standard of tenderness with the katsus you get at top-tier nikukappo and yakiniku joints, doneness notwithstanding.

The most ordinary dishes were the hayashi rice and pudding, which are of a similar standard to many yoshoku restaurants. If ordering a la carte, I’d skip these, but it’s included as a nice bookend to the course.

Yoshoku Ogata would be their closest competitor. I’d say the food here is more comforting and old school, while the other is a bit more ingredient driven in their sourcing (esp the fish). You won’t have a bad...

We are a Swiss / Indian couple living in Europe for many years, cooks and foodies by heart. We found this restaurant in the Michelin Bib and were excited to try French cuisine meets Japanese precision.

We are disappointed. Here some examples so you can make your own picture - we took the set menu:

there is one red and one white wine on the menu (2020 vintage). The service personell doesn't know what it is.

Dishes are the same as 3 years ago as I can tell by looking at the Google pictures of fellow reviewers.

⁠One dish makes use of plain ketchup (no joke) and not in a creative way.

⁠the other dish is plain rice and stew meat I can reheat myself at home.

⁠the main dish (meat) felt watery, as if it was frozen before, lacking any flavour other then the tube mustard it comes with.

the desert (pudding) was yummy but was just a plain cut from the fridge without any further enrichment, just as you would buy in the store.

many other small details that round up the picture but not worth mentioning by themselves.

What we had you can see on Google from three years ago, so have a look. Given the price and the excellent cuisine one encounters in Kyoto otherwise, I am shocked to say the least.

You can definetly eat here and enjoy a nice ambiance. But for that price, you rather save your appetite...

Perhaps it's after I had a wonderful experience the day before for 2/3 of the price, but I would say it's accurate for the food.

My expectations were not met in terms of food, the atmosphere wasn't exciting either (but I don't care if the food is great).

I had the set menu, some of the dishes just felt like large portions of something I felt forced to eat--it missed finesse or fine flavour. I did like the razor clams and the pea soup. The crab croquettes were good but it felt like a lot of deep fried food.

Generally would not come back nor recommend to a friend or family member. There are much better options in Kyoto, especially at that...