Halal GYUMON Kyoto — Restaurant in Kyoto

First impression was very mixed, restaurant looked like it was closed at first. Overall appeal of it was very nice, everything looked very clean and well maintained.

Satisfaction went downhill once we received our food. First of all, prices in the menu are shown without tax for some reason and regular price is next to it with small font. Very unusual practice in Japan, according to my experience so far. First red flag 🚩

Our food came in parts, the sets in menu are pretty large so it was no surprise. Waiter which was with us didn’t really show any interest in us, his explanations were wacky and hard to understand. He showed a huge lack of enthusiasm and was not helpful at all.

During our dinner we experienced a gas grill which was set to maximum and really burned through our meat. Portions of wagyu were fine, except small bites which were dripping with some kind of sauce which really killed the taste of meat.

“Ramen” was really a 7-Eleven cheapest instant ramen, for 4 people all ordering “half ramen portions”, they were very uneven and probably 2 instant ramens were used. My friend had much more noodles than me and difference was very visible.

For main part of meat we ordered, they came in huge thinly sliced pieces. One of them came out good, cooked in sauce they were one of the best parts of the meal, one of the few which were enjoyable. Second part was too thin to be cooked on maximum heat grill also they were VERY VERY Salty. So salty, that after eating half of the slice, I was barely able to eat anymore.

Overall food experience was a disaster but when matched with prices that it comes with, it’s worse than you can imagine. We’ve eaten wagyu yakiniku in Tokio for about the same price, and experience was 1000 times better.

In few words, it’s not worth your money, time and nerves. Major red flag is lack of any interest in the clients by the staff and food service in general and I really don’t know how this restaurant has such good...

This dining experience was a shock. Have no idea how it’s possible they have 4.8 stars. Nothing about the food or experience was noteworthy. In Kyoto there are so many wagyu Yakiniku at much lower cost with better meat.

First, the staff doesn’t seem to happy to be there. We came in on a quiet evening it was mostly empty and they did not seem to happy to have a customer. That’s not a big problem but since the food was so average it’s worth mentioning here.

On the food. Terrible menu. They give you limited options for a set menu, and no menu online. The actual menu is extremely limited such as no salads and no vegentables.They only offer a couple very small side dishes.

Let’s talk about the meat. We got their best option which was 12,000 yen per person. The portions were small and meat was not what ass shown on the menu photo. The short ribs were little chunks of marinated fatty pieces only, and looked like kitchen fat scraps versus the nice cut lean meat in the photo. Also, in the photo the short rib was NOT marinated and showed larger lean pieces. The actual was neither. Nearly every one of the meats offered were extra fatty (giant large fat veins) not nice balanced marbelized Wagyu shown in photos. They give you limited sauce, no salt pepper, no sesame oil, just very basic sauce. The meat is average and can be found for 1/2 the price at the tourist trap places in Nishiki market.

We spent over 30,000 yen, and left not very satisfied. Funny thing is the side Kimichi that comes with a set of as less than a single spoonful. We had to order a real side order for 400 yen (not expensive) just to get more than on bite. All their portions are super small.

The 1/2 bowl of Ramen we got was not hot. Luke warm to almost cold.

Had to ask for water refills twice. 10 minutes for them to get a pitcher just to refill water.

This was our worst dining experience in all of our...

The food was delicious and the service was typical of local restaurants until after we ordered our food.

One of our servers became very terse with us after we ordered the food from him, and he then started glaring at us from the hall. At one point we saw him roll his eyes at us and another employee asking him to stop his behavior. Meanwhile, we tried to continue giving him the benefit of the doubt with smiles and arigato gozaimas’s. However, we did not see any of the other three groups who came in after us receiving this treatment.

After we paid downstairs, we even had the surprise of hearing him running down the stairs. Perhaps he thought we would dine and dash after his rude behavior? There were no more excuses we could make for his behavior at this point?

So why was he so rude? Perhaps he thought us cheap since we didn’t order too much? Or maybe it is because we didn’t look Muslim enough? Yet since he is a server and presumably not the owner, and since we were not the only group of people who were ambiguous in appearance, I am hard pressed to believe it was because any of these reasons. We also followed our instructions for cooking the meat in the broth pan provided, so we were not making any mess for them to clean up. In any case, his patronizing and demeaning behavior was inexcusable and it ruined an otherwise delicious dinner.

If anyone from management reads this review, the employee in question was one of Indian/Pakistani ethnicity, and perhaps not raised in Japan judging from his impolite behavior. At least one of your other employees noticed his rude attitude tonight so you could ask...