Kerala Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Kyoto

AVOID this place unless the only agenda for your day is stressfully queueing up for 1 meal. Food or service doesn't make this restaurant popular... It's the scarcity of Indian restaurants in the area that makes people go to this restaurant, despite zero effort from the owner to look after customers' inconveniences. THEY DON'T TAKE RESERVATIONS, NEITHER ONLINE NOR IN-PERSON. I visited with a group of friends twice over the last few days. Day 1: Reached at 8pm, there was a queue in a cramped up staircase and even though we were ready to queue, the staff asked us to queue WITHOUT any guarantee of a place before their last order time of 9pm. WHY NOT CLOSE THE QUEUE when you know you won't be able to serve??

Day 2: Reached at 2pm. Ordered 4 set meals (thalis) and drinks for 5 adults but the waiter called the manager\owner and he asked us to order a minimum of 5 set meals!! That's too much food and we didn't want to overeat on a hot day. There are only set meals and no small portions or snacks to order in the lunch menu so we couldn't order anything else to count as the 5th item but only a full fledged set meal! Hearing this 2 of our friends walked out and the owner wasn't bothered about them, which just shows they don't care about customers at all, they just want the money being at a prime spot...

Completely disappointing experience with service and quality of food. We stopped by for a quick lunch since my husband was hungry and I just wanted a small side but the owner told us that this order was not possible and that we had to order two sets (even after telling him that only my husband was hungry and ready for a full meal). Since we already sat down, we just went ahead and ordered the 2 meals which seemed wasteful as only one of the meals would be finished. The second surprise came when we got the food. Both of the vegetable curries lacked variety as both had primarily large pieces of potatoes and huge chopped up pieces of onion. The samosa lacked any flavor, the “salad” was not truly a salad but shredded onion bits. The naan was not fluffy or soft like the neighboring Indian places make it. For the food and experience this place is also ridiculously overpriced (dinner menu is also double the price). If you’re looking for an authentic Indian meal & great service, please look elsewhere in the area for a more enjoyable experience. Would...

Where do I begin? The waiter( probably manager of some sort) started grabbing the menu the second we ordered the first dish. Barely managed to retain the menu till we completed our order. While ordering Biryani in a kerala restaurant is probably a bad idea, I didn't expect it to be so pathetic. Forget Raita or Salan as accompaniments to the biryani, you are served a side of complimentary disdain and arrogance. A special mention to their Racism towards Indians. An Indian family seated by us as well as ourselves were served no warm towels (standard etiquette across Japan) whereas a foreign patron promptly was. Not to mention, the manager audibly saying "prioritize the foreigners order" despite hers being the last order taken. As a result, we were left wanting and waiting for our order for 45 mins. I don't even want to waste another breath reviewing the food. Do yourself a favour and find an alternative restaurant or...