Kobe Beef Kisshokichi - Sanjo Kawaramachi — Restaurant in Kyoto

Scammed…The worst food experience of my ENTIRE trip in Japan over several weeks. The Kobe beef tasted like cheap rump steak, it was so rubbery, chewy and inedible. It was SO bad and SO expensive.

The garlic rice had too much garlic for one portion of rice. The chef used the same amount of garlic for five portions as he did for my one portion.

The chef just seems so amateur. I complained about my beef being bad and he kept cutting it into smaller pieces and frying it again - not understanding that once a piece of beef has been cut, all the juices and flavour are gone. It can’t be saved if it was initially cooked badly.

We also felt that the food presentation was poor and little explanation about the food. I feel like $400 Kobe beef should leave you with amazing emotions and great flavors. But the steak was bland and unseasoned. All he gave us was a touch of wasabi and miso paste. I expected more. Also, the service was chaotic. We got our portion of rice and miso soup AFTER the beef had got cold.

We paid nearly $400 for two people and we really regret it. It ruined our time in Kyoto and made us feel a little bit depressed.

It’s definitely a tourist trap. Now I understand why the place was empty when we arrived. Also, the “chef” was not really attentive, plus his chef whites were filthy.

He spent most of the time shouting in Japanese to staff and messing up orders, and got distracted with other customers instead of cooking our super expensive beef.

The whole experience was boring and uncomfortable. We sat next to the toilets… and I had to wait for over 15 minutes for my drink and remind the staff about it. Also, the chef cooking in front of us was a little messy and got oil and garlic all over my phone screen.

For 400 dollars you’d expect a more personal experience but half way through our meal a large family came and sat next to us and we didn’t have much space, plus the chef then paid more attention to the higher spending party.

We received our bill, and then got hit with a new bill with surcharges added. I complained and then suddenly, like magic, the chef forgot English and started Google translating stuff like “sorry you had a bad experience. You got unlucky with the inedible and chewy $250 steak — better luck next time”.

How are they getting away with this?

I feel like I’ve been scammed

Shocking, awful experience and a real downer on our stay in Japan. Bad food makes me so sad 😢😖. This is a long review which probably shows how sad I’m feeling now

Now I’m going to 7/11 for a snack

To potential customers —...

Without a doubt, the worst culinary experience of my entire time in Japan. When we arrived, we were told we had access to only a limited portion of the menu. They accommodated us, which we appreciated, and then recommended the sirloin, which after ordering, we were told they were sold out of. The steak was decent, but not top 3 of others I’ve had in my time here — not even close. I’ve had better quality steak in a number of countries that were better than this. Our meal started out with a small sushi platter with tough fish and some ground beef. We then were given a soup which was placed frozen in a plastic bag on top of the teppanyaki until warm. Not everyone at the table’s soup were warmed the right amount, either, and one gentleman had to send his back to be reheated. The cook did her best, and was very friendly, but it was obvious she was new and should not have been serving our group by herself. No fault of hers. The vegetables were scarce and served after and before the steak, which made having a cohesive meal difficult. The steak also had a hard line of fat in it that made it difficult to chew. After about an hour into our meal, the person I would assume is either the manager or owner came up and told us we needed to vacate our seats as another reservation was starting in 4 minutes. The entire table was as gobsmacked as we were and none of us had ever experienced anything like that before. Our meal also included dessert which never came. I asked them to remove it from the bill and they acted like they didn’t know what I was talking about and then offered me to eat it on their second floor after being rushed to pay the bill on the ground floor. Avoid this place at all costs, if you can - there are plenty of other amazing options in this city, especially for quality teppanyaki wagyu and Kobe steak. The service (outside of the cook, who was lovely but inexperienced), quality, and price (it was VERY expensive for what we got) make this place somewhere you can easily pass on going to without regret. I hope ownership sees this and uses this feedback to help make other diners’ experience a more pleasant one. I just wish I had the sense to leave when they originally told me they couldn’t offer me the full menu....

so, my expectation of teppanyaki and kobe beef are both high. [background] i made reservation at sanjo branch to celebrate my anniversary (indicated at my reservation) and also pre ordered the set with special grade marbled kobe 120g. [vibe] it feels like the guy helming the teppan is a junior chef where there's a senior guy providing guidance. service crew also consist of 1 newbie guy who needed guidance my expectation of a teppan vs a yakiniku is, the chef must be able to whip up an impressive showcase infront of you. sorry, none of that happened. it was him cooking in tremble knowing eyes were on him. [food] the special grade wasnt that special and reputation of kobe's quality should already be high but we didnt feel so. Any ohmi A3 could have won this. Also, my husband ordered medium rare for the steak and i ordered medium.when the steak are presented, we didnt see/taste any big difference. Best, the cut/cook/tendon was bad and both my husband and i actually spat out 1 piece and it was on our plate. No one bothered asking if there is any issue. just to be clear, the food is not tasteless nor terrible. But if you are intending to pay for a decent kobe with teppan experience, i wouldnt recommend at all [price] i wouldnt say it is exorbitant but 2 of us paid 34k+ yen. but it just doesnt match...