Men-doraku Dai — Restaurant in Kyoto

AVOID AT ALL COSTS if you look like an Asian (but not japanese) but are expecting a welcoming restaurant to eat your food. I would give it ZERO STARs if I could.

We are a group of 6 adults with 1 baby and just had our absolutely WORST experience in Japan from my multiple visits to this beautiful country. The male owner/chef clearly disgusts foreign visitors who are not Caucasians and is unwilling to welcome any Asian looking non-Japanese customers if he doesn't have to. We were not greeted when we first arrived at the restaurant at all and our tour guide/driver had kindly asked if the restaurant has tables to accomdate a group of 7 people including baby. The owner said yes and we stepped into the restaurant and wait to get seated for the empty table right there. However, the owner shouted STOP for like 12 times as soon as we stepped in and we weren't even moving at all. So we patiently waited for 15 mins in front of the empty table that's already set and ready to serve while holding a under 2yo baby, without even anyone ever come out and tell us if we can sit. The owner was EXTREMELY RUDE and INPATIENT when talking to us and clearly showed his DISTAIN for foreign visitors. Eventually after waiting for 30 mins without even anyone speaking to us, we left the restaurant angrily. The other negative reviews are very true to the point that the owner is very very racist and only wants to serve Caucasian tourists. We are a group of asian Americans that just don't fit for his criteria to deserve a warm welcome that you would normally expect to get from a friendly japanese restaurant. If you are a foreigner, do not come here. The food looks mediocre at best but each customer deserves to be treated with respect instead of getting yelled at "stop" by an angry chef a dozen times when entering any...

A very disappointing experience. In an area where airbnb concentrates but restaurants are scarce, this restaurant is the first to appear in the search results for foreign tourists. Here, the owner doesn't greet and bring up the menu as politely as other Japanese restaurants. Instead, he is always willing to proudly use his poor English to climb into conversation with visitors from the Anglo world. This is probably the reason why this restaurant has received such high ratings. Speaking of food, the menu at this restaurant is very much like what you would find in a Japanese restaurant in a Western country and is far away from authentic Japanese food - how Japanese person could put udon noodles and oyakodon together as a set. The food is also pitifully small-sized and dull, with the two mains being much smaller than any restaurant's servings. Of course, there is an added "surprise" in the restaurant, meeting all sorts of Anglophone people with orientalist fantasies. Not only do they talk about their shallow knowledge of Japanese culture, they also proudly boast about the superiority of their country. In general, the owner has learnt to deal with customers from the West over his 12 years in business, but he also seems to have forgotten the Japanese way of treating customers and doing business. In this hodgepodge of Japanese imageries, apart from the bad food, you will a learn a lesson of how stereotypes may spoil...

I was craving udon so we came here after seeing rave reviews online. They have rice bowls and udon, and you can pair them together in a set. Overall I thought the rice bowls were better than the udon.

We tried the oyakodon and the pork katsu don. I really liked the fluffy and seasoned cooked egg on the sides of the bowls. There was some unexpected raw egg white in the pork katsu bowl, and it seems like the rice wasn't hot enough to cook it. The pork katsu bowl was still quite tasty with a soy sauce flavor. I also liked the oyakodon, which had quite a different flavor due to having more white pepper and a bit of sweetness. The chicken was very tender. Overall the bowls were good, though maybe the rice could have been hotter to cook the raw egg a bit better.

I got the shrimp tempura udon. The shrimp tempura was quite good, but I didn't think the broth was very flavorful. Noodles were fine. The kitsune udon broth had more white pepper in it. I was initially considering getting just an udon, but I'm glad I got the set because I thought the rice bowls were better than the udon.

Overall I probably wouldn't come here again, but I enjoyed my experience. The staff are kind and it's fun to see lots of notes, drawings, and photos from visitors...