Pontocho Idumoya — Restaurant in Kyoto

Although we didn’t get the chance to eat here, I wanted to highlight the amazing service we received. We arrived excited but had a long wait. During this time, Hikari, our hostess, came out to explain to each group that due to rain, not everyone would be seated in time. She strongly recommended heading upstairs to the indoor seating for a quicker option and to ensure that we would be seated.

Despite a language barrier, Hikari used Google Translate to communicate clearly with everyone. She was patient, professional, and did her best to make sure everyone was informed and taken care of. Sadly, a rude group yelled at the staff, but Hikari remained calm and composed.

Even though we didn’t get seated, Hikari’s kindness and professionalism stood out. If we return, we’ll definitely look forward to...

You just have to come here for the outdoor sukiyaki and shabu shabu dining (only available certain months of year and subject to weather). The Koma River serves as the perfect backdrop for your meal. Some rules: you will be sitting on tatami mats, you will have to order a set meal each and you have to order 2x same set per couple.

The quality of the ingredients is top notch. Please see photos. The service is polite and Japanese-level attentive. It rained just as we got into our shabu shabu meal. They took everything in and showed us to the indoor dining areas - you will still get the same view. We got refreshed drinks, new bowls of rice served . The hotpot and the ingredients were saved in time.

ACHTUNG: They do not take reservations. You just have to get there and queue. And it is...

This restaurant had a minimum order of 2 pax per dish, so let’s say you want to eat Sukiyaki but your partner wants to eat Shabu Shabu, you’re out of luck. We settled for Shabu Shabu 2 pax portion.

At first when we saw the pot, it was clear water with a piece of seaweed kombu. We thought, maybe they’ll bring some seasoning so the soup will have some taste, to our horror, when we asked the waitress, she told us this is it - Japanese eat Shabu Shabu like this.

I can tell you the soup is tasteless as it’s just water so whatever we cooked had no taste unless you dip it in the soy sauce or sesame sauce. The beef, although nice and tender, wasn’t enough to change our horrible experience here.

I don’t know about other dishes but please do not ever order the...