SamaSama Indonesian Restaurant Kyoto — Restaurant in Kyoto

This was, without a doubt, the worst experience I’ve had in a restaurant in my life and I’ve been to several countries in almost every continent. The owner is very ignorant. He kept calling me a rasta when my hair was in braids. Rastafarianism is actually a religion which I don’t practice nor should it be assumed for any reason (including based on how someone looks). I couldn’t eat in peace and was subjected to numerous questions about my hair including if it was real. How extremely invasive and rude to ask a customer such a thing. He didn’t ask such questions to my friend nor other customers.

He then proceeded to call me by a celebrity I didn’t look like over and over but wasn’t doing this to other customers. I felt harassed and targeted and it was quite overwhelming. He was simply treating me like another species, de-humanising me when we are all the same; human.

He said he had daughters but treated a young woman with complete disrespect. He should be ashamed. The experience left me feeling very drained but this bad experience was unique to my trip in Japan. None of the staff were Japanese (I believe) so this really re-affirmed to me how kind and respectful Japanese people had been in all of my other restaurant visits. It’s a shame that none of the Japanese respect and kindness has rubbed off on the owner in all his years living in Japan.

My terrible experience aside, I’ll impartially speak on the food. It was average. Portions are small (even by Japanese standards) so my friend and I left hungry despite ordering multiple dishes. We were also shocked to find that for a proper restaurant, they only took cash but that wasn’t the worst thing in the world, just a minor inconvenience.

However, whilst I went to get cash and my friend stayed behind, they were acting shifty, hanging at the door, as if I was going skip out on the bill? Perhaps business is not good for them.

All in all, I don’t recommend this restaurant. Indonesian food is great but this restaurant is pretty unremarkable and not a great example of the people...

I recently had the opportunity to dine at a restaurant that truly stood out from the crowd. The interior design was captivating and the menu offered a wide range of diverse dishes that showcased flavors from around the world. It was clear that the restaurant had put effort into creating a unique dining experience.

However, there were a couple of aspects that left me feeling a bit surprised. Firstly, the mandatory drink order per person seemed a little unusual, especially considering that the restaurant was not primarily a bar. It felt unnecessary and left me wondering about the reasoning behind it. Additionally, the fact that tap water was provided for free alongside the drink order made this policy a bit perplexing…?

Another aspect that stood out was the behavior of the owner. The owner seemed to have a habit of closely observing customers throughout their meal, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable as a diner. It gave off an unsettling vibe and took away from the overall enjoyment of...

This restaurant is a cute, tiny place down an alley way. It feels almost like a cave inside with the dim lighting and dark walls. We went right when it opened for the day and were the only people in there. The food that we had was really good and each meal was brought to the table as it was ready so some people were done eating while others were still waiting for their food. It might not have happened with a smaller group but we had 7 people total. A few of the orders were messed up only with the level of spice for the food but they didn’t care enough to ask for food at the spice level they originally ordered. I’d recommend this for groups up to 4 people but not anything bigger. The owner was very nice and gave us good recommendations of things to do in Kyoto. They also had nice music playing that our friend absolutely loved. He even got the playlist...