Sentido — Restaurant in Kyoto

The service and attitude of the owner are quite inexplicable. There was a vacant table, but they kept us waiting outside for over 10 minutes in a heavy rainy day. Their excuse was "it takes time to clean up", and they were definitely not welcoming when we negotiated to have a table that we waited for half an hour.

However, later a group of customers came in, and they cleaned the table in no time, literally just a few seconds. I wonder why they suddenly had time and stopped making excuses.

Kyoto was raining HARD and FREEZING! If we didn't enter and ask to have that vacant table, they may let us wait for a longer time. And the unapologetic attitude and words of the owner were really disappointing. We came for good food and warm service, not for indifferent and incompassionate excuses.

The price was decent, the food was ok(nothing special), but their service honestly made everything lousy.

Let's just pray that they won't intentionally make you wait...

I love Sentido. If you are in need for a quieter start to the day before 11.00am, this place is definitely worth looking into. We come here every time we visit Kyoto. The coffee is beautiful, their house blend is rich, chocolatey, malty and with just that slightest of bitterness in the cup (double espresso), seriously tops.

The hot sandwich plate was half egg salad and half raisins and cottage cheese - it was really good. I thought maybe the raisins had been compoted, because there were subtle spicy things going on. Kinda christmas flavours. Bread was wholemeal. Heart warmingly satisfying and understated.

Great space - intimate, quiet, hushed. Concrete and warm honey wood panelling. Beauty being, it can only take small amounts of people.

The fact this place is still going is so good....

This is the type of place where locals go for a good specialty coffee - it's a small shop that fits up to 16 guests and quite hidden. There's a daily board showing types of coffee beans and a graphic on how flavors will match according to fruity, acidity, full or light body levels - very easy to choose according to your preferences! I got their French press (first time in Japan I see a Bodum instead of a Hario), and was delighted with both experiences I had with them in different days. (Rwanda and Kenya selected coffee grains). Banana bread and sandwich breakfast set is definitely worth it - tastes like homemade (in case you're tired of Japanese white bread with butter, mine cheese and black olives had oatmeal and other whole grains). Will come back many times to enjoy the quiet...