Yakitori Ichiban Higashiyama Sanjo — Restaurant in Kyoto

This is what you should know going in: this restaurant is the definition of a mom and pop shop. As far as I can tell, there is only one chef and one employee. The restaurant fits about 20 customers total. Sometimes there may be sold out items and it may take some time for your order, but the yakitori is excellent and very affordable.

They have a few sign boards in English informing the customer of the ordering rules and the waitress is helpful, albeit with limited English. The chef welcomes tourists and is interested in where you are from.

They have a “greatest hits” menu in English but they also have a separate large menu in Japanese only that I highly recommend using a translator app on to not miss out on other dishes like grilled seafood and tempura...

A true hidden gem with warm service and absolutely delicious yakitori! Me and my husband stumbled upon this small place to hide from rain and we were very pleasantly surprised by the friendly owners and delicious yakitori selection. We had a draft beer and a peach/oolong cocktail and both were great. We also ordered chicken neck and spring onion yakitori, pork belly yakitori, chicken heart yakitori, chicken tail yakitori. The heart yakitori was so good we had to order it twice! So soft and juicy!! Everything was 10/10. Try to have a chat with the owners, they are super sweet. The lady does not speak too much English but the gentleman has decent level. The menu is in Japanese but if you use google translate camera, you will be...

Food tasted great, but the timing was awful. After ordering, we decided to order more 10 min later. We waited 30 min for the second round until we gave up and asked for an update. The server said they didn't even start cooking it and had no idea when it'd be ready! There were only 5 other people in the restaurant, so I don't know why they were so slow.

The other issue we had was the size of the booth tables and the chairs. Those were the worst booth tables I have ever sat on. Solid wood slats and the seat was so short. We kept fidgeting because our backs hurt from the seat. The booths barely fit 2 people and we kept bumping...