Yoshiya — Restaurant in Kyoto

STAY AWAY. For halal food I do NOT recommend this place.

While the food may be halal, the attitude of the staff is VERY poor and totally destroys the joy of eating. There were 3 incidents:

1- We have 2 children who do not eat shrimp. So I asked the waitress (young foreign girl with a hijab, probably a university student working part time) whether they could replace the shrimp with something else. This is a very innocent request in Japan. The waitress refused flat out, saying “As you can imagine this is not possible.” Even if the request itself were irrational (and it was not!), such language is never used against customers.

2- After ordering, my wife asked to use the prayer room and was flatly rejected by another waitress (middle aged tallish Japanese lady), saying she had to finish her meal before using the prayer room! End result: we lost some of our sightseeing time, and my wife, her joy for the food!

3- We finally finished our meal and this time I asked a foreign waiter (white haired middle aged man) to use the prayer room. And was told that the prayer room is made available only after paying the check! It looks like everyone in the restaurant has different ideas about what the criteria for using the prayer room are! By then the prayer time was almost past…

The food itself was acceptable. Not bad, but not the best Japanese food I have eaten either (and I have been in Japan for 20+ years and know what Japanese food tastes like).

The attitude was anything but acceptable! Kyoto people are said to be condescending towards people from other parts of Japan, not to mention foreigners. I felt that they are even more arrogant towards Muslims.

I visit Kyoto from time to time, but Yosiya is one place I will certainly not be...

I'm typically impartial with restaurant reviews as long as the food and service meets the bare minimum but as this is our 2nd visit, I'm afraid I have to be brutally honest and critical of my family's experience. It was a pleasant experience our first time here last year but this time, we were met with disappointing arrogance (to put it mildly) when we were having lunch.

We were seated right by the door to their mini garden inside the restaurant (initially thought we couldn't go in as they placed a basket in front of the sliding door, until an elderly couple opened it to take some photos). Brought my child out to calm him from his tantrum only to be greeted back with "whole restaurant complaining that its cold because you opened the door". The elderly couple (local Japanese) explained that they were the one who opened it, only for this foreign looking waiter to proceed to inform me "to be considerate of others and not open the door". Perhaps I should have let my screaming child stay in the warm restaurant instead of being "inconsiderate" and bringing him out so others can eat in peace. I didn't mind being informed that we should not have went into the garden (perhaps better when we sat down), I mind being told off rudely and unfairly (despite being informed by the elderly couple that it was them).

As for the food, we didn't mind things being overpriced since it's a touristy area but at least let the taste be up to par. Most of our orders were bland, embarrassing...

We ended up in this place due to a lack of options for what we wanted, but in the end it was a very positive experience. There are a limited places to choose from. Lots of places close around 2PM, so it narrowed the research.

Service The staff was great, we were assisted by a Turkish staff member who was really helpful. The place was full and we had to wait a few minutes, but the server managed to accommodate. Food arrived on appropriate time, but we could feel that the place was crowded by the times the staff took to interact with us.

Food Quality of the food was great the quantity was adequate and they were very tasty dishes. Even if you are not a Muslim consider asking for the halal food menu because they have different options. I for once got the katsu chicken from the halal menu that was not available in the regular one and loved it. The tempura was great although it was not very spiced.

We paid around 16 euros for each meal. So it's a bit more expensive than the average in Japan but still not too hefty.

Conclusion All things considered, great experience, 4 out of 5 stars. If we had paid 10 euros it would have been a 5 out of 5....