American food & cafe ATONOMATSURI — Restaurant in Nara

We were going to our favorite Ramen place, which is about a 5 minuet walk from the Nara train station - only to find it closed; so we spotted cafe "Atono Matsuri" across the street, on the 2nd floor and decided to roll the dice. We came out winners at Chef Shingo's American Food Cafe. The inside of this friendly establishment has a clean industrial setting with a fully transparent kitchen that keeps the chef/owner very busy. Chef Shingo & his waitress Suzuka are extremely welcoming, speaking perfect English. His menu is in English making it extremely easy to order. This restaurant was so good we ate there two nights in a row. We can highly recommend, with 2 thumbs way up, the Cuban Sandwich, Chicken Wings, Nacho's, Quesadilla's and Chili. This place is a Grand Slam if you need a change of cuisine. If you leave Nara without stopping by here you have cheated yourself of a...

This review is based on our experience and food choices. I got the fried chicken and my girlfriend order the tomato pizza. Chicken was pretty good but the pizza came out 30 minutes after. It could have been that the one oven was being used and only one chef was present. There was a problem with time management in which the food gets brought out. When the pizza came out it was a flour tortilla topped with cheese and tomatoes. We did not expect it to be on a tortilla very disappointing since it took 30 minutes to make. We didn’t order drinks but will still charge you for drinks which we did not read the bottom of the menu where it was stated our mistake but shouldn’t be a thing. Overall the price was too high for the quality and time we waited...

I ordered the coriander salad and garlic shrimp. Although the dishes were exceptional, the service was terrible. The bigger guy kept speaking in Japanese expecting that I’d understand what he’s saying even after I spoke to him in English. Although there were open spaces at the bar, I was sat at a table as a single customer.

Also, he charged 500 yen for water. After I asked “seriously?” he was apologetic and removed it from the bill, which was kind but it should not have happened in the first place.

Overall, I felt this place was unwelcoming to foreigners. As a San Diegan, I thought I’d try what the Mexican food here tasted like but due to the service I didn’t want...