Bonten — Restaurant in Osaka

Summary: The food was good, but the service was non existent.

My first impression of this place was already bad even before having food there. Google maps shows that the shop opens at 17:00. I went with my friend around 17:15 but the shop wasn't open yet. My friend is Japanese so she asked if they were open, but one male staff tried to shut the door when clearly she was asking a question. I was quite shocked. Anyway they said "we open at 17:30." which also didn't make any sense to me. Maybe at least put up a bigger sign with the opening time if you're so annoyed by people asking about it.

After we killed some time at the nearby drug store we finally got a seat. The food was nice, but I don't know if it's worth the hype. It took so much time to get the dishes we ordered. Maybe because of the lack of staff? Not sure, but I was still hungry even when I was eating something. That's how slow this kitchen is. And like I mentioned at the top, the service is really non existent. No one really takes care of empty dishes until the last minute. Plus, I'm not saying that all the staff have to be smiling all the time. It's just that there's this subtle uncomfortable, unwelcoming vibe that comes from the staff. Especially the blonde staff, one lady and one guy. I think they're the ones who make the dishes.

I saw that most of the negative reviews here got the same reply from the owner. According to translation it says 'I learned a lot', but have you really? I don't really think the owner or staff would use their time to read the reviews but I wanted to leave an...

3.5 stars-Small, friendly spot near our hotel that served a selection of mostly delicious little izakaya bites. Some on skewers and some plated. English menu and easy conversation with staff about available items. Ordered multiple different meats and veggies as our meal. Seared scallops, grilled shrimp, beef skewers, grilled cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and Shitake mushrooms made up our little feast tonight. The Beef was almost too rare for us, the shrimp were a bit overcooked, scallops seared perfectly, zucchini had a sweet char and was delicious, tomatoes perfect little pockets of sweet juicy goodness, and the mushrooms just too dry. I have no doubt that more visits with different choices would produce even better results. It’s clear they know what they are doing here and recommend a visit if...

We stumbled across this izakaya on an evening we were looking nigh for a light meal and this was the perfect spot. So much selection of small unique plates (including lots of veggie which we found challenging to find on our trip 😊). We had grilled mini scallops and sausages, grilled oyster mushrooms and yams, grilled...