MAIDO Wagyuyakiniku — Restaurant in Osaka

Food: Wonderful food. The beef was well marbled, tender, and full of an amazing beefy flavor. The sides were decent, though I'd recommend skipping the deep fried enoki mushrooms, they didn't come out piping hot. Definitely wagyu, don't think it was all A5, but definitely at least A4. Their ice cream was also quite tasty.

Service: I can't give enough praise to the amazing ladies working the floor and the friendly chefs in the back. When you step in, you are warmly greeted by the waitresses and some shouts from the kitchen. After getting seated and placing your order on your phone, they bring out the welcome platter of wagyu and start cooking it for you. I've never been to another AYCE where the staff will cook your food for you. And they are definitely masters at their craft. The ribeye was beautifully seared on all sides, cut into strips, and the flame show was quite thrilling to watch. They are quick to bring out anything you order, but I did notice that a couple of times the side items went missing. But no big deal, this is an AYCE so you can just order it again. I think my large orders had some sides lost in translation.

Atmosphere: This is the only place where I can take off a point. Most of the tables have adequate smoke ventilation, but there is a 2 seat table near the window that doesn't have its own vent. When some smoke comes off it (and there will be smoke because of the marbling from the beef flaring up) it tends to drift into the table next to it (which was where I was sitting). Because the person at the small table didn't know how to control their grill's heat, I often found myself sitting in a cloud of smoke.

Price: Very reasonably priced, I think it was about 5000 yen. Not going to find this quality of meat for anywhere near this price back stateside.

All in all, I cant wait to return here for another meal the next time...

During my 3-day trip to Osaka, I visited several restaurants, but I came back here specifically to leave a review for this place.

It was my first time visiting, and we came as a party of two. The restaurant was very busy, with many customers who had reservations as well as people waiting for a table. To be honest, we thought we would have to wait for over an hour for a table for two.

At that time, a staff member (possibly the manager?) who spoke fluent English and Chinese came to assist us. She was very flexible in managing the waiting guests and asked us, “Would you mind sharing a table with people from the same country?”

However, after waiting for a while, no other guests from Singapore (or anyone who spoke Chinese) showed up, so we told her we were fine with sharing a table with Korean guests instead. She then kindly asked them, and after getting their agreement, she arranged for us to sit together with separate grills for each party.

It was a very fun and memorable experience. The food was beautifully presented, delicious, and served very quickly. I was really impressed by the enthusiasm of the staff here, especially the manager.

Even though she was very busy, she still took the time to check on all the tables and chat with customers from time to time. The atmosphere was warm and pleasant, and thanks to that, I even made two new Korean friends.

I highly recommend this place to fellow Singaporeans. If I ever come back to Osaka, I will definitely visit this...

Hands down the best Waygu experience in Osaka, well deserving of the high praise it has received.

The staff are honestly incredible, they put forth so much effort in being lively and friendly. They are extremely friendly to English customers and will try to accommodate and communicate as best they can (and honestly their English was really good). While it was intimidating at first as my group speaks very limited Japanese (primarily phrases/words with lots of pointing and gesturing), they made it incredibly easy to order and clarified on what courses they had and what are the best deals for what each person wanted out of the experience.

The atmosphere was intimate with close seating, but this is honestly a positive. The accommodated our group of 6 at dinner time with no reservation, their group tables fit up to 8 sitting directly side by side. It promoted a great environment of friendship and enjoyment with one another.

The main thing of course is the food, and it was nothing short of incredible. The Waygu was honestly very high quality with rich marbling that made it simply melt in your mouth. The other beef portions were equally buttery and savory. They grilled it to perfection, a great blend of char with a medium center on any thicker cuts.

I will be chasing this sort of experience for the rest of my various times in Japan, but I feel like I will only be able to return to Maido if I...