Specialty Cow Restaurant Itamae Yakiniku Ichigyu Kitashinchi Branch — Restaurant in Osaka

Horrible Experience! Avoid!

We had a reservation for 12 people. When we arrived, the male server just told us to wait and then walked off to do whatever. After a while, a female server came by. We asked how long it would take since we had a reservation. She checked the computer, and her reaction clearly showed she saw our booking. Then she also just told us to wait and left! After waiting over half an hour, the same male server came back. When we asked again how much longer, he actually lied and said the system had a problem and he couldn't see our reservation!

We negotiated to at least get seats for the 6 kids first. They finally arranged that with great difficulty, but then no one came to take their order! Three servers were bustling in and out, no idea what they were so busy with... Meanwhile, two tables of local customers were eating and laughing loudly the whole time – it was like a chaotic street stall! Another half hour later, those loud local tables finally finished and left. Only then did they seat us. And by this time, they still hadn't taken the kids' table's order!

The speed at which they cleared those two tables was unbelievably slow... We had to remind them multiple times before they finally assigned one server to take our orders. Who knows if they even have any division of labor? Do they have any professionalism in this service industry?!

We met a guy from Hunan who said he waited over half an hour after ordering just to get his food... And sure enough... Even hosting guests at home isn't this disorganized! Food either never came, came wrong, and they even served one dish with a hair in it! 🤮 If you can't provide service, don't run a restaurant!

Reservation at 7:15pm, finished eating after 10:00pm. We barely ate any food and left fuming with anger! DO NOT COME HERE! Steer clear! Steer clear!...

The place is 5-8 mins walk from the subway station, 15 mins walk from Osaka station.

The space is small but comfortable.

There are Tatami room, but we were not aware when we book the table, there was no such option on the booking system if I am not wrong.

The quality of the meat was above average.

The two chefs are very young, all the staff are young as well, but none of them speak decent English, even though they provide Chinese menu, I assume English menu as well. Despite the small space and limited seats, (4 seats table x 3) + 8 bar table + 2 tatami room (4 pax I assume), there are 2 chefs, 3 waiters, and unknown number of kitchen staff, they seems overwhelmed already when the seats are only 70% full, we waited for over 45 mins for the last 2 dishes and 20 mins for the ice cream and check after we told the waiter that we are full and don’t need the last organ dish, just ice cream and check.

Two small details: When I asked for the Tatami room, the chef just told me “no, reserved” kind of cold and rude, especially by Japanese standard, not sure it’s the language barrier or what. There is a very lousy kid in the restaurant, but the staff didn’t nothing, no deal breaker, but experienced waiters or managers will have a nice way to remind the parents.

Overall, it’s not a bad experience, just lower than I expected considering its high rating on Google. I can only guess because one waiter came and ask us for review...

Average Kuroge Wagyu cuts. Their signature chateaubriand is also very average. It is the center piece of the tenderloin, but I find an average fillet mignon cut anywhere else to be much more tender.

I suggest to avoid getting the 8 tier meat platter (dish with the staircase style plating), as most of the cuts there are average or worse.

Relatively speaking, the shabu shabu cut is the most tender compared to others.

Seating charge is mandatory and they will serve you lettuce with simple dressing as appetizer.

1 drink order min. Per person. 200 yen to change grilling plate.

Another important note is that if one person orders a specific course dinner, others are restricted to ordering the same. In other words, if one person choose course A, the other person cannot choose any other course but A as well.

Overall experience was...