Kirimugiya Jinroku — Restaurant in Tokyo

❗️Racist server warning❗️ The food was delicious, but the service that me and my mum were given was absolutely poor from the yellow hair server.

We've ordered two Udon with Tempura. Once we're trying to Tempura, we've noticed that we did not get the soy sauce which the Japanese couple beside us had with their Tempura. I kindly asked yellow hair server to bring us soy sauce since it seems like everyone has with their Tempura. But the answer from the server was absolutely joke. She said "You can deep your Tempura into salt there". And I said "I don't want salt, could you please bring us soy sauce?". Next thing she said made other Japanese in the restaurant look at us because it's ridiculous. She said "Tempura with salt is best way to eat, not with soy sauce." And I've realised that she doesn't want to bring the soy sauce for us, and I instantly noticed that it's racism. Because she was kind to other foreigner customers who are from America. After this long conversation, she finally brought soy sauce bottle, but not with small plate to pour. At this point, we just gave up and just wanted to pay and go. We thought we're just unlucky. Until then I spoke Japanese, but since she doesn't treat us same as the other customer I did not want to try to speak Japanese at all. When I asked the server to give me a bill, I asked her if she can speak English, she said 'NO'. Even though she just spoke to American customers and I heard.

This short experience has changed my mind toward Japan. If you're Korean or Asian who are not Japanese, please mind that they may treat you as not same as the other customers which might ruin your traveling. I highly recommend to have a look another restaurant. You deserve to have good service, not...

Michelin restaurant (as you may already know). Let’s start with the beginning.

1. We (party of 5) went on a Saturday evening around 7PM, so a lineup was expected. Waited around 30 minutes where the server came out to take your order ONLY when your entire party is in the line. Anyone from your party not in line with you, they will not take your preorder.

2. When it was our turn to enter the restaurant, the server said they had to split the group up to 3 and 2 due to seating arrangement, which was fine, but once we are seated, they cannot move us. This was a firm statement. We were seated along a long, single seated table, with a two people just about to finish and leave, between our split group. The server did not offer to move our parties together, which was fine. HOWEVER, when the next party of 3 (locals) was originally placed in a 2-and-1 split (a table of 2 and a single seat of 1), the server offered them to sit together after seats were freed up. I suspect this was the typical local vs foreigner service we just experienced. I thought Michelin starred restaurants take into account the food AND service experience.

3. The food was good. We had both cold and hot udon that was blasted with flavour. 5 udons came up to ¥8200 which is really cheap considering a Michelin starred restaurants star restaurant.

Overall thoughts: great udon to experience, but would it make me want to come...

I’m usually not a big fan of Udon, but this turned out to be one of my favorite meals in Japan!

The service is amazing even before you step into the restaurant. We arrived around 12 PM, right before the lunch rush, on a Sunday. We waited for only 15 minutes outside and during that time, one of the servers greeted us and provided us in English menu. She took our orders and by the time we were seated, the food arrived within five minutes. During our meal, the owner, who was so warm and welcoming, often checked in on us and made sure we had everything we needed.

I ordered the cold noodles while my husband ordered the hot. We enjoyed both dishes, but preferred the cold Udon a little more. The udon was fresh and had a nice chewy texture to it. The tempura was perfectly crisp and seasoned and was not oily at all. My favorite was the kabocha squash and squid! We also added the chicken tempura which was delicious.

We paired our meals with plum wine (great quality) for the two of us and the final total was only $22 USD!

Wish we had discovered this restaurant sooner while we were in Tokyo - absolutely...