Miyazaki Food Quwanne — Restaurant in Tokyo

I haven’t written a food review in several years, but I’m so mad about my ruined experience that I have to write a review 😂

The server ruined our dinner experience. We arrived at 9 and were half way up the stairs when the server at the top was telling us, in Japanese, not to go up and that there was a 30 minute (my friend heard but I was focusing on going up the stairs and didn’t hear) so he kept repeating it and probably deemed us stupid by then because his attitude was terrible the rest of the night. I wasn’t understanding so I made an X sign with my arms since some restaurants stop taking guests if sold out, but he didn’t say yes or no. He repeated it in Japanese again then finally said wait and 30 minutes in English. We said it was fine in Japanese. We’re both foreigners but semi fluent in Japanese. He pointed to the two chairs so we could wait. (Didn’t see any signs about waiting in the stairway.)

15-20 minutes later, he gave us a menu and pointed to the set page, said “quickly” then walked away 🙄 it felt like he was treating us badly and assuming we were slow because we were foreigners.

We were given hand towels after sitting down and then ordered our sets right away. I asked for chicken nanban set and he assumed and asked 2? My friend said no and chose the “meal set with rice cooked with bonito”. When he came back, I asked to add a tamagoyaki in Japanese.

We were served a set of cold and hot apps, then the food came a bit later. It looked nice, but my chicken nanban was barely warm and more soggy than crispy. I thought it would at least be a bit crispy. I did some research and learned than chicken nanban (a local food of Miyazaki) gets fried then soaked in sauce. Is the crispiness from the fry supposed to be gone from that? It was also not hot so it was disappointing.

Along with the atmosphere, I was not impressed by the chicken besides its tenderness. The tartar sauce was great though, I loved that.

I wasn’t a fan of the pickled appetizers, but my friend finished everything she got. I wasn’t impressed by the tamagoyaki either, it was like a savory steamed custard, dense and smooth, but not flavorful. I wanted to try it since I thought the egg would be special like the chicken, but I didn’t really care for it.

I tried a piece of my friend’s bonito but thought that also lacked in flavor. When she was almost done with all the bonito, the server came back with a tea pot for her rice. He explained in the dumbest way in, in Japanese, to put the bonito on the rice and then pour the tea on the rice and eat it. We’ve never felt so insulted in our life 😂 First of all, we only spoke in Japanese after the initial 30 minute wait thing, and even if we didn’t understand, talking to us stupid slowly would have been useless. I know what dashi chazuke is. No need to treat us like that. I tried some of the broth with rice and it also lacked dashi flavor and umami.

Overall, terrible experience, made my friend never want to come back, super uncomfortable, want to leave as soon as possible. She probably only finished it because it’s custom to not leave any food behind in Japan. I didn’t finish my rice or most of the side dishes, I was full enough from the chicken set.

I was super tempted to tell the server he wasn’t nice, but my friend told me not to so I held it in, politely paid, smiled and thanked him, and walked away like a good person. We both work in the service industry. Service like this is unacceptable, even on a bad day.

This whole time, he never once smiled or made us feel welcome. We’ve both been to Japan several times and this is the first time we’ve ever had a bad experience. I’m not angry, just laughing incredulously that we could be treated so terribly in a nice restaurant with 1000 good reviews. Thanks for ruining our meal after an otherwise nice night. I wish we got one of the other servers because everyone else was smiling.

It’s unfortunate that the restaurant was presented to us so poorly. I don’t like writing bad reviews. I wanted to like it, but couldn’t...

I visited this restaurant around 9 p.m., which was not a particularly busy time. When my family and I arrived, a middle-aged staff member told us we would need to wait for 15 minutes and asked us to wait downstairs, where there was no air conditioning. It was uncomfortably hot, so my wife and I waited there while I asked my children to stay in the air-conditioned lobby on the first floor. We were tired and just wanted somewhere to have dinner, so we agreed to wait.

After about five minutes, the staff member called us upstairs. Once inside, we noticed that the bar counter seats were completely empty, which made the initial wait feel unreasonable. We were then seated at the very end of the bar, in a corner next to a pillar. The seats were tight and uncomfortable, and I couldn’t understand why we had been placed there. Normally, one would expect a restaurant to offer the best available seats to guests, but that wasn’t the case here.

On a positive note, the food itself was fine. My daughter especially enjoyed the beef, and my chicken was also good. However, when we finished our meal and were leaving, all of the junior staff politely thanked us in Japanese, but the same middle-aged staff member stood in front of me, looked directly at me, and said nothing. His attitude left me feeling as though we had been treated differently, which made the experience disappointing.

Overall, this was the worst experience I have ever...

A Refreshing Lunch Experience with Room for Dessert Delight:

I recently visited for lunch on a Tuesday and was quite impressed. What stood out most was the cold miso soup, reminiscent of Korea's naeng-kongguksu (cold soybean noodle soup). It was a delightful surprise, and the fact that you can purchase the miso paste used to make it on the first floor is a huge plus. I also noticed what seemed like wild edible greens (dureup) and a hint of katsuobushi, which added to its unique flavor. For dessert, I chose a carbonated drink, and it was a perfect palate cleanser.

The chicken nanban with homemade ranch sauce was another highlight. The sauce, made with egg, was excellent and complemented the dish perfectly.

The restaurant was quite busy during my visit. The middle-aged gentleman managing the floor seemed incredibly swamped. When I tried to ask for a dessert recommendation or express my enjoyment of the meal, he was so busy that I felt awkward. Nevertheless, he still managed to answer my questions, which I appreciated. Despite the hustle and bustle, I definitely plan...