Kirishima Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in George Town

Been patronizing this place for many years and the recent 26th Dec, 2021 was the last visit. This place went from bad to worst. Although we noticed the price did increase after the lockdown, we decided to give another try again. What made us upset was the service by a foreigner man, he was rude, impatient. We noticed the price difference of RM 10 on a the separate menu and asked what is the difference compared to the one in the BIG menu? He was so rude and told us, "IT IS SPECIAL DAY." We were like, what special day? Christmas was on 25th, and 26th boxing day a special day too? So wow.. is like the restaurant is taking advantage to jack up the price whenever they have a chance! That's not very ethical for a real Japanese owned restaurant I have not seen the Japanese owner on that day. And the whole crew, run by a whole load of arrogant old ladies, wasn't pleasant. Cashier ( the assistant manager, don't know her name ) was rude and unhappy when I tried to pay by wave and it did not go through. We tried twice and out of me feeling bad for making her doing so, i used pin in the end.. but hell was I regretting big time for being nice. SHE WAS DAMN RUDE! The look on her face like i OWED her???? Woaaahhh!! We are not going back. We paid 10% service charge to be served politely even if they are not rendering a fast service, but at least to have some sense of politeness..

Those thinking to go to this place, think 100x before going. if you a lucky, you will get a good service, like we did in many of our visits but lately, this place has gone bad.. stale... eeeuuu...

Service 1/10 Food portion 5/10 Food quality 6/10 Pricing 3/10 Ambience 6/10 (dated but clean)

and asked why the separate set menu price vs the price menu in...

Ordered many other dishes but when it comes to sashimi, we ordered 2 x sashimi and asked the waiter to void salmon and the waiter recommended that he will give 5 different fish for 7 of us into 2 plates which I agreed. I also ordered the grilled fish at rm18 each and the waiter again suggested he will provide the fresh one flown from Japan instead of the frozen and I asked him how big is the fish, she showed with his hand which looked no more the 6 inches, so I ordered 4. The problem came when I went to pay the bill, the total bill came to just over RM 3,000 I was very shocked to see the sashimi have costed over 13xx.00 instead of just over rm 500, And the 4 grilled fish has became rm88 each instead of 18. I am not disputing what I have ordered nor problem with waiter upselling but this is the responsibility of the restaurant owner to ensure they informed the customers of such price differences, I spoke the the Japanese lady owner and they gave me 25% discount which i thought was a fair but when I check my bill few days later, the total bill came around rm 2700 which is less than 10%, even with the gesture from the owner, it’s still workout to 382 per person, honestly, I would have preferred to invite my friends for an omakase which have better ambience and dining experience. This is a disgrace on the restaurant side. I have decided to put the review here so that other customers do not fall into the same situation as I did. Attached 2 photos of the dishes that I have...

My first time dining at Kirishima. Recommended by a Japanese friend. Went on a Friday night. Arrived there at 8.15pm and the restaurant was very busy. There was no one to greet me when I arrived. Waited for 2 to 3 minutes. The receptionist appeared from behind a wall looking busy, asked for my name, pointed to the opposite side of another dining area, asked me to go over there and said thank you. I didn’t mind the way I was greeted as a full restaurant signify the food must be good and I was right. Of course if there was a staff just to show their customers to their tables would be best.

Parking was RM5 flat rate in the hotel.

We ordered a few appetizers like the mango soft shell crab, gyoza, sake sashimi, agedashi tofu. Main meals were tendon, katsudon, curry katsu and cold buckwheat soba with tempura( Ten zaru soba) Drinks we had ocha, water and strawberry yoghurt drink. Ocha and water were freeflow. Overall they were delicious except for the strawberry yoghurt. Had better agedashi tofu else where too and curry katsu was a bit plain although the taste was good. If there were a few pieces of vegetables like carrot and potato will be great.

The staffs were efficient and courteous but they were rushing all over the place. Perhaps hiring or getting more servers from another restaurant or bar at the hotel to help on busy hours will ease the situation.

Prices were reasonable for an authentic Japanese food restaurant.

Will be visiting this...