Kyoto Bijin Yakiniku (Uptown) — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

We have been dining here quite a few times - easily 15 or more times over the past 2 years. I previously left a 5 star and always raved about this place to friends.

Sadly, the quality of their meat has been dropping for the past 3 visits. It no longer hold the same glory as it used to. Even the garlic condiment seemed less well made dueing our most recent visit during mothers day weekend. I have a feeling our sentiments are widely shared - as this placed used to be packed but the last few times we went, there were plenty of vacant tables for walkins.

It was all made worse with the terrible customer service. Many of the staff could not even understand or speak english, staff did not know the corkage price when asked. We brought 2 bottles of Grand cru. The girl proceeded to open one for us, we were wary as she fumbled with the bottle opener and dad reminded her twice that she wasnt onserting it straight but she smiled, noded and foolishly we believed she knew what she was doing. Until she pulled out half a broken cork. She then proceeded to try digging the cork, whoch made it go even deeper. We told her to stop and asked if they had a seive and decanter. They scrambled around and then retrieved a stained plastic jar. Thankfully, we stopped her from pushing the cork through. At least we could bring the bottle home to salvage. I cant belive they actually wanted us to decanter our Grand cru in a plastic jar.

With zero trust left in their ability to open a simple bottle of wine, we took the opener from them and opened the second bottle on our own. The girl just kept quiet the whole time. It is absurd. If youre charging corkage, make sure your staff know how to do the basics. And more importantly, make sure theyre trained to know what is within their capabilities. If you dont know how to open a bottle of wine properly, tell the customer straight up. What if it was a Chateau lafit that we brought?!

Terrible. This was the last straw for us. At this price point, with lowered food quality, and such a bad experience, i dont think we will be recommending or coming here anymore.

The owner really should do something, it is a waste given how good this...

As a frequent traveller to Japan, I dare say that the food and the atmosphere in this restaurant is very authentic. It’s really hard to find an authentic Japanese restaurant and I can finally say that I found it. The manager of this restaurant is opened by my principal’s husband who are both Japanese. There are a lot of Japanese expatriates who comes to this restaurant from what I saw so reservation is highly recommend as this place is quite packed after working hours. I ordered the pork BBQ set, cold udon, cabbage salad and pickled fish innards with cream cheese (weird combination but it was unexpectedly delicious). If I have to choose a dish that shocked me the most, I would say the cold udon. The udon was chewy as I was told it was handmade, plus the dipping sauce that comes along with it coated the udon with an ineffably satisfying flavor. I would recommend a party of two to share because it’s quite filling. Everything was perfect, the restaurant uses charcoal to barbeque the meat which heightens the flavor of the meat. As for the price, it’s totally worth the money!

I only have praises for this restaurant, I am definitely bringing my friends and family to this place....

Type: Japanese Yakiniku Restaurant Signature: Japanese Yakiniku

As a summary, this restaurant is a reasonably priced authentic Japanese Yakiniku (BBQ) restaurant but the service is a bit too slow.... Maybe because we visited the restaurant on a Saturday and the place then was quite crowded.

Anyway, we ordered the Pork Set 5 🌟 and the Meat is very nicely marinated.. super delicious. We also tried the Beef Rib-eye 5 🌟 which is superb also, plus the price is reasonable, too.

Based on some reviews, we ordered the recommended White Tuna Sashimi.. Which was ok 3.5 🌟... Just that it came with too little Wasabi. We also tried the seafood set 4 🌟 which came with tiger prawns 🦐 , scallops and squid 🦑 plus one oyster.

Just one note is that the table and seating are a bit small.. So you can actually feel the heat of the charcoal BBQ most of the time. As such, we had some beer to cool ourselves down. Overall, the place is a nice place to visit if you are into authentic Japanese 🇯🇵 Yakiniku. Will come back for a second visit next time I'm at this area.

Taste Rating 8/10 Ambience Rating 7/10 Service Rating...