Harajuku Kitchen — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

We went for dinner yesterday. Food, as always, was rather good and we enjoyed it. It is at the same level as the best Japanese places in Edinburgh. But the service was really bad unfortunately. I appreciate that it's a small place and kitchen and I don't mind waiting a bit. We've had long-ish waits before at Harajuku but I appreciate that things are made freshly. Yesterday, however, was really bad. After being seated our waiter simply did not return to us. We only were able to put our order in after me politely asking to put it in - more than 20 minutes after we sat down. We hadn't even been given water yet, so I asked for some - the waiter forget about it and we had to ask again 15 minutes later when another person finally brought us the water. Our drinks arrived another 25 minutes later. So it took 45 minutes to serve drinks. We continued to wait for our food. Then two tables that were seated about 10-15 minutes after us were getting their food delivered. At this point (over an hour after we sat down), I asked about our food. It was then brought out after another 5 minutes. Again, I am very happy to wait for good food when it's freshly made - but an hour and 10 minutes after being seated is just not good. We then had to rush our food - as we had further plans. What made it worse, was that our waiter in particular never came over to apologise or at least acknowledge that something was not going right. So I left quite disappointed unfortunately and don't think I'll...

Had been really looking forward to trying out Harajuku kitchen based on reviews from friends who had been and loved it.

We went at 6pm on a Friday and the restaurant was about 70% full with several tables already eating their mains, however we had significant waits for food. It took 30+ minutes for starters to come out and a further 40 minutes for mains (one sushi roll, a hosomaki roll, a sashimi platter and seaweed salad) to come out for 2 people by which point we were rushing to finish to attend a show which spoilt things (despite having allowed plenty of time for most restaurants to eat at a leisurely pace). We asked a waitress if the mains would be coming soon to which she replied "well I hope so" which wasn't particularly reassuring. While we were waiting several people arrived separately to order take out and they were served first while we waited for mains. Our mains eventually came after 4 take out customers had been and gone and we had to rush eating to make our show.

The manager brought the bill and had knocked off the service change for the wait which was the bare minimum that could have been done all things considered.

Food was fine but nothing amazing, save your money (and time) and go to a different sushi/Japanese restaurant. We won't be going again or...

I don't usually leave bad reviews for restaurants because it's someone's business (I think I've only done so once before)...... but this meal was SO exceptionally disappointing. The decor of the restaurant is really cute and welcoming, but that's about it. The rice in all our sushi was overcooked and wet, so that it felt stodgy and frankly just unenjoyable to eat (especially because they used so much of it per sushi piece to bulk out the mass. At one point I thought to myself, sadly, that chain shop sushi tasted better and cost 1/3 the price... Like the rice was sticking to the plate when you tried to lift it, because of how wet it was.) The fish slices were thin and poorly flavoured (the negi toro in particular didn't taste fresh to me). And to top it all off we waited an hour for our food and only got it after prompting the staff - who were individually lovely to us, but seemed overworked and stretched thin. I would not recommend coming to this restaurant; as an Edinburgh resident I feel there are other Japanese restaurants in the city that offer better taste and value for money.

I rarely get so disappointed after a meal that I feel have to tell someone, but this place finally did it I guess!!! Such a saddening taste experience...