Kintan Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in London

Detailed. Booked online for 7 for 3pm, called at 2pm and asked if we could be seated earlier they said was ok. Mentioned we wanted a table for 7 as although there was only 5 of us 2 more friends will join us in about an hour. He said was fine did mention that for our party of 7 we have the table for 2 hours. This was ok as the other 2 were only grabbing a small bite to eat and drink. We were seated in a lovely booth. On initial observation we did see that the grill in the middle seemed rather small for all of us. We had a lot of time to look at menus. Would have been nice if the brunch menu was explained when he sat us down. I finally asked him what the situation was and he said he didn’t know and got someone else and she explained that we could have the brunch menu where you can choose 1 starter, 2 bbq grill items and it comes with rice, salad, miso soup and a dessert for £27 or you can order from the standard menu. This seemed very reasonable you can also add an extra bbq grill item for a few pound more. Gave drinks order they didn’t have many of the non alc items 2 of us don’t drink, so there was a lot of back and forth on what drinks they did have until we settled for coke and sparkling water. Drinkers had cocktails under the happy hour offer. The waiter wasn’t sure what one drink was, so had to go back and check, he then explained he had just started working here. Drinks arrived. Ordered food, a mix of two or three bbq item brunches. Took a while to explain the order as had to repeat several times but he seemed to get it and went away. Food took a while to come, when it arrived everything was in small bowls or slates for each individual so each person ended up having atleast 5 bowls in one go, not including if someone ordered a 3rd bbq item or anything additional. The table was very busy and our two friends were not there yet so we were unsure how they would be seated or have room on the table. One round of brunch didn’t arrive so we had to ask for it again then they got our starter wrong several times. No one told us how to use the grill or how long to cook but we used the tongs given and between the 5 of us started adding our food to the grill, it took a long time as we had a lot of food, in hindsight we should have started smaller amounts. But it didn’t seem logistical as there were so many of us, ideally there should have been two grills. I’m pescatarian - there was a lot of cross contamination. Our two friends arrived squashed up - not sure how this would have sat 7 initially as we had to ask for an extra chair. One friend eats halal, there were no halal Items which is ok as she could choose vegetarian or fish items but because of cross contamination she didn’t feel comfortable using the grill so instead opted for noodles from the menu and our other friend ordered rice. Rice arrived quickly but noodles took a very long time we had to ask for it several times. Back to the grill still chaotic. We slowly were getting through grilling but a lot of us were fed up of this novelty now as it was taking far too long, so we were filling up on the rice and salad it would have been nice to eat it with the bbq items. The food itself was nice. Some friends had garlic butter in a pot with their meat they put the garlic butter ontop of the meat then onto the grill. After doing this for several rounds. A waitress came up to us and said we are doing it wrong, the pot should stay as is and you put pot on the grill so it melts. No one told us that. We finished our food and dessert came we thought we would have a choice but we each received a scoop of ice cream either vanilla or matcha no choice of which we could have it just came 2 matcha and 3 vanilla not sure if waiter should have asked us for dessert choice or if ice cream was the default? 2 people ordered additional desserts. Our 2 hours came to an end and our bill came to 248.63. Atmosphere was lovely. Initial staff was helpful with time changes. Food was ok. Grill, table space and waiter was not ok. We have been to places like this and agreed we would...

I’ve been to many Korean/Japanese BBQ joints in and around London and Kintan takes the award for worst service by a country mile.

Of the last three times I’ve been, the service has been absolutely disgraceful which pains me to say given I’ve been coming to this spot for YEARS. If you’re sat at the very back of the restaurant, good luck with trying to get anyone’s attention to take your order, take your empty plates or get you another drink. We actually had to physically get up and find staff to cancel our drinks and get our bill.

The waitress who was covering our section (we confirmed with her co-worker that it was in fact her section) couldn’t seem less interested in taking our order, bringing us extra plates, simple things like salt or taking more drink orders. Other tables in our section were also left piled high with dirty dishes long after diners had left. She was extremely rude when giving us dishes and even blamed us when she presented us the wrong order.

The grills themselves have no temperature adjustment unlike like many other self-BBQ joints in London. Even at this one heat setting, it’s insufficient to actually get any colour on the meat as the heat is unevenly distributed. I have also had experiences where the grill isn’t even hot enough to cook sear a prawn, which when you have a large group of people becomes a tedious waiting game rather than an enjoyable experience. You also have to request the grills to be changed rather than the staff checking - This can be said for other similar restaurants too.

The cooked food is of an average standard. The volcano salmon/tuna crispy rice has been a lot better in the past. Their sushi rice was overcooked and mushy. Edamame felt like it had just been left to defrost and not even blanched in boiling water. The marinades on the meat was good - all very much a mix of sweet soy/teriyaki style. We were never asked if we wanted marinated meat or not but given we were waiting 20-30 minutes between actually ordering and being bought raw meat, we’ll take what we’re given.

I really thought I’d give this place a second or in this case, a third chance however after this I can firmly say I won’t be returning. I could forgive the poor service if the restaurant was at max capacity but it was perhaps at 60-70% capacity. Personally, I blame the poor management and lack of training of staff. On a previous visit, the manager took it upon himself to verbally berate our table after asking for the service charge to be removed. After he embarrassed himself, he reminded everyone on my table and around us (given he was shouting at this point) that he could have completely voided our charge but out of principle he was going to charge us. Very...

The front looks tight and very small at first glance, that's only the bar for drinks though, the main seating area is under the basement for the bbq section. Each table had a grill installed. Atmosphere was stuffy, typical. It was packed and full house around 6 in the evening on a Friday.

During my visit, nearby groupies was very loud, but seems they are from a country where speaking out loud is a must. So, turn up your speaker, if trying to have a conversation. WiFi available if there is a need to text the opposite person sat across the table.

There is a limited time for the customers to stay for the Jpn bbq and been told by the reception staff we had an hour to eat what we will order... Seems all the staff from within intended to rush the customers throughout the entire process. The moment we sat down... Menus was slapped on the table by one waitress, then another waitress turned up to take the order within 5 minutes. We basically needed to scan thru the menu like robot no. 5 from Short Circuit the 80s film.

However, the food was very well prepared, tasted great, raw meat was expertly marinated and once cooked, was very tender. The lamp chops was very tasty. All the raw meat prepared for grilling was at good quality.

Overall, the waitresses when serving, were very polite to answer any possible enquiries and they had carefully placed the plates of various ingredients on the table. The empty plates was collected afap when spotted by a waiter or waitress.

The automatic service charge will be applied on the bill at 12.5% and price wise, its Bbq set not for the savers and economists. Had a pint of lager beer n a glass of diluted coke that is pricier than any bars I would regularly visit. A starter, that's £8, but nonetheless tasted great. The price can be alarming. Ended up paying approx £85 for a quick meal for 2. It's a nice one off exp. for those trying to have fun in the city. The bigger the crowd, the better for value in my opinion. However, the only shortcoming was the feeling of being rushed while grilling some raw meat, it takes time to cook after all, otherwise, not bad at all. Got given a nice cup of hot green tea as an after meal treat by the waitress that was mainly assigned to our table and would like to say thanks. 👍

Once a blue moon rising thing in my opinion, would recommend going there in a group of 4 for the best...