Kyoto Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Barrington Township

Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto. I've been to the original location in Crystal Lake quite often. My wife (when she was my gf at the time) and I used to go several times a week. Food was fantastic and the atmosphere was just as great. Then they closed that location and opened up a new location much bigger in Crystal Lake. Food was still good and the atmosphere even better than before. They went all out on the building, decor, layout, ect.

Then they opened up this location. It was good. Shrimp tasted as good as I remember. The shrimp tempura though... I felt it lacked a little flavor. It was okay and I enjoyed it but I feel there was something missing that would have made it better.

The rice vegetables were good as always and I enjoyed it just as much as I've always have. The soup, the same. Delicious! The salad though. The ginger sauce was as great as before. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I'd say maybe it could have used a little more "tangy" flavor. Hard to describe. Kind of like the salad tasted before or at other hibachi restaurants (Kobe's, Kiku's when it was open).

EVERYTHING was cooked to perfection. The chef did an excellent job and I give him my respect. He did a fantastic job.

Now the pricing. Over priced! My wife and I ordered the Shrimp dinner, 2 sushi rolls, 1 cocktail, and 1 beer. Came out to over $90 without tip. Comparing the pricing to similar hibachi restaurants, the dinners were over priced as well as the drinks. For what we ordered, we could have saved about $20 elsewhere. The price for steak and lobster tail was $43 here, whereas, at other places it's about $27-$32 for the same thing. The sushi is just about the same price (+/- $1, $2). The drinks... The beer is about the same price, give or take a couple dollars, and the cocktails is overly pricey here at Kyoto.

Don't get me wrong, the food was great for the most part, the service was excellent and on point, the chef nailed it, but the pricing could be better. I do like the nice touch they do for special occasions and take, print, and give you a photo for free at the end.

In the end, my wife and I will continue to go to Kobe's or other hibachi places. We feel it's much better "bang...

Very disaapointing!! Came with a group of 8 people for my husband's birthday and sat at the grill. My daughter in law had never been to a Japanese steak house before so she was excited. Our chef didn't do any of the typical tricks like lighting the onion volcano on fire (we had to ask him) toss food into people's mouths or toss the egg in his hat. We kept telling him it was her 1st time so she wanted to see the whole show. Our soup came out and we barely started to eat it when our salads came out. They were rushing us to finish everything. A girl took our 1 drink order but never asked again and we had to ask people to get us more drinks. 4 out of the eight people ordered filet mignon and 2 others ordered regular steak. Our chef mixed all of the steaks up which was not cool especially since people wanted their straks cooked differently. After he was done cooking nobody ever came back to our table and we sat for a long time wanting more drinks and expecting a dish of ice cream. We finally asked if someone was going to bring us a bill and they acted very surprised and then my friend asked about the ice cream and they asked her if we ever got it and she said no so she offered to get it but we said no too late now because we also wanted another round of drinks. They brought our bill which was $680...we could have totally walked out and the restaurant probably wouldn't have noticed...they are lucky we are are all good honest people! We've been here before and have loved it but will think twice about...

We came here because our favorite sushi spot was under construction. What a mistake. Upon entering the restaurant, we were waiting to be seated by the hostess, which we didn’t mind the wait. What bothered me was the cashier giving me a dirty look. I thought that he’d at least greet us or say hello but no, just a low unpleasant stare. Then the hostess finally spoke to us. She wasn’t friendly either. We were seated at a smaller table with no plates, eating utensils, nothing. We had to request a pen from our waiter to mark the sushi rolls we ordered. When our appetizer came out, again we had no plates to eat on or utensils. I felt like a savage. Even the menus were still left on our table. Then the sushi came. Sushi rolls were pretty mediocre at best. The rice was over cooked so our rolls were mushy and bigger than the average bite size. Our waiter was nice but he didn’t come by much, probably because the restaurant had him working a large portion of the section alone. He seemed to be having a lot of anxiety because he was always rushing and lacked eye contact. The worst part was when we got the check. Our total come out to $125 and somehow they accidentally charged the poor couple next to us our tab. They had to pay them back in cash. That to me was very unprofessional. The sushi wasn’t worth $125 and that didn’t even include the tip, which bumped the total to $140. We are never coming back here again. What a waste of money for terrible service, unfriendly staff, and...