Ganko Sanjo Honten

Ganko Sanjo Honten is a popular Japanese restaurant located in downtown Kyoto, offering a diverse menu that includes sushi, kaiseki, and shabu-shabu. With its spacious interior and traditional Japanese ambiance, it caters to both tourists and locals seeking an authentic dining experience. The restaurant is known for its reasonably priced sushi sets and a la carte options, providing good value for money. The establishment features private tatami rooms, making it suitable for various occasions, from family gatherings to business meetings. Its proximity to Sanjo Station ensures easy access for visitors exploring the city. While the restaurant is frequented by tourists, it maintains a reputation for quality food and service. An English menu is available, facilitating a comfortable dining experience for international guests. Overall, Ganko Sanjo Honten offers a pleasant and accessible introduction to Japanese cuisine in a central Kyoto location.

We visited 11th Feb 2025 7.30pm... Just want to share the very rude service of this guy waiter called Mirura... Maybe he doesn't really like foreigners... The moment he served us, he comes with black face and showed attitude all the way. The last straw was when I requested for soup spoon, he muttered something in Japanese and threw the spoon on the table and walked away Japan is a nice country with nice people. But it's because of people like these, it make foreigners feel that Japan is not friendly at all.. ordered such expensive food and meet with such poor standards. Totally not acceptable

Good sushi and other grilled options. Seating at counter is great, watching the chefs prepare the orders.

Very nice and welcoming staff, good atmosphere but disappointing food for the price. The sushi was ok as well as the beef, but not worth what we paid. The drinks were by far the highlights of our dinner.

💜 This was our last dinner in Kyoto - Sanjo Dori, Gion District. ▪ Florence's - 🍱Kaiseki meal ( ¥1600 with taxes) ▪ Hui Huat's - 🍤 Tempura set (¥1600 with taxes) ▪ Deep Fried Sardine Roll (¥398) 🌸🌸💮 The meals were beautifully presented and were scrumptious. 🔷️ And the gohan (rice) was garnished with cooked edamame (soy beans) & julienned strips of golden yellow egg omelette. 💛 Oh my! Such pretty food decorations. 🟫 Service here was friendly & efficient. The aesthetics of the restaurant is what wow-ed me. 🩷 The twigs of white cherry blossoms, the frosted glass panels, the soft and dim lighting, the washi paper lamps...all these combined to give the place a luxurious feel. 🍱 If you have time to spare, do go here for a meal.🩶 You will love it:)

Nothing fancy - we came because we were exceptionally hungry but should have given it a miss. The value for money ratio is off and it felt like a tourist trap.

We came here without a reservation and didn’t have to wait long — just about two minutes. The food was good, but a bit pricey.

The food was so good and well priced that we came back for a second visit. Our family of 5 came with our tour guide for lunch one day. The next day, our family decided to return for dinner since we enjoyed the food and there was a large menu with plenty to choose from. The sushi was excellent and the shabu shabu with udon, Kobe beef, and tempera was one of the best meals of the trip. Wow! Everyone was digging into my bowl for a bite. The servers didn’t speak much English but the table tablet translated into English and the servers were very kind and easy to work with across the language barrier. We had excellent service and two fabulous meals. I would absolutely go back for another visit!

Beyond my expectations!! It's great place to get fantastic Japanese style food. The service is nice in here, feels comfy eating in here.

The food was very good. The low rating is for poor service. The wait staff pushed me aside to take plates from my dining companions. No "excuse me". And this happened more than once. She also knocked down a glass and did not apologize. This is a high end restaurant. I expect better service for the price. There are lots of better options is you do not want your head hit by the waitstaff while dining.

A rather large restaurant in Kyoto, plenty of tourists and locals. All the sushi are super affordable in Japan because of the dollar to yen conversion rate and in general toros are cheaper here than NY.

This is our first time here and the food did not disappoint us. At the recommendation of our tour guide GANKO KYOTO SANJO HONTEN is one of the BEST! They are celebrating their 60th anniversary! The food was presented beautifully, fresh, and very tasty.

The best sushi we had in Japan! This place was hopping, so the secret is out. It's close to Gion and Pontocho and steps from the Sanjo train station. We sat at the sushi bar and watched the chefs energetically making sushi, calling out to one another and to newcomers, as kimono-clad waitresses scurried around. The fatty tuna belly literally melts in your mouth. I had it elsewhere but after this nothing could compare. I had some other varieties of tuna as well and also some eel, all tasty! For a beverage I had the unusual mikan (Japanese tangerine) juice. Definitely try Ganko if you are visiting the geisha districts. Oishii! Subarashi!

This place ended up being a celebratory dinner after a surprisingly successful Pachinko outing. It was a little later in the evening, so we were able to get a table right away, and the staff was great and very welcoming. Not a bad selection of sushi and sake. And not bad quality. It wasn't the best sushi we had in Japan, but it was still delicious. I did get my first taste of Uni here! Be warned, like some other restaurants here, there is a smoking section.

Ganko is everywhere in Japan and they have everything on the menu. Shabu shabu, sashimi, gyu-don, tofu, tempura, etc. It reminds me a bit of ootoya in that they have a wide range of items. The quality of the food is pretty high and everything we ordered was delicious! I hear that the lunch menu is very reasonable, so we waited about 30 min for a table and ordered a ton of food to try everything. The sets all come with a variety of dishes including rice, tempura, some with udon, or sushi. Perfect to try a bit of everything!

x4p* Ganko Kyoto Super Japanese food banquet Tasty appetizer Cook shabu-shabu and rice at your table Beef is Wagyu Plus sashimi, miso soup, roast beef, tempura Cheese cake type dessert Food service very efficient Need to take shoes off Bonus: we had wonderful geisha entertainment

Fantastic dinner for this evening that warranted my happy dance! I had the sashimi dinner along with uni, unagi and toro. This is the first time I had uni in Japan. Unlike his California counterpart the Japanese uni is much sweeter. The unagi tasted awesome and the toro just melted in your mouth. I was able to persuade my partner who is more into American rolls to try the toro. This is the very first nigiri he completely enjoyed! He had his Japanese-style steak and potatoes recommended by previous reviewer. The fries and steak were cooked to his liking which says a lot since his quite picky with food meat and potatoes.

This place is hard to miss on the large street. It's got a big window with lots of fake food displays that'll so anyone looking for a place to eat. Inside is also rather large so you shouldn't have trouble getting a table, though we did have to wait a bit. Once seated, they give you a plethora of a menus that's stored inside the table (there is a drawer). The service staff in nice, they only come big you once you ring the bell on the table. The food itself, I went for the sashimi which was quite nice. It had fresh shrimp, squid, salmon, conch, tuna and a few other things I'm not too familiar with. I had to get the portion for 2 as a meal, it came with approximately 14 pieces. All wrote fresh and tasty. Other food at the table was the individual shabu shabu (think meat cooked in your own at table in a broth). That contraption on its own is a sight. You got a flame underneath a wire basket holding up what looks like heavy duty coffee filter holding a broth. You look at it and only think, this can't be safe. But the filter does not leak or burn, the soup does not fall through, and the fire goes out on its own. All in all its a nice place. What's lacking is the Japanese small store feel like your going to a mom and pop shop, but you know that going in. The prices itself are reasonable, though the menu is so large that it repeats itself on multiple menus. Also look out for different price on the English and Japanese menu. I found one instance of that.

Well I'm no sushi eater; however, my wife surely is, she's Japanese and she had their sushi and she said, "she would give them three and half stars to four stars." As for me I give them five stars for service, price, food, and for how clean their restaurant was. Listen my meal was the steak and sweet and sour chicken; now that comes with an egg salad that was so tasty and pickled cabbage that was very good, french fries that was awesome, and meso soup that was excellent. I definitely will be returning to eat lunch or dinner again before a leave because I really enjoyed my meal.

At the Kyoto train station, there are many good restaurants, but we decided to try this one. The set-up is very Japanese and offer a variety of Japanese foods, but we wanted to try their specialty, which is sushi. First up, we had simmered vegetables and steamed tofu with soy sauce - a good appetizer to warm up our stomachs. Then we had the soy-sauce fried chicken, very tender and not oily. We tried an assortment of sushi from the raw ones to the cooked. The sashimi were really fresh and the wasabi complements everything. It was really good!

Avoid this tourist trap. Definitely not for Gaijin (foreigners), fish quality was poor and I've had better in the US. Shortly after finishing I felt sick and had to quickly leave the restaurant. On top of it all service was slow - it took around an hour for our food to be served after our drinks arrived (ordered all at once). I'm pretty sure the conveyor belt sushi place down the street is better for a 1/3 of the price. Generally, I recommend avoiding chain restaurants such as this one and opt for the family restaurants.

We are stupid tourists so we knocked a glass of water and shattered it after being splattered by hot oil by attempting to cook beef tongue. They cleaned up after our mess and we felt bad so here is a positive review. The food was good... ya

This is a must to avoid!! Basically a tourist trap. I have spent a good deal of time in Japan both on business and on vacation and can't think of another time when I have been overcharged on one bill for more than one thing. Actually the Japanese are so honest I wonder if this has ever happened before. Amazingly they also cut some of the fish so it was completely inedible!!! Your time in Japan is too short for this bad, and bizarrely dishonest restaurant. don't bother!!

Ganko Sanjo Honten experts delivers on the unauthentic Japanese culinary experience. With a broad range of choices between mediocre and overpriced sushi, forgettable Shabu-Shabu, and western food, they provide all and deliver on none. To the credit of the restaurant staff, they were all very polite and the service was fantastic. This establishment appears to be geared entirely towards tourists. You can get a much cheaper and better quality meal elsewhere. While the variety of the menu is appealing, it is in this their fatal flaw is revealed - Jack of all trades, but master of none.

Strong fish smell upon entry gave us pause, but we sat down anyway. Sushi was average. My sense is that the restaurant's proximity to the train station makes this a convenient option for tourists. Surprisingly this restaurant was a recommendation from a local (American), so we trusted and didn't verify through others. We were all sad that "this" is how we experienced our only dinner in amazing Kyoto.

Nice restaurant for Kaiseki dinner, have a garden that is totally beautiful that can be visited in the morning for lunch. Very nice food, they can organize Maiko performances as well.