Daniel Lu
Google
Innovative cuisine but really bad (potentially racist) service.
Top rated Japanese restaurant (4.33 at the moment on 食べログ now) and 1 Michelin star restaurant located in Higashiyama.
Dishes are good with some innovative techniques and flavors from this season such as abalone pasta.
Service is so bad to a point that I felt compelled to write what happened:
1. NO (0) English explanation on the dishes, a first for 30+ restaurant I visited in Japan. The chef seemed not to care at all about visitors from outside Japan to let me know what we’re eating.
2. The chef and staff are apparently treating me differently in a way that made me feel uncomfortable.
3. The guest sitting next to me also talks about how she doesn’t like many visitors in her hometown Kamakura and the chef seemed to concur.
Although I don’t speak fluent Japanese but can understand a bit, which made this really interesting.
I’m wondering if this would happen to a white visitor?
I would say definitely avoid as the food is OK if you don’t speak (or look) Japanese.