Hiiragi-tei

Very very good specialty Yakitori shop. No wonder it’s been awarded the Michelin bib gourmand; the quality is excellent, the value outstanding , and the experience authentic. This is a very small family run place that takes great care to present the best Yakitori from the common cuts to the very rare. If you have a bar seat that allows you to observe the chef in action you can see how much concentration and probably a little bit of OCD is at work, this is someone who cares about the food that is served. The white charcoal grill infuses everything with a wonderful flavor. The chicken came with the beautiful charred glaze and oil (we chose mostly skin-on pieces but those with lighter palates may prefer to get more skin-off or more cold appetizer dishes for balance). The chicken thigh and breast were great, the rarer specialty items like chicken cartilage, knee, white and black livers, and semi-raw tataki (not grilled, we got the thigh but those looking for leaner cuts can get the breast instead) were delicious too. The mini onions and potatoes were beautifully grilled as well. A word on practicalities: you need reservations as the restaurant is small , it is best to ask your hotel or a Japanese speaking friend to prebook (there is also no English menu and the staff speak limited English, so come prepared or be adventurous). All of the other patrons when we went on a weekend night were locals. It is family run with limited staff so please be respectful and prepare to wait a little. It’s worth it :)

The food was really good. And the waitresses were so kind. If I visit Kyoto, I will definitely visit this restaurant again.

Quite poor service for a restaurant in Japan. The staff was grumpy and not very polite when speaking, and even though there were seats we were left to wait at the door for a while as we watched then work at the speed of a sloth. It seems the chef and the staff were not in a great mood that evening we visited, but the customers should not have to suffer their attitude. Food-wise, many things were sold out that day and their fryer was out of order, so no tempura or any other fried dishes were available. The dishes we did manage to try were ok, the chicken don was a little on the salty side but I guess it's personal preference. Overall the food was not awful but not memorable. Seeing that this is supposed to be a Michelin bib gourmet restaurant we were quite disappointed.

We went there on Michelin recommendation and it was a pretty pitiful experience. We had a booking, but once we got seated upstairs away from the bar, we were largely forgotten. Asked for water, no response for almost an hour; same with rice. We ordered a bunch of stuff that started being delivered 30 mins apart, after 2.5 hours we decided to leave because my nephew was getting tired and we had no idea how long the remaining wait was, and they told us we should stay because they had already started preparing the remaining 2 dishes; which took another 30 mins to arrive. Halfway through the night, we asked for 3 bowls of rice and they said there was only 1 bowl left. We asked for tap water and they charged us 700jpy. We ended up with 10 bowls of rice at 300jpy a piece, 3000jpy. With about 40 skewers between the 6 of us and some rice and water, the meal came to 30,000jpy; just a piece of paper with 30,000jpy written in it. When we queried the breakdown, the staff could be heard downstairs asking why we needed a breakdown. 30000jpy is outrageous for a bunch of chicken and vegetable skewers with rice and water spread 3 hours apart. It was such a souring experience, I've been to dozens of restaurants in kyoto over multiple trips and never had such an experience, and we cancelled our other Michelin bib gourmand restaurant reservation tonight because we don't want another similar experience. Really, really poor form. If they had told us that it was going to take 3 hours to serve us food, we would not have stayed. But when told 2.5 hours in that it was taking too long, their incredulous response that we had to stay because the final dishes were being prepared, was pretty ordinary at best.

No Japanese menu but they try their best to help you understand and will pick dishes/sake very well for you. Very good service. AMAZING food. Reservations are a must because the place is very small.

Every dish was made with care and it was delicious. But, at the end when we got our check they didn’t gave us an itemized check and gave us a simple piece of paper for 12,100Yen. They don’t really speak English, so we couldn’t even check if the price was right. Other than that, I would say the food is great and you should keep a list of what your ordered for non-Japanese speakers.

Nice cozy family-owned restaurant. The yakitori food was good. Service was friendly by all the staff. We highly recommend the restaurant and a reservation is a must as they have very limited seating.

Fantastic. We walked in off the street and got a fabulous welcome. No English menu but some English spoken. Amazing food. Amazing atmosphere. Left happy, full & smiling.