Obenkei Kyoto Gion Store Review Summary

Avoid this place-it is an expensive tourist trap. Starting with the hilariously tacky Miami-style art on the walls and a bunch of ugly chairs plus an ugly coat hanger in the middle of the room, all the way to sushi that is poorly cut and extremely underwhelming and servers that barely pay attention. Food came out all at the wrong time. The design of the place itself is a headache (why is there so much light? menu design is super distasteful for a place that is trying to pass off as elegant, etc.). Only redeemable quality is that the outside of the restaurant looks nice but that’s probably because they didn’t design it themselves. This place feels like it’s owned by people who wear gucci belts.

Recommended by my hotel. Average food. Too much batter on tempura. Miso soup was good. Service was okay. Nothing special about this place. Fish seemed fresh. I observed one of the sushi chefs put food in his mouth (did not remove his gloves). Then he proceeded to prepare/mold the rice for sushi without replacing the gloves he just used to put food in his mouth. Did not wash his hands or replace his gloves before molding the rice. Better standards needed.

Simply fantastic. On entering this immaculately presented restaurant we were greeted by a very friendly member of staff. It was busy yet peaceful and has an up market vibe.

We had beef, chicken, salmon sushimi and tempura tiger shrimp. The dishes were well presented and exceeded our expectations which were high by this point.

I would thoroughly recommend

We managed to get a booking last minute. We had a good meal but the booking was rather pricey as meals had to be pre-selected through our booking app. Overall, the experience itself was wonderful but the booking method made the experience a little less wonderful—still this seems like standard fare for Kyoto's popular restaurants.

Wonderful sushi and sashimi restaurant we visited tonight. Would highly recommend - had standard and high grade sushi, sashimi, tempura and washed down with 2 types of Saki