UOTAMI Kyotochuoguchiekimae

The Centurion Hotel staff suggested this restaurant since the hotel restaurants were closed. I existed the hotel by using the escalator to the street, walked to the right and made a left on the corner. I passed a convenience store and near that area, I took the elevator to the restaurant. The restau...rant is popular with locals, the food was very good and the jovial energy of the late night crowd was welcomed to my ears. I like Kyoto

Visited May 2017

I went for a drink there and had the all-you-van-drink course and I have to day that I have never been so disappointed with a Japanese restaurant. The service was terrible (slow, not very cheerful), the food was below average and there are a lot of things they require from you that are not mentioned... in any until you sit down and discover them in the menu. First of all they boast with a 2 hour all-you-can-drink but it turns out that last orders for drinks are 30 minutes before the end of your time which makes it 1h30min which I do not particularly mind because it is, after all, plenty of time. What I do mind is that it is a cheap trick and quite unnecessary. There are a lot of izakaya in Japan and, believe me, only the sleazy places do this. So now that you discover you have less time than you thought you encounter the VERY slow service (perhaps that is too one of their plans to not serve you as you would be served in a normal izakaya and try to reduce the quantity you consume by simply taking 15 minutes to come take your order and then another 10 to bring it). I have never before in my life had to ring the bell 3 times in any Japanese restaurant to get someone to take my order (5 minutes between every ring considering the fact they might be busy - they were not). Then come all the unexpected expenses. In Japan it is actually a law that you have to pay for an otooshi which is a little appetizer they bring you at izakaya. You cannot turn that down and the price varies according to the place. But that is a normal part of every izakaya. Uotami also has a seat fee (yes, you read correctly, you will be made to pay for your seat). They also have a policy that you have to order 2 items of food off the regular menu (not including the otooshi). I was planning to mainly drink and have an appetizer at most because I was not hungry but I was forced to order things I did not actually eat and went to waste anyway. To sum up: you go for a drink but you end up eating instead, you want to have a few but you end up waiting 30 minutes between drinks and being systematically overlooked by waitresses. Not to mention that you end up paying double of what you were planning and you are forced to spend it on things you did not consume. I live in Japan and I have been to many izakaya and this is by far the worst of them and the worst service I've experienced anywhere here. If you are a tourist and you are here for a limited time I would suggest looking around for something else as to not have bad memories of the otherwise fantastic culture of izakaya!

Visited April 2014