Hakuba

We had the most unexperienced waitress who approached us holding a huge Disney pen and a very small order pad. She sat on our table to take the orders! And she got it all wrong! A few dishes were missing, instead of salmon we got chicken, the sushi starter came last ... in brief a FIASCO for service. Food is excellent though but that is not a good enough reason for us to return back to this restaurant again.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 6
Saturday, July 26, 2008

Some interesting, if rather pretentiously presented food, though some would have disgraced a bog-standard noodle bar. However, the evening was completely ruined by comically awful service - although it was a very quiet night, they were slow to bring menus, even slower (around 20 minutes) to bring cocktails, which were followed after that at random intervals by the meal. Getting the bill took another quarter of an hour. Our drinks order was misunderstood - instead of shochu we were brought a bizarre cocktail of shochu and red wine, which was more expensive. We were charged for this, but frankly it was so difficult to communicate with the waiter (who was charming, but completely bewildered) that we decided not to bother querying it.

This place is targeting a well-heeled business market looking for a glitzy night out, but I can't imagine it will get any repeat custom. The slightly cheesy decor is aiming at Hakkasan-style glam, but rather obviously on a smaller budget.
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, July 25, 2008

Visited this restaurant last night with three friends and the service was appalling. We waited 1hr for drinks (which we had to change three times because they'd run out of our previous orders); one main course came 25 minutes after everyone else's; no one apologised until we were leaving and even then it was a mutter. The food was actually very nice, but there's no way that I'd return here because the service really was the worst I've ever experienced.
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Slow (yet friendly) staff, overpriced bland food (e.g. no radish or ginger with the over-battered tepid tempura, sashimi was not fresh).

Avoid, go to Yoishi on Goodge Street instead or the little restaurant in the Korean supermarket under Centre Point.
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SL
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Friday, June 13, 2008

The food was average but the staff, especially the Spanish lady was very rude and unattentive indeed, despite the fact that the restauant was only half full.

avoid this restaurant unless you want to have a dissapointing meal.
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Uno Sato
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, February 24, 2008

I have been to kobe restaurant for my second time. Food was amazing as usual and service too. I had pretty good meal for my dinner and my friends. No.1 special was out of the world and tuna sushi. Volcano roll like as the real volcano tasty. And at the end of the meal , we had a selection of the kobe dessert. That was absolutely amazing and so cute. About the service, there is one thing I notice that every one seem like new staff and they are trying to do good customer caring. I asked one of the staff who doesn't like japanese that how do you call the chop stick in japanese? I understood after that resaurant was getting busy and he was busy as well. But He try to get answer so quickly and he helped us a lot. We will definately come back again. Thank you for your hospitality.
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aye
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Kobe jones is a very nice place to visit and food was so delicious. Service was so friendly. I would like to highly recommend to visit there.
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wint - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, February 17, 2008

Dined here in a group of five on a Saturday night. Easy to get a booking on the day.

The decor is pleasant, short hanging fairy lights strewn along the windows and dim interior lighting with ornate lampshades. The funky partition between areas in the restaurant are essentially chunky sliced logs of wood. Toilets were nothing special.

The restaurant itself is separated into a small bar, the main seating area and a line of 3-4 booth-like rooms on two sides - each 'room' housing a large table, separated from each other by opaque gold curtains (which kept opening whenever the waitress inadvertently brushed past them whilst serving the food).

We opted for the tasting menu (35 quid per person) with 5 courses.

(1) 'No 1' was the best - a cut up sushi roll made up of crab, yellowtail, prawn and tuna in addition to their 'dynamite' roll - encased individual slices of the sushi roll with a creamy light sauce).

(2) The delicious seared tuna with another light creamy sauce as well as their 'volcano' (essentially a mountain of the sushi roll from the first course with an 'explosion' of creamy sauce, fish roe and scallop sashimi on top).

(3) An incredibly flat-looking deep fried soft shell crab drizzled with a sweet red sauce on a bed of deep fried vermicelli and potato slices. This was accompanied by miso soup and rice.

(4) The most disappointing - a positively bland 'aged' beef in miso sauce sitting on a smear of potato mash. It was slightly redeemed by the grilled ginger king prawns which were massive but also a little bland.

(5) The selection of desserts was also a bit of a let down - all miniscule portions - green tea creme brule, nigiri style green tea mousse-like cheese cakes with red paper-thin pear slices to cleverly similate preserved ginger, 2 (not-very-nice) cookies, sesame ice cream (too creamy and sweet), random berries in a shot glass.

Drinks - cocktails and mocktails - a small selection but fruity and nice. Need to pay separately at bar before bringing drinks into restaurant area. Japanese tea is served in TINY teapots (with no tealeaves) and is incredibly dilute and hence practically tasteless.

Service - the staff are pleasant but VERY inattentive! Very difficult to get their attention when sectioned off in your booth. And it was definitely not a busy night - about 1/4 full. Had to physically get up to find them (chatting idly at the entrance) 3-4 times for their attention to order food, chase up on drinks, get the bill etc. Not very helpful in either explaining the menu or what each course that arrived contained (resorted to just asking for the menu again to get explanations there). 12.5% service charged to bill.

Overall - Chef's taster menu is interesting with some delicious signature dishes but definitely some hit and some miss. For this price range there are definitely cheaper alternatives that are at least equally on par or better. Unfortunately experience was definitely let down by service - dinner took 3 hours (most of it waiting for service).
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Sunday, February 17, 2008

I would not even recommend this place to people I do not like.

My main issues include:

- No atmosphere

- Made to eat a set menu

- Had to ask the waiter for each of our courses to come out

- Food was, relatively speaking, poor (when you think these guys are positioning themselves to compete with the likes of Hakasan and Nobu)

- Over priced

- Tried to use my Taste London card and was told by the manager that it is not applicable on 'special days' (note it was Valentines) whatever that means. I refused to pay the large bill and manager got aggressive.

- Being an Aussie I have a lot of faith in Kobe from my Sydney experiences. A lot of the faith has been lost.
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P
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 15, 2008

I am somewhat surprised by some of the poor reviews. I've been to Kobe quite a number of times, and am keen to go back. The food is in general delicious, and the waiters very helpful and responsive. There are a couple of shortcoming that I would hope that the management can improve. I haven't tried the cocktails after the first visit because they were rather tasteless. The cooked food, such as softshell crab and king prawn tasted both fishy and overcooked. On the other hand, the poor cocktails is made up by the good selection of wine that are well priced. Some of the dishes, such as the Number One and the rolls were mouth watering. Also the price is more than reasonable.
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CC
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, January 22, 2008