When my friend and I went to Kyoto yesterday, we asked to sit in the screen room by the pond. We were told that the table was to be saved for parties of five people. The hostess then led us to a table in the back next to the kitchen. We pointed out that since there was no one else in the restaurant, we would prefer to sit at our first choice of tables instead of by the kitchen (which happened to also seat five/six people). She told us "no".
We ate our meal, proceeded to leave (past the still empty table we had requested) and went home to our families. Both of us spent the remainder of last night ill and were ill until this afternoon.
Today in the early evening we returned to Kyoto and were greeted by the owner. We told her that the food had made both of us ill and that we wanted to direct her attention to this and thought we deserved a refund. The owner laughed at us and took us over to see the sushi chef. The sushi chef said he remembered us and pointed to where we had sat yesterday. We agreed that that was indeed correct. He then asked us for prescriptions from our doctors. We informed him that we did not go to the hospital because there is nothing that a doctor could do for us except to tell us to wait it out. We explained that my friend had to leave work today and that I have two children at home and could not spend hours waiting in the e.r. for a doctor to tell me to wait it out. He insisted that we go see a doctor and we again told him that we were not going to go to the doctors and waste our time for nothing in order to each obtain a $17.00 refund. He was adamant that he needed to see prescriptions and we asked why if he distinctly remembered us being in his restaurant.
Then he asked us why we were so upset and wanted to know why we were becoming rude. I said that I really could not believe that he thought that we would go to all that trouble just to get $17.00 back if we weren't experiencing food poisoning from their food.
We started to leave, he called us back and attempted again to antagonize us by asking again why we were so upset. I told him that I spent the last 24 hours being ill and unable to do very much and now he wanted me to go wait in an e.r. and then come back to him a second time to prove to him that his food made me sick when he remembered us dining there. We left as it was obvious we were not going to get anywhere.
Bottom line...used to dine there a few times a year but will never go back. Customer service was awful and it is obvious that this establishment needs the $17.00 much more than I do. Should anyone ask me for a restaurant referral, I will tell them to steer clear of Kyoto.
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