Kyoto

Ok, let's set something straight right now, a 5-star restaurant is something like The Top of the Mark in San Francisco or something like that. This is NOT a 5-star despite what the other reviewer wants you to believe.
OK about the restaurant: This place is VERY popular with the local crowd, probably because of the hibachi show (Think Benihana). I believe the joint used to be a Shakey's as can be seen carved into the original concrete. The interior, if you look closely, is all worn and beat up with massive water stains in the ceiling tiles especially over the sushi bar. (a *tiny* sushi bar) The main tepanyaki (flat grill and show) prepared food is decent and well priced during lunch. (rice and meats) The side dishes fall well below the mark. Salad is western style w/croutons, small and not very tasty. They also serve a blah onion soup, probably catering to western tastes, but not very Japanese. Prices go up by around 50% at dinner so be prepared to get socked.
The sushi side of things was a huge disappointment. The owner was not there, instead his wife was doing the slicing and dicing. Here they give you low quality miso soup. Our sushi was the biggest let-down. We got very tiny, paper thin (or shoji-thin!) pieces, the kind you'd expect at the $1.00 sushi boat place. Except these cost $4.00! That could only be categorized as a rip-off in my book. The fish was OK, and they did have a tasty No. 9 Kyoto roll, (shrimp, avocado, tobiko) but that didn't make up for their stingy portions. Also, they didn't serve any tea, guess you gotta ask for it or pay for it. If you want the grill tepanyaki show, a better place to go might be Ichiban. The best sushi place in town still remains Shige's.

We made reservations ten days in advance for her birthday dinner. When we arrived the place was very busy so we took a seat to wait for our table to become available. They seated two different parties ahead of us who didn't have reservations. After waiting for half an hour my niece was so hungry and frustrated that that she started crying. Maybe their food is good but I don't know because we left and I'll never go back. What a disappointment!

Kyoto has the best of the best. The filet mignon is amazing, the sushi is great, the service is really good, the chefs are entertaining, and the ambiance is inviting. It's my favorite place for both steak and sushi. I highly recommend the royal dinner for two, which comes with two skewers of vegetables, seafood, and beef as an appetizer, soup and a small salad, fried rice, awesome veggies, generous portions of shrimp, chicken, and filet mignon, and for dessert ice cream with chocolate and coconut. It's seriously delicious and so worth $19.50 per person. I go there and order it for us any time I feel like celebrating, and I've never been disappointed. The sushi is very reasonably priced too... the rolls are 3.99 and up and very tasty. They are a bit more Americanized than some places (read: cream cheese, lots of sauces, etc.) but they have some more traditional things too. If you come in, you might see me there because I love it so much I'm there as often as possible! Also, try to make reservations if you want to go on a weekend. They can get very busy and it's not a huge place. Just writing this is making my mouth water, so I think I'll go tonight!