We chose this restaurant based on a friend’s recommendation and its very high Google ratings. In hindsight, that feels rather misplaced. Things went wrong when one of our meals arrived with a foreign object in it. To me, it looked very much like an armpit hair—or something equally unpleasant—sitting in the beef dish my son was about to eat. Not exactly what you expect from a “premium” place. What was more frustrating was how it was handled. We were told we still had to pay the full bill, plus a 10% service charge, because the “object” was only on the vegetables and didn’t affect the main dish—even though everything was on the same plate. That explanation didn’t make much sense to us. When we questioned it, the response was quite odd. They first offered a 900 yen discount, saying that was the value of the vegetables as part of the rice-and-soup set. When I refused to pay the 10% service charge given the experience, they adjusted the bill, but with clear annoyance, as if we were being difficult. The manager did apologise, but it felt very cursory—no real sense of sincerity, not even a proper bow, which you would normally expect. To be fair, the other set meals were not bad. But overall, it’s hard not to feel disappointed, especially for a premium beef restaurant in central Gion.