Bizen Gourmet Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar

The food is very very good. Large menus with lots of interesting choices. Everything we ordered was delicious. The decor is fantastic with private traditional rooms for you to sit in, great ambiance. The problem is the service. We tried to order off of the Kaiseki menu after the host (he was very kind and great) told us we could then the waitress told us we couldn’t (it was Sunday so it should be ok per the menu) There was no cocktail menu at all. And most importantly, we were excited to order items that were modified to be gluten free. After a long discussion with the waitress about my wife being gluten free, they brought us out a dish they was made with all gluten free ingredients but kept in other ingredients that were not gluten free. When we informed the waitress that she just served us a gluten free item with gluten in it, she was annoyed we didn’t want it. The food took a long time to come and we were rarely checked on. We’d go back but the staff needs to be trained on food allergies and customer service.

The menu comes in a thick binder. I only thought diners offered so many choices. It was a bit overwhelming to try to figure out what to order. My party and I ordered a few appetizers and they were very accommodating to my gluten-free diet, pointing out there is wheat in the soy sauce they use to cook the rolls containing broiled eel. I highly recommend ordering the Ukrainian rolls because Bizen will donate $ from what you pay for this country. I enjoyed the Hawaiian roll that has spicy tuna. The Wasabi was terrific dipping into for a quick, horseradish sinus eruption (if you enjoy this). We ate on the sidewalk at a wobbly table with space between the slats in the table. A wrong move led to spilled soy sauce or a heated sauce land on one of our legs. The service at first was a little slow do to the timing of a few huge takeout orders but once they were done, the staff was more attentive. Overall it was a great dining experience and I would definitely return.