Yamakoshi — Local services in Shirakawa

This restaurant was a recommendation by our guide and is located close to the Shirakawa-go historic village. The soba noodle restaurant is located in a scenic setting and on entering the building there is a room to store your shoes. Once in the main room our guide looked for someone to seat us, which took a few minutes standing around, even though tables were available. Shortly after we arrived and were eventually seated a small group of people arrived but were seated much quicker than us. After sitting for about 10 minutes our guide went looking for someone to serve us and we made our order. The menu is available in English and has a small selection of choices for food (cold dishes) and drinks. There was Japanese tea brought to the table, which was a nice touch. Our order ended up being: 1 Soba with grated Radish on top - 1100 yen 2 Soba with grated Yam on top - 2200 yen (1100 yen each) 1 Seasonal Tempura – 1000 yen The only drink to have apart from beer and Sake was tomato juice, but they had run out of tomato juice. So, I ended up ordering a beer and they told my wife they could get her an orange juice (although not on the menu). 1 Beer - 700 yen 1 Orange juice – unsure of price After a 20-minute wait, I noticed that the group that had entered after us was already eating, our guide apologised for the wait and again went looking for someone to chase our order, she came back and said that some of their staff were at a wedding and they are very busy, but would have our order soon. Although this did not explain how the group how entered after us had their food and we did not even have our drinks. About 5 minutes later our food came, and the food was ok, and I personally would not consider anything special as to the contrary of our guide’s recommendation. On finishing the meal, the bill was requested, and we decided to also pay for our guide’s meal as well. On the bill we saw only the overall total of 5000 yen, and we reminded our guide that we never received the beer or orange, so the bill should be adjusted to suit. We gave a 5000 yen note and expecting receive 700 yen change (above order excluding drinks 4300 yen). The change never came, and our guide went to check and said that the 5000 yen was right and they had not charged us for the drinks. We tried to explain to our guide, but she checked again and was told that 5000 yen was the correct bill. This had completely caught me off guard and had always thought the Japanese were very honourable. So, to our disappointment we left feeling that we had been stolen from. We did not experience this anywhere else in the 3 weeks we spent in Japan and therefore due to the very poor service and the overcharging we have rated...

Beautiful restaurant serving traditional soba.

First of all, the staff were absolutely friendly and welcoming, even when we arrived close to closing time. We are tourists, but we made the most basic effort to learn a few Japanese words - other people complaining that they were not friendly to tourists shouldn’t come to Japan if they expect everyone here to bend over backwards for you.

We loved the place, it is an exceptionally beautiful setting to eat in. We had the salt grilled fish (a local dish) which was delicious, and two different soba dishes, one cold and one with a warm dipping. Both 10/10 dishes! Highly recommend...

One night stay in Yamakoshi for light-up event. Though we have the communication obstacles, hosts are patient and we use google translate to communicate.

Dinner and breakfast are traditional set. The beef is tasty, but I love the cold soba in the morning, really delicious.

It is good if host have e-communication channel, as I tried different ways, find friends / hotels help us make the call for pick up time. Anyways, it is a special stay for non-Japanese, feeling...