GORA BREWERY PUBLIC HOUSE — Restaurant in Hakone

TL; DR: amazing food; frustrating overall service/experience, if not informed beforehand. PSA: Their last call for food is around 7:30 pm, don’t be fooled by the 9 pm closing time.

My feedback is based on two consecutive visits: 1st visit: venison steak, “fries” with anchovy butter, beer. 2nd visit: no dinner. I arrived at 7:45 pm (1 hr 15 mins before closing), and was told that the kitchen was closed.

Pros (food only): amazing venison (even though a small cut, but totally worth it). surprisingly great “boiled-then-fried” potato wedges with anchovy butter (though the menu calls them “French fries”). accepts credit/debit cards (many places around Hakone are cash only). their early-to-close kitchen forced me to try other local Hakone spots, which turned out to be great.

Cons: weird and long food delivery timing: I placed my order (venison steak & potatoes, beer) at 6:55 pm. There were five other occupied tables, four out which already had their food delivered. The overpriced (for Japan) beer arrived in 5-7 minutes. The potatoes (which were supposed to be the side for my steak!) arrived in 15 minutes. It took about 57-60 minutes (from the order time) for the steak to arrive. I wouldn’t be surprised that the reason my steak was so good, because it was fresh since the deer was still roaming freely in Hakone forest when I had put the bounty on its head. And the steak was enjoyed with the cold potatoes on the side. There were two guys behind the grill/bar and one waitress. I’m not a cook to tell why it took so much time to prepare the food just for me (since four out of five other tables had their food; the 5th table received their order after me), but I had all the time in the world to, check what other tables ordered, and try to solve the mystery why my side potatoes didn’t arrive together with the main dish. last call for kitchen is roughly 1.5 hr before closing. inconvenient location: it is hard to walk up a very steep hill from the main station (after a relaxing onsen visit….just to be told that the kitchen...

We attended the establishment just before 3 pm. We were a group of 4 couples. You can only use the QR code for ordering. Log onto the wifi first. As Australians ranging from 58-75 years of age we find offering as a table is VERY frustrating. I don’t understand why it is not more simple for everyone - both the establishment and patrons to allow ordering per whatever you want as a group…. State the table no. and get your order delivered to your table and pay for your own order.

They missed delivering one persons wine. They delivered the food to each of us over 20 minutes, meaning we were not all eating at the same time …. Which never feels right .

The food was all beautifully presented and tasty and good value for money .

Some ordered the Wagu curry, which came with a side salad, which was also reported to be awesome. 4 of us ordered fish and chips which - yum. One person ordered French fries which was really quartered small potatoes fried- not what he was expecting … I don’t think he looked at the picture on the ordered platform.

The beer was a very small serve for 950 yen; the apricot beer was not popular with our crowd. The 4 wines ordered were all at slightly different levels…guess work by staff- no line marking on the side of the glass. There was a lunch special with the wagu curry that got everyone thoroughly confused.

I felt sorry for the staff trying to managing the confusion due to the clunky ordering platform.

We are all reasonable intelligent people and the platform was not as user friendly as it could be.

I think someone should have come to the table to explain the ordering process and specials of the day.

The service score of 3 had nothing to do with the particular staff serving us, they did their best with an internal system that needs work by the...

At first I was put at ease and delighted by the property grounds and design of the building itself. The shapes of the rooms, tiered height of the ceilings, color scheme/paint/tile/wallpaper/masonry, the lighting, table and chairs, plateware and utensils, and music all bring a really upbeat and relaxing vibe to the dinner experience here. Our server welcomed us in with a smile and showed us the QR code to order.

First round of drinks, I had a matcha mojito and my sister had the white sangria. Both drinks were chefs kiss. I drank my matcha mojito so fast, I ordered a beer before our main entree! We started with a mushroom salad and wagyu potstickers. The mushroom salad was good, though the smell of it wasn't great. The mushrooms themselves were perfect, the dressing to me was so-so. It seemed to be somewhat like a savory relish. The wagyu pot stickers were absolutely outstanding. I'd order these 3 more times if I was still hungry 😅

The margherita pizza arrived and we couldn't wait to cut into it. Served with a slicer, you are the master of your own size and shape pizza slice here at Gora Brewery. The pizza had abundant sauce, good quality cheese, and just enough basil. This pizza topped at least 90% of the pizza in the United States, and ive been to 35/50 of them (ok ok, I haven't had pizza in every state, but you get the idea).

Finally we topped the meal off with their homemade tiramisu. Served with a smear of some kind of red berry jam and berries, the balance of the jam against the other textures was so delightful. A bright, uplifting desert. Very very good.

This dining experience was VERY good and if we were here for more than two nights, we'd easily come back....