Okonomi-yaki Kaji — Restaurant in Hakone

It was a really authentic izakaya experience. Unfortunately you can only take pictures of the food so I will have to describe it as best as I can. You can watch as your meals are prepared by two Japanese chefs who cook on an open flat grill. The inside is quite small with around 4 seats for couples, about 5 chairs at the long table in front of the grill and 2 zashiki style floor seating for 2 groups of 4.

The chefs also serve the customers their meals and drinks.

Meal preparation is slow however you need to appreciate the style of cooking, the authenticity and freshness of the meal. This place has delicious food but also authenticity if you’re looking for a real Japanese experience.

I ordered the mixed noodles with prawns and pork. It was absolutely delicious. Portion size was a bit small so if you’re hungry order 2 portions at once else you will have to wait for the next one. My husband ordered the squid and prawn okinomoyaki. It was also really delicious. I also ordered the beef stew since I was still hungry. Unfortunately the rice was finished so I had the stew on its own. It’s as described on the menu - very fatty and greasy. The gravy of the stew was really flavourful and delicious and with rice it might have been better suited to my eating style.

For drinks we had the plum wine sour and plum wine whiskey sour. Good choices too. We were there on a Thursday evening around 7pm. It wasn’t as busy as described by other reviews. We just walked in and were able to get a zashiki style table for...

I loved this place. I’m no expert on Japanese food, and despite a bit of high school Japanese and classes before every trip, my Japanese language skills are still very basic. I have been to Japan a bunch of times, and in total spent a few months here across those trips. I only mention this because of some of the other reviews…

But I dined here with one friend and it was so great. They have a limited menu, which is what I expect of any good restaurant - offering what they know and not filling it unnecessarily insert gif from Schitt’s Creek about an edited menu here. We had yakisoba, okonomiyaki, potato salad, pickles and drinks. Everything was delicious. Even after doing a mind blowing food walking tour just outside of Tokyo, where I had the best yakisoba of my life, this was even better. The potato salad was excellent due to its simplicity. The staff, who I presume are a husband and wife team didn’t have a lot of time for pleasantries, preferring to spend their time cooking and delivering excellent food. But they were pleasant and never rude.

To the people complaining about early closing and the like, it’s worth noting that this small team clearly signpost their rules, which in my experience is common. They close when they run out of food. No photos, except of the food, they have limited space, and they don’t know English very well. All seem like good, clear warnings.

And to top it off, the delicious food is cheap!

Love it. Would recommend. Will try...

The worst experience anywhere in the world. My group (2 persons) found the place and decided to join the queue, with 3 groups ahead. It was 7.30pm but we were not hungry yet so we didn't mind waiting. About 15mins but no movement, so I went inside to see if the service staff/owner knows there is a queue outside. Was shooed out and told to wait outside. No problem, we continued waiting. A few minutes later a service staff lady came out to confirm the number of groups waiting, no. of people per group and nodded. We waited another half an hour in the cold. Suddenly the old man/owner came out and made a big cross sign with his arms (no sign), saying something in Japanese, and unapologetically making gestures (ushering away) to ask everyone in queue to leave. At this point we had waited close to an hour. Why couldn't they have just told us earlier? The unpleasantness is not from the waiting, but the way we were being treated without consideration nor kindness. Only after the incident, we went to read Google reviews. The other reviews are not...