The Bistro — Restaurant in Hakone

We were searching for dinner on a cold early winter night. Most of the restaurants in Hakone, including quite a few at Motohakone, were closed at 3pm and we decided to take a chance at this restaurant since it was open at 5pm (totally dark in early December). To start with, the restaurant was very clean and neat. Later on I was to learn from the owner that the restaurant was 3-month old. There’s English on the menus and the lunch and dinner menus are different. I ordered Chicken Bryani, Lady’s Finger curry (hot), Potato and Cauliflower curry normal) and Nan. All were delicious and authentic! I especially loved the various vegetable curries. There were several levels of spiciness: mild, normal/regular, moderately hot, hot and very hot. I was initially afraid that the spiciness of the food will be watered down for the Japanese palate. I needn’t have worried. Those who cannot take spicy food should order mild or normal. Those who love spicy (Indian) food or, as the owner said, are from Southeast Asia, should go for moderately hot. I ordered hot for my curries and was happily perspiring by the middle of the meal. The friendly owner dropped by our table and asked if the food and spiciness was ok for me, no doubt seeing the look of enjoyment on my face. When I gave an enthusiastic thumbs up (both food and spiciness), he offered to “power up” my Lady’s Finger curry to “v hot”! 🤣 I declined as I’ve already decided to have my lunch there after I check out of the hotel the next day. Will have the “very hot” curry then.

The next day, we went back for our curry fix. This time round we ordered lunch menu sets A and B with a mix of rice, nan, vegetable curry (v hot), mutton curry (normal), dhal. Everything’s delicious! V hot is great for me as a chilli lover.

Really enjoyed our meal which was a welcome taste of food from home. To think that such an authentic and good Indian restaurant can be found deep in the mountains of Hakone!

Useful tips: credit card is accepted. Public parking and toilets less...

TLDR: Good food in generous amount for a very reasonable price with a nice staff that can properly understand english if needed. Be careful not coming too late since it closes at 8pm

I came to the Bistro with my family 30 minutes before it closed. I'm a tourist with an almost non-existent Japanese, which wasn't an issue since the staff understood my english well. Since I'm on the staff, let me just add that they were professional and I got my order very quickly, my waiter took the time to listen and understand my requests.

And now, for perhaps the most important part, the food: First of all, I was really surprised by the amount of food we got, most notably for the naans. You see, my go-to restaurant at home make naans as an appetizer of sort and I usually order rice to go with it. Here I got an entire bread basket worth of naans ! Which is a lot with a plate of rice on top. I also really liked the taste of our dishes, one of us took a biriani and it was actually spicy. So go for it if you are into that !

Now concerning the pricing. I've a hard time comparing the prices in Japan to my home country. But for the service, quantity and quality of food we got. I think it was really cheap. (Around 50 euros for 3 persons with drinks, and again, we ordered too much to begin with)

Overall I really enjoyed my meal and I absolutely think the Bistro is worth a shot if you are looking to eat before taking or after taking the...

Do yourself a favor and eat here. In our two weeks traveling Japan this was easily one of my favorite meals I had. We stopped in for dinner because we love having Indian food when we travel. The Bistro special chicken curry was fantastic, along with the grill mix sampler. The true star of our evening was the garlic cheese Naan - best Naan bread I've ever tried. Dip it in a curry and its better than a pizza. The staff operating and cooking for this restaurant are legit, and understand English as well. The flavors are right, and the spice level isn't too high (you can pick how spicy you want each entree). The restaurant is open later than many places in town. It is also located super close to major attractions like the pirate ship cruises on the lake, and the Hakone Checkpoint. Prices are great too with large portions to match. We had a great time eating here and highly recommend going out of your way to stop in if you are...