KUMAZA — Restaurant in Hakuba

While I give two stars for food, service, and atmosphere, this place is somehow less than the sum of its parts.

The food was a solid "okay," but certainly not worth the price. The service was polite, but painfully inexperienced. Staff huddled and joked around the bar while one dilligent man tried his best to actually provide good service.

When I first came here back in 2018, I remembered enjoying a comforting, homey atmosphere. That has since evaporated with its latest renovation. Broken lights, empty walls, and a more crowded seating arraingement are all new features of Bear's Cafe Echoland.

What's more, the AI written menu seemed entirely unfamiliar to the staff. "Have you tried X martini?" "Naur, it's my second day."

A dinner for four cost us 19,300 yen. We had a lot of laughs observing the ridiculousness of it all, and made lemonade from the lemon-heavy cocktails.

Unless, like us, there are no other options available to you while in town,...

The staff was lovely, but I was unable to get the food I wanted. I am vegetarian, the only food option for me (bar the salad) was the veggie burger. When it came, the patty was cold. I told them about it and they said (or at least I understood) they would bring me a new one, but they only brought the same one again, that was already part eaten, heated up again. The patty was very soggy and nearly fell apart. It felt like reheated in the microwave. They were very nice but didn't understand what my concern was and charged full price for it, even though I then hadn't eaten any more of it. Sorry guys.

The food gets 2 stars instead of 1 because the meat-eating members of the party had a chicken Parma that...

I'd love to give this place a higher rating because the staff were lovely and the cocktails were great - but the food was below par. Risotto, though chock full of delicious mushrooms, was watery and overcooked. Parmas weren't great either. Chicken was overcooked and the topping appeared to be just plain passata - so very bland. The fish and chips were also disappointing. Fish was overcooked and there was more batter than fish. The Caesar salad was the best of the lot - but still not great. Lettuce needed to be chopped smaller and there were a lot of tough chewy bits. We wouldn't rush back for food, but would definitely go...