Fukuya — Restaurant in Karuizawa

Food was decent, but this place is NOT TRANSPARENT WITH THEIR CHARGES to tourists...

I came here for my first dinner in Karuizawa with my dad, based on the high rating on Google Map. We ordered 3 dishes from the English menu. Once the lady took our order, she came back with two 2 small appetizers of food, put them on our table and quickly left without explaining anything to us. We made the mistake of not asking her if they were complimentary. Our fault. We had never been to a restaurant in Japan where they put down the wrong food or put food that they will charge us later. So our guards were down, and we thought we were afterall...in Japan.

The food we had were decent. We had the fried tofu, fried chicken and the unagi on rice.

When we went to pay for the bill, the total cost was different from what we calculated from the prices on the English menu. The handwritten bill only listed out the 3 dishes that we ordered. We confronted them. Turns out, they charged us 300 yen seating fee per person, and 200 yen for each appetizer.

It wasn't the extra 1000 yen that we paid for. We gave it 1 star because I went through the whole English menu and there was no mention of a seating fee, or that we would automatically be given an appetizer that we would later be charged for.

We don't know if it's standard practice in izakayas to charge customers a seating fee or to serve appetizers to customers without letting them know in advance that they will be charged for them later. But I have not had this experience in izakayas (or restaurants in general) in other parts of Japan.

We would have been ok if they had up the price of the dishes on the English menu if they wanted the extra 1000 yen. But the way they tried to charge us more felt very shady to us, and definitely not the typical Japanese hospitality that we had been very fond of all...

In a winter night at Karuisawa, quite a lot of restaurants are all closed, and I can't feel my finger. All I want to do is find a restaurant and have some hot food. To my surprise, the food here is soooo good. Everything is freshly made; traditional taste and super delicious; restaurant owner is very friendly and caring. Especially love the eggplant! Don't let the handwritten Japanese menu stop you. Even if the owner doesn't understand English, they will try their best to...

Many of the dishes are very delicious and the ingredients are very fresh. We tried many dishes and found that the taste is very authentic Japanese. The owner is very friendly and welcoming. If anyone is looking for a good and delicious restaurant in Karuizawa, I recommend this restaurant.

Private rooms are available at an additional charge by the restaurant, and the owner served the appetizers without informing us that there would be an...