José Luis Karuizawa — Restaurant in Karuizawa

This restaurant has its roots in a Spanish restaurant in Madrid. The staff is friendly and will casually give you information that will make your food taste even better. The warm dishes are served on warm serving plates, which is a nice touch. In addition to cash, credit cards and PayPay are accepted. It is best to make reservations in advance.

Lunch course: 4,500 yen ◎Tapas, 3 kinds of assorted tapas and soup The beef tendon stewed in consomme is outstandingly delicious. The beef flavor is concentrated in a small plate.

○Jamon Serrano & Chorizo Platter The moderate saltiness and fat are delicious and make you want a glass of wine.

◎Little gem lettuce salad and miso cream Lettuce flown in from Spain is served with deep-fried pasta, homemade mayonnaise, and crabmeat cream. The crispy texture of the lettuce is a wonderful addition to the fried pasta, but when mayonnaise and miso cream are added, the dish turns into a feast. An amazing salad.

○Souffle Tortilla A soft Spanish omelet topped with an even softer soufflé, this omelet is like a drink.

◎Fideiwa (pasta paella) with thick shrimp broth The best surprise of the day. The short pasta that soaked up the shrimp broth had a slippery texture and was cooked al dente. The thin pasta is accented by charring it to make it crispy. What magic did they use to boil and bake the short pasta to the perfect al dente? This menu changes the...

A trip to the closest vacation from Tokyo, Karuizawa. We had a nice sit down at a modern Spanish place which has been on my list for a while. The Jamon Iberico Coca was to my liking, and the crunchiness was appealing. The salty level was enough to get things started. Gazpacho with coconut cream was quite nice, the cream really gave the refreshing touch that regular full fat cream doesn’t. Will try using coconut cream for other items than Thai curry. The pinchos which followed was nothing extraordinary. It was nice follow up appetiser to the meal but was regular. White shrimp fried on the side was my favourite but other ones I felt were just seasonal factors. Overall nice start to the meal and it felt cozy enough to have a conversation at a leisurely pace. ①Iberico Bacon and Watercress Salad→personally not a huge fan of thick bacon but it was nice to have the saltiness adding an extra flavor to the light salad dressing. It was a refreshing pit stop on the course ②Mushroom Ajillo: a nice touch to the usual shrimp one. There was enough umami from the mushroom to give a good dip for the side of baguette. They do make alternatives ③Deer Roast: surprisingly not as gamey as I thought. It was a good flavor with the sauce on the side to let you enjoy the lean meat ④Seafood Paella→was a bit “what?” when the fried shrimp was on top giving me a double take. Nothing special but it was a nice presentation. Although I enjoyed the crispiness taste wise pretty regular. The paella was a bit more Japanese then I liked. Having enjoyed some awesome ones in Spain…my expectations were a bit too high. It was nice and light with the dashi flavouring but not Spanish enough for my taste ⑤Bask Cheesecake: a nice light touch to end the meal. It wasn’t over powering or too sweet. Perfect size for an overly full feeling. It wasn’t as heavy so it lets you end the meal on a lighter note I would try coming again as it was a nice ambience and service wise not bad. It’ll probably be one of those slow sit down dinners you enjoy with the people you have a long conversation with . . . . .

軽井沢編の最終章へ・・・もともとそんなに肉を食べないので肉系が最近苦手になって来ている気がする(･･;) ①ベーコン🥓クレソンサラダ→自分的には美味しかった一品。ベーコンはカリカリでは無いが味わい深く、サラダドレッシングが薄味でちょうど良かった。ベーコンの塩気が上手く混ざって程よい塩加減(塩っぽいのが嫌いなのでコレは合格) ②キノコのアヒージョ:キノコはもともと好きなので美味しいかな。オイルには出汁が出ててバゲットに浸すとグー。キノコが嫌いな人にはチョット可哀想な感じかも知れない(でも事前に言えば変えてくれるのでそれも美味しかった) ③鹿肉のロースト:野生味が少なくてビックリだったかも知れない一品。もっと臭みなどがあるかと思ったけど、サッパリとした感じなので鹿肉がチョットと言う人でもトライしてみようと感じられるかも。 ④魚介パエリア→海老フライが斬新だった。パエリア自体は薄味で塩っぽいと言うよりは出汁で誤魔化している系とも思える。辛口、スペイン人が出すにしては日本寄りなお味。本番で食すのとはチョット違う、残念 ⑤...

We went for my husbands birthday dinner and were a bit surprised about the casual setting as the way they had advertised it on the website showed a romantic fireplace setting. For brunch I felt it might be nice but for dinner there were a lot of people in hoodies and casual clothes and people keeping their coats on as it was a bit cold. The food was okay but not worth the price, I was disappointed with the taste of the paella and could’ve done without. The rest of the food was okay but nothing to write home about. Dessert was probably the best thing when they offered to move us to the lounge with the fireplace, however it was also next to the hotel lounge where happy hour was going on so there were a lot of people queuing for a buffet or something which ruined the experience for me.

Service was polite and accommodating but a bit lacking on...