KAGARIBI — Restaurant in Karuizawa

For a brand name hotel, it’s pretty much more or less what you’d expect. The 4 course lunch set is a decent price for what you get : a soup (plus bread), pasta, main and dessert plus a drink. It’s not as affordable as some other options around the area, however, the service and atmosphere of the hotel area is very elegant and beautifully decorated. The food portions are on the smaller side, the soup was shockingly shallow in the plate, the pasta was decent, the mains were ok: the zuppa de peace was mid, the chicken was the best, and the beef was good quality but a bit under salted in my opinion. The dessert was awful though - the cacao sans farine was topped with yuzu cream and a mixture of nuts covered in chocolate and caramel ice cream, but the nuts baked into the chocolate cake was spicy? I had to pick off the nuts to finish it, but the flavor combination was experimental and frankly terrible. I wish there was a choice to pick something else, or at least a warning that it would be spicy. Generally, everything was fine (especially at the price you’re paying) but the dessert is an absolute let down and should be taken...

Came here on 9/20/23 while staying at the hotel. We didn’t want to go out to find dinner so we decided to dine at the hotel restaurant since it had very good reviews. Needless to say we were let down pretty badly.

It’s sad to say that the best thing we had was the dinner bread and olive oil. We also ordered the calamari fritti, the truffle Tagliolini and the grilled wagyu. The fritti was nothing to rave about as the crust immediately fell off once you stuck a fork into it. It was also still very oily when it was served. The pasta was pretty good but it wasn’t anything to write home about. The worst dish had to be wagyu which was extreme tough and some pieces still had the ligament running through it making it impossible to chew. We were only able to eat half of it as the other pieces were absolutely not edible.

Maybe we decided on the wrong things on the menu but if you decide to come here don’t order the...

I booked this resto for my sister's birthday. Reservations done thru Tablecheck.com.

Its an Italian restaurant, so we got the usual pizza, pasta, steak and salad. Complimentary bread with olive oil was provided while waiting for the food. Kagaribi salad is pretty with its presentation but its your everyday salad with 2 choice dressings. Four cheese pizza with honey is yummm. We got the wood fire baked lasagna in a hot small cocotte. Lastly, the L steak is big. Its not your usual Japanese steak that would melt in your mouth but like a hearty Australian meaty steak, which what we wanted at the time. This has grilled vegetables on the side.

Service: Impeccable... think good Japanese service then level that up 4 more times. Staff can speak and understand english. Thank you for making my sister's birthday...