Akaru 明る Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Kutchan

I had high hopes coming here after reading the good reviews prior but unforntunately I was left disappointed. The main thing is food is very expensive for what it is. So it’s super overpriced, even for Niseko standards and especially for the quality of the food. Granted, they were sold out of their most popular dish, the roasted beef, so not sure how that was. The dishes that I definitely DONT recommend are the akaru salad (they basically give the same thing as a side in every dish) and the salmon and scallop carpaccio (3600 yen for a small serving with mostly just salad). The yuzu chicken hotpot was decent and light but the flavour was definitely on the bland side. Their potato and cheese bake was actually quite nice, however, combined with the rest of the food, it too felt lacking in the moment as it’s just baked potato and cheese, can’t go wrong. And the lamb chops were overcooked and chewy. The only good thing was their service and the atmosphere. We had a very kind Japanese lady (potentially owner) serve us and she was...

Pros: nice seating and comfortable restaurant food was ok tasting

Cons..and there are many: limited selections of food in menu slow to zero service. Food was very slow with long wait. (Though cashier said when I was paying the bill there was a staff member sick hence lack of service). Still, no water, wasabi or ant table service is pretty bad hence we didn't enjoy our dinner experience. I also didn't like how they continued to seat new customers and neglected the existing seated customers. pricey for average tasting food and portion size. orded few sushi rolls, Yuzu hotpot and a few appetisers. the placed was packed full of customers mainly tourists. No Japanese locals.

Overall,...

Finding a restaurant in Niseko for dinner during peak season is no joke... we prebook many highly rated restaurants in advance whether its Seinikuten, Crab Dining Kanon or RyuNabe.. we felt like Sukiyaki and this is really a hidden gem. The taste, service, price all top notch... Portion was generous as well... it was the cheapest dinner among all the other places we tried but seriously its definitely one of the best meals we had in Niseko...

Going to miss the generous snowfalls and...