Vale Bar And Grill ヴェール・バー・アンド・グリル — Restaurant in Kutchan

This place is an absolute joke of a restaurant. You can pretty much guarantee that every 5 star review for this place was submitted by their own staff because not once did any of the staff ever introduce themselves. Yet almost all of the rave reviews list multiple staff by name.

I feel sorry for every other patron that got duped by their New Year’s Eve fixed menu.

The meal started off with having to share a single oyster and scallop between two people. The server quaintly stating “you’ll have to choose who gets to try what”.

This was followed by a pork belly appetizer which was missing the crisp pork crackling, but don’t worry, they’ll bring it on a side plate by itself later on during the main course once you inquire about it after noticing other plates going out.

The fatty tomahawk steak was simultaneously over and undercooked with zero flavor.

The sides came out randomly, slopped onto individual plates. Plain boiled cabbage and French fries anyone?

The second half of the main came last; a dry and bland chicken breast covered with plain olive oil.

The shared dessert was a few crumbles of square dotted with whipped cream from a can. Delicious!!🙄

-The entire meal lacked any sort of thoughtful pre-planning. It seemed like random thoughts just slapped together. -The bartender somehow decided to create two of the same drink (margarita) in completely different ways (one on the rocks and one as a martini). -Staff rushed to place mains on the table before the starters were finished. -At one point the restaurant filled with smoke and then the staff stated “we’re just not equipped to cook such a large steak”. -The staff opened doors to air it out causing other patrons to put sweaters on to stay warm.

It would have been comical if it wasn’t so sad...

A poor experience, somewhat over priced with ordinary service and poor ambience. Had booked a few days before, was sat at a bar table against a window. The table wobbled badly and was too close to the next table. We were in the 'back room', which is souless space mostly filled with large noisy groups.

On ordering food was informed that only two of the eight entrees were available as the others had run out (booking was at 6pm, so very early in the evening, so difficult to see how that could have happened (was the kitchen unable put together some specials?), which was very disappointing. Opted for salads (1,100 yen and 1,000 yen) instead, which turned out to be small bowls of roughly chopped cabbage, one with a few bit of bacon and a few cubes of bread and what tasted cheap shop bought dressings. Very expensive for what they were and rather flavourless. The mains were ok (Butcherboy Burger and crab pasta), but nothing special given the price of 3,300 yen and 2,800 yen respectively. While the wine list was ok, the only wine available by the glass were a house red, a house white and a house sparkling white. My partner reported the house sparkling as ok, but given that the restaurant has a full bar it was indeed surprising that the by the glass options were so limited. So the above food and 2 glasses of sparkling and 2 glasses of beer came to 13,300 yen, but then there was an additional 10% consumption tax and a 3.5% credit card surcharge that took the total to 15,142 yen. In and out in under and hour. In summary, i cannot recommend this restaurant, it is expensive for what it is and a very ordinary and disappointing dining experince. Eating out in Kutchan is a much...

Out of our week in Niseko, this was our worst meal. Vale positions itself as upscale, but only barely succeeds in the decor and even that isn’t excellent (rustic table tops have plates and drinks wobbly). Service: Staff were kind to our face, but lacking in all other areas. Could overhear them complaining that we asked for a steak knife to cut our chicken parm (which was overcooked and a butter knife wasn’t cutting it), and that we asked if our crab chili pasta even had crab in it (it looks like just spaghetti with tomato sauce and barely has a crab taste). Very rushed - asked us to order 3 times before our drinks even came. They served our main meals and didn’t even notice we had no silverware. One of the 2 of us finished our meal, and they asked if we wanted a dessert menu while the other was still eating. Mind you it was 2 hours before their closing time. Also they started cleaning the side room while us and other tables were still eating and we could smell the bleach/all purpose cleaner and it was very strong. Food: we ordered the scallops app. The scallops were great, but the slaw tasted like it hadn’t been washed and was cut into haphazard, inedible pieces. The chicken parm was overcooked. Crab chili pasta just tasted like pasta with red sauce with some kind of seafood sauce blended into it. I will say the drinks were ok, but took over 15 minutes to be delivered and there were only 4 other tables in the restaurant. Place has potential but needs better management and attention to detail to demand those prices when there are much better options at...