ファミリア — Restaurant in Nagasaki

Food was okay, but the service was awful. After reading the glowing reviews, I was excited to try this restaurant and expected a warm and friendly dining experience. However, from the second my family and I entered the restaurant the owner-chef-server was the complete opposite of that. Not once did he smile or engage in any conversation during his interactions with us, which were limited to just taking our order, serving our food and leaving the check, which was what he did, literally. I paid by credit card and when he returned with my receipt and card placed on a tray, he left it on the table and disappeared without a word. This is incredibly rude and insulting, because it is customary in Japan to exchange farewells after paying and the person who received your money will attentively wait for you to leave the restaurant or even lead you out and watch you go until you are out of sight. I actually waited a minute to see if he’d reappear, because I had never experienced this in my 20 years living in Japan.

The service was not only unfriendly and rude, but unbelievably slow. The owner-chef-server is a one-man-show, so you’re going to need to wait and wait for your food and you better order everything you want when you get there, because you don’t want to order something else later and get placed at the end of the long and slow moving queue. We were the first table for dinner service and received our first 3 of 4 dishes at a reasonable pace, but after our 3rd dish was served, other customers came in and it took about an hour from that point for him to serve...

If one is lucky, sometimes you stumble on an unexpected experience. We found Famiglia, and its owner and founder Ken-san by simple Google search and it turned into a very memorable evening.

As many have said, Ken does it all from greeting, hosting, chef and server. It’s clear he is passionate about creating great food and experiences for his guests….as evidenced by almost 20 years of people signing his ceiling and walls commending Ken both for the restaurant but his friendship.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal of pasta, his amazing black bread and libations. The intimacy of this restaurant, and its 10 seats, made one feel at home, but one funky home! Fabulous vibe.

As we interacted with Ken, we asked about his multiple guitars and if he was a player, which he is, however he quickly turned it around on me if I played. As I told Ken, I am a campfire player at best and I thought that was the end of it.

As our meal ended, Ken went over and grabbed two guitars and made a strong case we should play. While I was a little shy to do so, one thing led to another where we indulged in a few tunes ….he likes classic rock so that led to some Clapton, Beatles, Eagles. It was a lot of fun and Ken’s guests joined in while indulging our passion to play.

Thanks Ken-san for the amazing meal but above all a memory of Nagasaki we will never forget! In closing, Ken asked us to sign his wall - it was an honor for us.

Your friends from Canada - D&D

Stay well and keep...

This place is an absolute gem.

We were the only customers as it was late-ish so we were able to share our evening with the lovely chef/owner Ken-Ichi. He made us feel so welcome, and he was extra lovely to our son. We had an unforgettable night eating and chatting.

My partner and son had Ken-Ichi’s homemade smoked ham and swear it was the best they’ve ever eaten. They had the ragu and carbonara with fresh-made pasta and they were very happy with their meals. I had taro gnocchi with gorgonzola and truffle. It just melted in my mouth - delicious. We also had the shrimp and seaweed frittes and homemade bread and pickles. Everything was great. And, there was delicious sweet homemade sake that Ken-Ichi brewed with friends under their own label. So great!

Thankyou Ken-Ichi for our favorite night in...