Ufuya — Restaurant in Nago

If you're doing a tour of Okinawa and feel like getting a homestyle meal in a super authentic Japanese old style house, Ufuya is the restaurant for you!

Situated in the mountains of Okinawa, 2 hours north of the city of Naha, you will Ufuya. It's over 100+ years old, but yes, there is air conditioning and plumbing for the toilets.  The place has been renovated to support a lot of customers that go to this restaurant.

The Restaurant

Ufuya is pretty rad. I haven't been in an old style Japanese house before so it was a unique experience. There is FREE parking since they're not that competitive for parking out in the mountains. Upon entering the facility, you'll start in the gift shop.

FYI: That's how you know it's a tourist trap.

Upon exiting the gift shop, you'll find yourself in the estate's courtyard.  There's lots of trees and a rock garden.  The restroom is a separate building from the restaurant (yup, modern working toilets...I can't do those non-western toilets).

When you enter the restaurant, you'll be required to take your shoes off.  There are free lockers at the entrance.

The Food

You can get yakiniku pork and shabu shabu as one person servings.  That's if you order the "Moukubana" luxurious course meal...we went big on this one: 15 dishes and dessert for 7350JPY. It was a lot of food! A lot! I don't know how people can eat this much food.  This would make 2 people very full. It was pretty good at first, but when you eat when you're full it's more painful than tasty.

Knowing what I know now, would I go again?

Nope. The restaurant is faaaaaaaaaaar away from most places. It's a 2 hour drive from Naha. The food and experience was interesting, but only if you're going that far should you check out this restaurant.  It's a very popular tourist destination since actual tour buses show up to this place.  Be sure to book a reservation on the Ufuya website prior to going if you don't...

This is a really interesting and beautiful restaurant experience. They offer reservations, but we weren’t able to scoop one before we went, so we decided to come a bit earlier to assure that we would beat the lunch rush. We got to the restaurant around 10:45, and had a nice scenic walk to the restaurant location, which is in the middle of a garden. When we arrived, we were told to take a ticket and wait for our number to be called. We waited for about 5 minutes and were seated at one of the nicer tables by the waterfall/koi pond.

Service was fast, and ordering is done through your mobile phone. We decided to have the lunch shabu shabu. It was a bit pricey, but the Agu pork was delicious, and all the veggies were crisp and fresh. The portion for 2 people is a lot, so we weren’t able to finish all of the food (mainly the carbs - rice and noodles). I liked the two dipping sauces that were given to us for the shabu shabu, but I do wish there was more variance. They also did not serve us 4 of the side dishes that usually come with the set (you can see in other pictures that people have posted of the shabu shabu, we only received the Japanese pickles) and that wasn’t explained, so I was a bit confused.

I wouldn’t miss this if you’re staying in northwestern Okinawa, or are making the trip up to sightsee. It was such a lovely experience to have a relaxing lunch surrounded by nature. The restaurant was quickly filled up with tables full of tourists, so I definitely stress getting here early if you cannot get a...

If you like authentic Japanese foods served in an organically Japan setting nestled in beautiful gardens than this place is Fu-Ya! We stopped in to Ufuya while up in Nago and it was a wonderful experience. "Ufuya" translates to "big house" but it is really a collection of houses connected via walkways and stairwells. What makes it so special is that it is tucked into the hillside and the walls are mostly glass allowing you to peer out at the many plants, flowers and waterfalls making it ia peaceful way to dine on tasty soups and noodle dishes such as Okinawan Soba. In addition to the soba we also had the Agu pork over grilled ginger which was well prepared and extremely delicious. We finished our meal with the Ufuya ball cream puff and the brown sugar Swiss roll deserts and we were not disappointed. After dinner we walked the trails to the top of the hill and took inn all the flowers, trees and waterfalls which was a perfect way to end our Ufuya encounter. Ufuya is open for lunch and dinner, but be prepared for a wait but to kill time you can visit the shop and walk the grounds. Be prepared to take off your shoes as they have lockers for you to store them in. The price is medium to high priced but...