菖蒲ケ浜レストハウス — Restaurant in Nikko

This restaurant is right next to Shobugahama Pier, so it is convenient to come here before or after riding the Chuzenji Lake Cruise. In our case, we boarded at the Chuzenji Lake Station stop, did a full loop, and then one more stop to Shobugahama. We went on a rainy autumn day at 11:30AM and it was not crowded, so we were able to get seats with a beautiful view of the lake and fall colours. The restaurant owners are kind and have decorated the restaurant with pretty wooden carvings and fishing paraphernalia.

I highly recommend the grilled salted trout set meal (1500円). However, please note it takes 20-30 minutes to prepare once you order. You can choose from several options (hot or cold udon/soba, or miso soup). We chose the hot udon. The udon was hearty with many vegetables. The pickles that come with it were very nice too. The trout is amazing, so fresh and flavourful, probably the best I've had. If you're not up to eating grilled fish with chopsticks, or you want something faster, our friend had the deep fried breaded fish (1000円) and it was very good too. There was self-serve hot tea and cold water.

Edit: I was excited to come back here in July 2025. But it was closed because the cruise was cancelled for maintenance. The maintenance dates are nowhere to be found online, so here is a photo of the 2025...

Got off the cruise at Shobugahama at 11:50, was looking for a place for lunch, luckily this rest house was right next to the pier. There are a few set meals of trout, I went for the fried one, it was crispy on the outside, and the fish inside had similar texture as cooked salmon. It was a satisfying lunch.

If you plan to take cruise to Shobugahama and then change to bus to go further into Oku-nikko, this place is a...

We bought our round-trip boat ride and came back afterwards for lunch. We had told the lady we wanted 3 sets before the ride and the food was ready as soon as we came back. The set was amazing, it's comprised of various traditional plates including salted fish, lotus root with tomato, Japanese pickles with radish marinated with wasabi (not strong) and the usual miso soup and rice. Overall had a great lunch and would...