丸天 — Restaurant in Oshino

Hoto (ほうとう, 餺飥), a dish that really amazed me. The staff explained to me that this dish will take some time, which is an indicator that it's going to be real good. Well, good food takes time to cook, right?

It's a soup dish with lots of types of seasonal vegetables and slices of pork meat, stewed so well that the soup is so flavourful. Noodles are added into the stew as well. You will agree with me that this beats any other soup in Japan after trying it!

The portion is really huge and will definitely fill you up even if you're a big eater. A very satisfied meal. Maruten has other signature dishes as well like the common carp sashimi and grilled fish, but unfortunately I got so full and didn't have the chance to try them. They give discounts as well if you order them together with the hoto!

The queue is long (about an hour during my visit) so be...

The service is terrible. A middle-aged waiter was rude to customers. He refused to let us dine in without explaining why, though we noticed that there were available tables. When he asked us to wait outside, he shouted at and expelled us without respect. I understood that it was around rush hour. We had been refused by some restaurants nearby too, but they were polite by saying sorry to us and explaining why we could not dine in. For this restaurant, no “sorry” or “please” but shouting. As a restaurant near a famous tourist site, they even didn’t try to use translation device for better communication, though they realized that customers couldn’t...

I ordered tempura soba and salted grilled fish. They taste amazing! Staffs are very polite and lovely. They don’t speak english but they tried their best to communicate. I saw many reviews about poor service and I don’t agree at all! The signs (in English) clearly say that you should be waiting in line at the right door. (So you shouldn’t just randomly walk inside) There are 2 sections of tables, left room with only 5 tables (with chairs), for this section you have mt Fuji view. And the right room, you’ll be sitting on the mat, looks kind of cute but I chose...