Botchini — Restaurant in Takayama

I had high hopes for this restaurant, especially after hearing good things about their seafood paella. Unfortunately, the experience was anything but impressive. When the dish arrived, it looked nice, but looks can be deceiving.

From the very first bite, it was clear something was wrong. The rice wasn’t just undercooked — it was practically raw. Each grain was hard, chalky, and had a crunch that made me feel like I was chewing on gravel.

When we raised this with the server, the chef said that the paella was meant to be served “al dente.” I’m all for al dente — but this wasn’t that. This was rice that had barely met boiling water. There’s a fine line between texture and negligence, and this dish had crossed it by a mile.

If you’re craving paella, look elsewhere — preferably somewhere that knows the difference between “al dente” and...

Dinner for two in this quaint Spanish restaurant in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture Japan. We ordered the seafood paella for two, and a bottle of Domaine du Cleray Chardonnay.

First the paella. It was quite tasty and good but needs a couple of changes to make it even better. First, it needed more saffron. I could not taste the saffron which is a key ingredient of a good paella. Second is the paella needed more pimenton as the colour of the rice was a bit pale. The pimenton would also give it the smoky taste. Lastly, the rice used. It looked like sushi rice instead of proper bomba rice. The texture of the rice was very good though. Still nutty and not soggy at all.

Overall, the dish was tasty, the ambience was cosy, and the service...

So I’d seen a few Italian restaurants in Tokyo and Kyoto but didn’t get to try any until today. So I stopped by this hidden gem and the food was fantastic, I had the pasta with cream with prosciutto, pancetta, greens, leeks and mushrooms. It was as good as I’ve had and very reasonably priced. The owner was very helpful in providing me directions to a Buddhist temple I could see from...