Hida Kisetsuryori Sakana — Restaurant in Takayama

I am not sure why this restaurant has such high ratings. Am I'm living in the twilight zone? We felt completely scammed. A group of 10 went for a birthday dinner reservation. Omakase. We were expecting the best seasonal ingredients of takayama region to be showcased and some creative cuisine as shown on his website worthy of the expensive price tag. Honestly the entire meal was so maddeningly mediocre that it was almost laughable. The entire meal cost 120,000 yen including 4 beers and a tea charge of 7,000 yen!!! Yep that's about $70 for cups of green tea.

First, small samplers of top shell, ikura and mushrooms. Then came sashimi of what the owner/chef described as "tuna toro... Very expensive!!", marlin and squid. The fish wasn't even sliced cleanly, with some frayed edges. Colour also wasn't very fresh looking. Then I took a taste. Yikes! Tasted just thawed and served too cold. I can't decide if we should be insulted that he described the fish as very expensive and expected us not to know the quality of fish he was serving.

Next was a boring AND overcooked bubbled chawanmushi (steam egg) with tough shrimp at the bottom.

Tempura next. 2 types of mushrooms, pepper and fugu wrapped in shiso leaf. Fugu was plain tasting and rather tough. I asked the server in Japanese (only the server and chef were running the restaurant that evening) if the mushrooms were foraged from the forest as the website mentioned a lot of foraged ingredients . She replied no and apologised. The chef later claimed otherwise. Who knows!

Next came the "main". Hida beef for the beef eaters and a small grilled ayu (sweet fish) for those who opted out of beef. Beef cut wasn't great and had an odor. The small ayu was completely overcooked and tough. I took a few bites and left the rest. Might as well give me canned tuna.

Next up was a somewhat acceptable dish. A small piece of fried sea perch in a gravy with stewed mushrooms. Then a small bowl of butter broth asari (clams) arrived. Oversalted and chewy. No sweetness of clams at all in the broth!

Next he brought out small bowls and unabashedly proclaimed "this is unagi, very delicious". It turned out to be small little rubber pieces of what I'm ashamed to even call unagi, served cold with marinated cucumbers. I can't tell if he thought we were amateur idiots and assumed he could pass off something mediocre as delicious. I wasn't expecting a hirokawa level unagi but come on, this was quite disgusting tasting eel.

Finally out came white rice mixed with once again the same mushrooms. Bland bland bland. Along with a SANDY and somewhat smelly miso soup of small river clams. Everyone took a bite and left the rest. The chef asked if we were full or didn't like it. We told him it just didn't taste very nice. Later on he apologised that we didn't like the bland rice and chalked it up to taste differences between Chinese and Japanese. Hmmmm....... Well, later on we found the tabelog listing of his closed restaurant of the same name at a previous location. If you see that rating, you will understand that the Japanese don't seem to enjoy his food that much as well.

Not being mean, just honest - I wouldn't call this guy a chef. Just an average cook. I would be ashamed to cook up and serve something of such low calibre at a dinner party and proceed to proclaim to my guests "hey this is very expensive fish!!!", "hey this is very delicious eel". The chef-owner... He seems like a nice guy who enjoys his fishing and foraging but I think he shouldn't be cooking for paying customers much less an expensive omakase course. We are not mincing any words so that any future people will know what they are signing up for. We just felt completely ripped off and I wanted to cry when the bill came. Totally horrible food that cost way more than our very amazing, inspiring, fulfilling and memorable omakase meal with a sushi master (otomezushi) in kanazawa. Sigh, felt really bad for the birthday foodie who was celebrating a milestone birthday and had to put up with such an awful meal....

This was one of our top restaurant experiences while in Japan on this two week trip. If you want a true expert fisherman and forager to make you a seasonal meal consisting of mostly wild fish and vegetables, this is the place to go.

We had many courses, a wide range of flavors, fish and beef dishes, with a wide range of matching local sake. So many dishes stood out that it is hard to know which to mention. The fried whole fish was excellent. The gelato dessert was made from vegetable and sugar ONLY, nothing else, and was incredible. The two types of steak were top notch. The sake pairings were pitch perfect. The grilled miso dish was rich and delicious. And the round plate of wild vegetables provided a wide range of flavors and treatments of the selections.

Chef was talkative and funny and very open about sharing his knowledge and food creativity. We were one of two parties at the meal, so the environment was very intimate and well-paced. We ended the meal with two glasses of hand-crafted esoteric fruit wines -- Chef has many along the wall behind the bar as shown in one of the photos!

In one of the other photos you can see a wide variety of fish that Chef caught locally that have been carefully preserved and presented at the entrance to the restaurant.

We would strongly recommend this to anyone interested in deeply considered "wild" food and flavors that match the seasons. We will be...

What an adventure it was driving through heavy rain to reach this restaurant! I was filled with anticipation to try the A5 Hida Beef. A detour led me to a cemetery, thanks to a glitch in Google Maps 😆

One of the charms of Hida Kisetsuryori Sakana is their commitment to using seasonal ingredients. I was there at the end of May, still a prime season for wild vegetables in the Gifu area.

With the restaurant located in a mountainous landscape, Chef Hayao Imai personally hand-picks the freshest ingredients from the surrounding wilderness each day 🙌

The wild vegetable treats I sampled included pickled and tempura spring vegetables - a seasonal delight available until early June. It’s an evolving experience here. You can savour mountain vegetables in spring, river fish in the summer, mushrooms in autumn, and wild game in winter 😊

The other star of the night was the stone-grilled beef - three different cuts of meat, to be exact: rump, sirloin, and tenderloin. Each was a masterpiece, cooked to perfection, delicious with garlic chips or alone.

Adding to the delight was their own sake 🍶, which complemented the beef.

The dining experience, right from the sake, the assortment of vegetables, the exceptional beef, and the company of Chef and Kay, left a lasting impression.

I'd love to come...