Hidagyu Maruaki — Restaurant in Takayama

We admitted that the Hida beef was very good. After all we ordered A5 grade but did not enjoy the meal because of the poor service. So we wished that we did not come here. There were many yakiniku restaurants serving Hida beef but we selected this one because it was close to the station. My 2 friends and their 2 children arrived first at 5PM and put down 6 people as my husband and I got to Takayama a little later. We got to Takayama and the long travel gave my husband terrible back pain. He couldn’t move so had to decline dinner and just stayed in bed. I arrived at the restaurant at 6PM to wait with my friends. We waited for about an hour so by the time we were called it was already past 7:00PM. For the whole wait the people who checked on the line were not communicative and appeared not to be too interested in serving us. I was Ok with that as we didn’t speak Japanese but certainly did not feel welcome. When we told the server that there were 5 of us instead of 6, we were dismayed to hear that she would not seat us as the number on the wait list was 6 and there were only 5 of us. We pleaded but the dragon lady with the short hair would not budge and gave us the dreaded crossbones sign, signaling that no change is allowed and our turn was void because one person was missing. We kept on pleading but to no avail, we had to sign up again and waited some more. The more we pleaded the more upset she got and she must have walked away from us 4 or 5 times without any explanation. Anyhow at the end we gave up and reentered our name on the waiting list as it was now dark and very cold, and there were two young persons in our group. So we waited again and as I looked around the waiting room I saw rows of glassy eyed customers waiting to be fed. It was not a pretty sight. We got called around 7:45 and were seated at an 8 person table. I was shocked to see that the restaurant was only 1/4 full and there must have been 10 six person tables available. Anyway we ordered our food and so soon after at 8:30 was told that the restaurant was closing and we needed to put in our last order. By the time we left, we were the only ones left and we left feeling upset as we spent a big amount of money but felt completely mistreated. There were only groups of 2 after us, and 1 group of 4. To void our turn just because there were 5 of us instead of 6 seemed punitive. And the dragon lady was so mean and rude when she told us our turn was void that it really ruined any appetite I may have had. Anyway if you decide to eat there be prepared for the super crowded waiting room on the outside, the hours long wait line, and the almost empty dining room when your turn comes up. And make sure there is no change in your party or else the mean lady with the short hair will ruin your day as you need to eat there more than she needs to give you decent service. I always bow and say Gochiso u sama desh at the end of a rmeal in the Japanese restaurants I go to, basically thanking them for the meal. But at this restaurant all I felt was bitterness so shame on the restaurant and I regret setting...

So many problems with this restaurant. Classic typical tourist trap.

It’s not solo diner friendly. If you want to try different cuts as a solo diner you only have the option of 1x lunch set, where the cuts are random and they don’t even tell you which cuts they are.

I wanted to try the A5 sirloin, and there were no other options available to me as a solo diner besides buying the whole steak. So I did that. It was so oily that I felt sick for the whole day and it ruined my appetite for other things I wanted to try.

Later I learnt that nobody eats an entire A5 or Japanese wagyu steak on their own- that amount is just not meant to be consumed in one sitting and it’s incredibly unhealthy.

As a beef specialty restaurant, the least they could do was to point this out to me even though I placed my order with the staff face to face. But they didn’t bother - probably because they wanted to exhort a tourist of their money. It’s a classic Japanese behaviour I’ve noticed.

It’s pricey and mediocre. The steak alone was 4500 yen and didn’t even come with miso soup and rice and sides. The sauces added zero flavour to the meat too.

Staff here have zero idea what they’re doing. I asked one woman how long I should cook the steak for and she said 2 min per side. ……. I’d like to think anyone with half a brain knows that is WAY too long for any steak, not to say wagyu!!

I followed her directions and it was way too tough. Asked chat gpt and got recommended 10 sec per side which was just nice.

The owners should be ashamed and...

Totally worth the wait to eat here. The quality of the beef they sell here is so good. We came here twice during our stay in Takayama. So this place serve the beef in 3 diff ways and they also have some ala carte stuff which we didn't get to try. What we tried were the 3 main thing

The barbecue Shabu shabu Sukiyaki

My verdict is that all 3 are so good in their own way. So what's the difference between sukiyaki and shabu shabu. Sukiyaki comes with very concentrated soy sauce based broth which you first lightly grill the beef and then dip into the broth, followed by raw egg. Shabu shabu is just water which you dip your beef and eat it with few types of sauces.

I would recommend going for the barbecue and sukiyaki but if you are not feeling that well or down with a sore throat, the shabu shabu is the perfect choice. That's what happened to us actually. So I hope this helps. What made the sukiyaki and shabu shabu so good is really cause the quality of their marbling is so high that you don't even need to order the A5 to enjoy it. We initially ordered premium A5, then the standard A5 but both of them were too much marbling in our opinion. We then opted for the standard beef without A5 (still wagyu) and they were perfect. One thing to note, I feel that their standard beef is comparable to the A5 wagyu marketed back in my...