Restaurant & Cafe Yotsuba — Restaurant in Takayama

When we went here we were looking forward to having a cozy dinner in this beautiful calm village, but unfortunately it turned out to be a very dissappointing visit. When ordering a set menu cake together with two dinner dishes the owner told us in a very unpleasant way that he couldnt make money if we order only this cake without a drink. His way of repeatedly asking the rethoric question whether we understand that really sounded as if we were stupid, and so we simply ordered the dinner dishes. After arriving back at our lodge we noticed that we payed significantly more than what we ordered; the owner did not write us a receipt or anything but simply told us the price orally, so we trusted him. Calculating from the prices we remembered it would have been exactly 600yen more, or exactly the price for two drinks. I dont know whether he thought he just secretly makes us pay anyway for the drink we did not end up ordering, so in any case we wanted to hear his justification and called him on the phone. After a long moment of deliberation he told us that it is a "seat fee". A seat fee?? Nothing like that had been written anywhere at the store. Of course, he then continued, we wouldn't understand that because we are gaijin, as the Japanese customers would all know that. This, upon confirming with the owner of our lodge, turned out to be complete bullsh*t, as our host told us he never ever heard of seat fee in this restaurant. If a restaurant owner wants to make their customers definitely order a drink, or pay a seat fee - ok, absolutely no problem with that, as long as it is either written somewhere or communicated to customers in a reasonable and respectful way. In our case I see the owner's behaviour as not only disrespectful, but as blunt fraud. While the view is superb especially at sunset, and the food did indeed taste quite good, the owners attitude and behaviour made it on of the most disappointing restaurant visits...

delicious beef gyudon, I enjoyed it very much with buttery rice. Good portion of salad and sweet vegetables as side dishes. soup not very flavored, tasted like warm water, I like it still.

Milk tea tasted like earl grey with milk, still delicious, but as a Taiwanese I had different impression :) nice with chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is very rich and fudgy with some crunch. All home made by owner.

Favorite part is the outdoor seating where you can watch the clouds and pass some time while eating. Lovely!

They accept...

Came here for a late night dinner and wasn't disappointed. We enjoyed chatting with the owner, and I really enjoyed my pasta, which was the day's special with homemade tomato sauce. The atmosphere was really cute and relaxing as well.

After dinner we enjoyed some drinks and desserts. I ordered a few omakase, or chefs choice, cocktails. They were all tasty, especially when he used a local spice to make some "spiced" rum since he didn't have any spiced rum on hand.

We would love to visit again if ever...