OFF KINOSAKI — Restaurant in Toyooka

This is a fantastic restaurant. They serve food and drink that is fresh and local. This is the type of place cooks/chefs love. Why? Check out the beautiful color of that steak. They know the meat and what it should be cooked to for the best experisnce. They don't ask you how you want it cooked. This may turn some people off but the best chefs I've ever known have all adored red meat cooked just to just this temp or near it.

I also had a muscat, fig, and fromage blanc salad that was super refreshing after onsen soaks and paired well with the meat and potatoes main. The bread here is homemade and wherever they get their butter from, it's fantastic stuff. Check out the cool little image on the plate that held the bread/butter, very fitting. If you have some of this amazing butter left over and you are getting steak or beef, slather the butter on it.

The staff and the service was excellent. They're English was fine. I saw. Someone mentioned no one spoke English there Iin snkthe review. Maybe that was the caee when they were there but it was not the case when I was there. Also, that's kind of a rude thing to knock points off of. You're in Japan, you can't just expect everyone to know your particular language. If someone came to America/England /Germany and gave a poor review of a restaurant because they did not speak Japanese or Mandarin would that be...

We made a reservation to make sure we had a spot for dinner since restaurants in Kinosaki can either close very early or be fully booked. We thought the atmosphere was nice and the staff were all very friendly.

As for the food, since some parts were very delicious and others weren’t, I’ve decided to give 3 stars. But in reality, the experience was closer to a 3.5. We all thought that everything should’ve tasted better for the price point. The grilled vegetables were AMAZING. Ironically the steak they came with was just okay. Both pasta dishes were tasty, but nothing to write home about in my opinion. I would have liked for more options. The bread didn’t really taste like much.

The desserts were unfortunately mostly disappointing. Crepe was best overall, but not something I’d want to go back for. The Basque cheesecake was… undercooked. You can see the line of straight cream cheese in the middle. They also forgot about our last dessert order, but we did eventually get it. It wasn’t what we expected. Overall, it wasn’t bad food. But it also wasn’t as good as it...

Very good food at egregiously low prices. The only place in Japan I’ve been with substantive amounts of vegetables (and fiber) — high quality too. The pâté serving was unreasonably generous, and very good too. The amount they gave would easily cost $50+ in The states. I’d eat another order. Their bread is fantastic (following the Tartine mold). The chicken and spare ribs were good, but not great. The staff helped me understand the menu, and were very patient with my Japanese. Total bill for 2 was $37 each: 2 glasses of wine, 2 “appetizers” and 2 entrees. Unreasonably good deal. That was enough food for 2...