Hotarutei — Restaurant in Yamanouchi

Delicious meals in a historical dining environment and English-speaking staff are from Europe. The pinnacle of our Nagano vacation as far as food experience goes, This restaurant really ticks all the boxes. almost too stereotypical, The locally sourced ingredients are finely made to bring the essence of Shinshu cuisine, and the quality is high—most of the things that come through my pallet taste brilliant. Even the Sashimi is relatively fresh, although this place is far away from the sea by Japanese standards. The name of the place HotaruTei means heavy wheat ear pavilion, which I believe implies the fruitful harvest that is happening after hard work, and now it is the time to feast, really poetic and I like that too. The Wine list is composed of a good selection of Japanese spirits and wines, Lovely interior and exterior since this place is a renovated old house from older times, We chose the “Open private chamber “ when we booked the dinner online, and we were not disturbed by anybody else, so we could sink into enjoying the food and experience what it could be like to dine during Meiji period (In my imagination, they probably didn’t have bubble wine during that time, nor smartphone to snap pictures ). Treat yourself at hotarutei, I think our seasonal set menu is definitely worth it. Booking is normally required so the chef can prepare all 200 ingredients needed...

Great restaurant, excellent customer service, delicious food, reasonable price, and easy to travel to!

Food: it’s hard to find such non-touristy restaurant in shiga-kogen as most of the food options are only at hotel restaurants which tend to be more expensive and not as good as what you pay for. Hotpot was very good as well as their sashimi set and tempura.

Customer Service: never had to ask for anything as they attend to your table based on your needs and requests!

Location: it’s not in the shiga kogen valley, but the restaurant offers a pick up from most of the hotels in the area and takes probably max 20-30mins to the restaurant.

I would come back here for another night...

What a wonderful stay, we chose it for a few nights because it was so close to the snow monkey park and we couldn't be happier with our choice! We had the most wonderful stay, and feel honored to experience your caring hospitality and the most stunning and delicious meals.

Beautiful and very spacious rooms, amazing friendly hospitality led by Joyce, and delicious and creative japanese breakfasts and dinners created by fugu-qualified chef Minoru-san who graciously helped with our dietary requirements - oishii!

Thank you so much to Minoru-san, Azu, Karin and Joyce - we have already discussed returning to visit the monkeys again and perhaps skiing at...