Ukai Toriyama

Ukai Toriyama Restaurant Review:

Straight out of a Kurosawa movie set, this mountain enclave of thatched huts built around carp-filled ponds and bubbling brooks is how many people would still like to envision Japan. It’s only 45 minutes from central Tokyo but an entire world away. Kimono-clad women greet guests at the entrance with a low bow, and men wearing happi coats pour warm, sweet saké out of large earthenware vats and grill river fish over charcoal braziers. There are only two choices: a multi-course meal with river fish for starters and either organic chicken or Japanese beef steak as the main dish. Both are satisfactory enough, although certainly nothing to write home about. But we’re sure the spectacle of blazing torches as you emerge from a pitch-dark drive through the mountains, and the picturesque houses at the end of it, will remain in your memory for a very long time.