La PEKNIKOVA

For tourists visiting Kamakura, I think you can skip this bistro. It does not make sense to eat anything other than Japanese food if you're on your travel. Especially since La Peknikova is not very easy to get to unless you have a car. If you happen to live near Kamakura and are searching for a cute... date spot, reserve your table right now :) The chef at La Peknikova used to work at Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, prior to being recruited by the then-Japanese Ambassador for Slovakia as his personal chef. La Peknikova is the name of the street the chef used to live in. The chef now runs this tiny French bistro with his wife, serving lunch and dinner (reservation only) to a maximum of 12 people per seating. Ambience is great. As the bistro is located on the hill, we get a pretty nice view of the surrounding trees. Great service, beautiful presentation. Good coffee. Appetizer and soup were good, but the main fish dish was mediocre. The fish itself was rather bland, and the overpowering sakura sauce did not match well with the snapper. The chef redeemed himself with his next dish (which was smoked-first-then-grilled pork with roasted vegetables). Dessert was also enjoyable. Mind you, the bistro only has one chef and one server, hence service is quite slow. Our 5 course lunch took a little over two hours to finish. Overall, a great experience. Highly recommended for dates.

Visited September 2014