Kobetei

Now, don't get me wrong - the food is really good. The vibe seems lively, great location. But here's the thing. We paid $500 for two people here - true, during peak Christmas time. But still, for that kind of money, you expect some high level service. What we were met with was, like most of Hirafu... through the winter, is a kid on a 'working holiday'. Here for 4 months or so to save up, presumably so the kid can travel the rest of Japan which is the answer we got from several other places we went to. The thing is, this restaurant isn't the kid's dedicated career. And it showed. This waiter kept telling us something was 'well, whatever it's called', informing us that 'the waiter recommends medium rare, I guess? I didn't quite understand'. They dropped a couple of things on the table and put it back saying 'oh it's fine', and in an artistic display towards the end, messed up the meat-rolling thing by poking a hole in the meat. Yes, these are nit-picky things I wouldn't otherwise even think about, but come on. $500 with literal gold flakes to show off how high-brow this place was meant to be, and I get basically a student n00b to serve me all night? That's kind of taking the p*ss. Like I said, everywhere else is using working holiday kids still in their teens or early 20's, so it's not by any means a unique problem. But if you want to pay that much money, you'd expect the person serving you could maybe tell you something about what you're eating and drinking, instead of looking confused half the time. Also, yes it was good eatin', but we had much better food at much lower prices elsewhere. I'd probably pay $100 for two and be happy - max.

Visited December 2024

Expect Top grade, melt in your mouth Kobe beef at Kobetei. Be warned! In japan Great quality certainly does not come without a price. Eating at Kobetei was the most expensive meal of our trip. We paid 12,000 yen per person for the Tori Course. And that was just one of the more cheaper course optio...ns. I’d give the restaurant a higher rating if it weren’t for the fact that if you’re eating with friend you’ll have to all order the same meal course. My wife doesn’t eat beef so the only other meat option was sushi, which was great, but the restaurant made us pay for it right away when she received the food. My friend and I were still eating and hadn’t even finished our beef! We objected and told the staff we’ll pay for the all the food once we were finished. To top that off the maitre ‘d wasn’t friendly and really didn’t make us feel welcome.

Visited February 2020

You might look at the price and think, wow, is it worth it? To put it simply, yes. If you could have one night of your trip to splash out for a fancy dinner Kobe tei is the right place to go. You must book ahead of time and tell them which course you are going to have. I believe my husband and I had... the Tori course which was the second cheapest. It's about 10 courses. Everything around the meat was delicious, but the meat was exceptional. Completely mouthwatering meats from a variety of places. Service was good, a little bit slow in communicating with each other (we had already been asked and served at the start of the meal and ordered drinks, a few minutes later another server came and asked us all the same questions). Overall a great experience and happy we spent the money because now we have the great memories of the delicious meal.

Visited January 2020

We had the best meal in Niseko here. We had reservations placed in some time before our arrival in Niseko and we took the 8.30 pm slot (this seems better in Niseko as there was no rush to finish for the next seating). The restaurant was full even in the second seating! We took the Kaze set and were... served by Take. He provides great service and cooked the beef slices with such aplomb and kept the atmosphere cheerful! The beef cuts were good and there was more than enough to eat. The grilled wagyu sukiyaki beef with truffles had generous truffle slices and was the best item in the menu. Food was served at a nice speed and the apple sorbet for dessert was so yummy! It was a little surprising to see this restaurant ranking so low. Maybe it was the price that deters many from coming but you can be assured that it was worth it! Having to book way ahead and a full restaurant is a testimony to the quality of the food here!

Visited December 2019

Very hard to get a table and have very high expectations because of the waiting list ( 7 days). We even chose the menu before coming..!! We end up paying 63 000 yen for 2 kids and 2 adults. We have some very small pcs of kobe beef and the food was good but not amazing. For this price I expect much ...more in terms of food quality and service.

Visited December 2019