When I visited: February 2018

Location: Kanazawa (within Hotel Nikko)

Rating in the Michelin Guide: Not in the Guide

Dining Owl Hoot rating: 4/5

What to wear: Men – jeans or nice trousers and a shirt; women – jeans and a smart top or a smart dress

Ambience: Empty but with a great view

Course of the meal: Garnet and pomegranate with sorbet

If I could change one thing: Fewer courses / more truffle taste in truffle courses

Review:

On a cold and snowy day in Kanazawa, it was nice to retreat to the heights of La Plage and enjoy the ‘sky beach’ panoramic views of the city, even though people in Japan often seem to eat dinner so early that nobody else was there after about 7.15pm (or maybe it was just a quiet day).

The service was friendly throughout and the staff made a lot of effort to help us enjoy the meal, even without being able to speak our language. We went for the smallest tasting menu (which was still pretty big!) with a glass of Petit Chablis.

The appetisers were lobster, fish with caviar and a pâté bite on a mini crisp biscuit, and were all very tasty. Then came the ‘small plates’ including a raw fish oblong with cream of sake and broccoli and spinach, snow crab with cauliflower, turkey with vegetables, and fried fish with vegetables. the ‘mains’ were rump steak with vegetables and a fillet of beef with vegetables and truffle sauce (which, to continue an unwelcome trend recently in restaurants, didn’t actually have much truffle taste to it).

Desserts were amazing – garnet and pomegranate with sorbet was served in the style of a mini jelly with gold leaf and there was also a matcha green tea ice cream with gold leaf, ribbon, beans and rice.

With green tea and roasted Japanese tea they also gave us petits fours – canelés, an almond long biscuit stick, nougat soft biscuit, strawberry jelly and a toffee bite on a spoon.