Saturday, November 8, 2008

Matsukaze Japanese Restaurant - Hilton Hotel, Narita, Japan

I have been to this restaurant on numerous occasions. It is a traditional Japanese restaurant, but being at a hotel you have many choices of food. You can have Sushi, Shabu-Shabu, Sukiyaki or just a very nice steak.

The service has always been great; the only thing I don’t like is the ambiance. It is too much like a cheap Japanese restaurant you’d find in the United States. I could live with this because the food is fantastic.

I arrived in Japan after a disappointing trip to Taiwan and I was looking forward to eating here. I have never had reservations in the past, so I was surprised when I showed up and they were booked. I was asked to come back in 20 minutes and they would have a seat ready. I showed up 25 minutes later and still had to wait 10 minutes before I was seated. Then it took forever for someone to take my order and then I waited a long time for my first course to arrive. I ordered a seven course tasting menu.

As I sat there waiting the restaurant became more and more empty. I then figured out what happened. They were offering very inexpensive dinner meals and the locals were taking advantage of the fact. There is nothing wrong with this, but when your service suffers because you think an Early Bird special is going to bring in some extra cash you have, as they say on TV, “Jumped the Shark”.

Just so you know the meal was fantastic; as usual the food is worth the trip.

My recommendation is that you show up after 7:00 PM for better service.

http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/NRTHIHI-Hilton-Tokyo-Narita-Airport-hotel/dining.do;jsessionid=8154A3CDA603B62CB6919384661BE150.etc84#2

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