3 Best Restaurants in The Japan Alps and the North Chubu Coast, Japan

This stately building just outside the gates of Zenko-ji combines a bar, lounge, café, and fantastic Italian restaurant. The rather formal modern dining room offers prix-fixe or à la carte options featuring high-quality local ingredients, while the bar and lounge serve up light meals in stately surroundings and the café is a little more relaxed. There is no formal dress code, but the restaurant is something you'll feel like dressing smartly for.

As the seasons change, so do the menu options at this kaiseki ryori–focused showplace in the Kanazawa Tokyu Hotel. In spring your meal may include hotaru-ika (firefly squid) and iidako (baby octopus) no larger than your thumbnail, in fall expect matsutake mushrooms to make an appearance. Dinner courses can be very expensive, though the the cheapest menus are much more reasonable. The prices are similar at the far more atmospheric main branch-cum-traditional inn by the Sai-gawa River (the Tokyu surroundings are smart, yet a little sterile), although getting a reservation there is far harder.

At this place in the renowned Kenroku Garden, excellent fish and vegetable dishes have been carefully prepared for nearly one hundred years. The prices are still reasonable, and the garden views from the tatami are an added bonus.