Ryotei Susaki

Founded in the late Edo period, Ryotei Susaki in Gifu is a living record of the nation's past 200 years of culinary history. Having been designated one of Takayama City’s Tangible Cultural Properties, Susaki is also notable for being one of the last restaurants in the entire country to serve a disappearing cuisine: Sowaryu Honzen. With its roots in tea ceremony, Sowaryu Honzen cuisine is characterised by a staggering array of dishes, prepared with a dizzying number of ingredients and in a masterful display of multiple styles. Each of Susaki's course menus originally boasts over 30 dishes in the course, though those with smaller appetites have increasingly been opting for the shorter course of 11 dishes, named Honzen Kuzushi (literally "simplification"). Full of seasonal dishes that constantly change throughout the year, Susaki's two-Michelin-starred menus are filled with traditional flavors that include an abundance of local ingredients, like Hida beef — a wagyu type so finely marbled it melts in the mouth — with mountain-picked vegetables, and fish from the rivers of the surrounding Hida region. Step through the doors of Ryotei Susaki and be transported back into the Edo period with a single bite. Michelin Guide: 2019 - 2 Michelin Stars