A snail's pace up a Gifu valley to a farmhouse where the owner picks the mushrooms and butchers the boar himself — bookable on a weekday, if you plan like a local.
By SHOKU NOREN TeamFacts last verified September 2026How we check
In shortTsumikusa ryori — foraged wild plants, wild mushrooms and whole-animal game in a mountain farmhouse. Reservations run in Japanese and are hard to place from abroad, so our Tokyo desk requests the table for you, by phone and in Japanese.
Price
Lunch course about ¥5,000; game course ¥18,000, tax included; no service charge — extras and requested ingredients cost more
Hours
Lunch 12:00–15:00 (last order 14:30); dinner 18:00–21:00 (last order 20:30)
Closed
Irregular
Seats
Eight to ten, in a single tatami room; whole-house hire up to 20
About 40 minutes by car from JR Gifu Station; by bus, Gifu Bus to Gihoku Kosei Byoin-mae, then the Ijira line to Ijira-Nagataki
Dress code
No dress code
Katatsumuri — “snail” — is a farmhouse in the hills of Yamagata, forty
minutes north of Gifu city, and its owner, Shigeto Shimizu, spent years
in the trade of supplying game and wild plants before he began cooking
them himself. He is known locally as a mushroom‑picking master; he buys
whole animals from hunters he trusts and breaks them down in his own
kitchen, on the principle that he will only serve what he can vouch
for. His wife, trained in Japanese restaurants, cooks. Tabelog has
given the house a Bronze award almost every year since 2019 (Silver in
2020), and a television feature some years ago turned a quiet valley
address into one of Gifu’s harder weekend reservations.
What you eat
Everything is omakase from what the season supplied. In spring the
wild plants — garlic chives, thistle, bracken, bamboo shoot; in July
wild eel and ayu from the rivers; from late July the first summer
mushrooms, and in autumn porcini (yamadori‑take), nameko, oyster
mushrooms and much that never reaches a market; in the cold months the
game — wild boar, bear, deer and duck, with loach and river fish
alongside. The published prices are a lunch course at about ¥5,000 and
a game course at ¥18,000, tax included, with à-la‑carte additions for
rarer items. If there is something particular you want, the house asks
you to phone after the booking is confirmed — not to write it in an
online comment box — and warns that the price rises with the request.
Guests may bring their own drinks.
The booking reality
There are two doors: the telephone, in Japanese (0581‑36‑3621), and
an Ikyu listing that takes online bookings. The house is
reservation‑only, publishes no release day, and holds eight to ten
seats in one room, so the arithmetic is simple — weekend dates are
reported to fill months ahead, while a weekday lunch or dinner is a
realistic ask. Two habits of the house matter: the phone is often
unanswered during service (12:00–13:00 and 18:00–19:00), and
cancellation on the day is charged in full, with no change permitted
on the day either. Children are welcome at a charge of ¥1,000 each.
Guests who booked years ago recall a visit cancelled when the owner
fell ill — it is a two‑person house, and plans bend around the people
in it. Our desk calls in Japanese outside service hours, which is how
this house expects to be reached.
Travelers with a car and a weekday, who want to eat the Gifu hills
rather than read about them — bear in winter, porcini in autumn, wild
eel in July — at a table that seats ten. Pair it with the Nagara River
in Gifu city, forty minutes south.
The house's cancellation charge
Same day, with notice100%
Same day, no notice (no-show)100%
Charged by the house, not by us. A plan's own policy takes precedence.
Free release-date alerts: the day before, on the morning of release day (08:00 JST) and about 30 minutes before when the time is known — or a weekly summary if the house opens a little every day.
Katatsumuri: common questions
Can you book Katatsumuri from abroad?
Yes, through our Tokyo desk. Phone in Japanese or Ikyu; reservation-only, no release day; weekends fill months ahead. We call the restaurant for you, in Japanese, and the ¥6,000-per-seat fee is charged only if we confirm your table — no seat, no fee.
Some of these links are referral links: if you book through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Restaurants never pay us to be listed or ranked. Editorial policy
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