In shortGrill-it-yourself local chicken, killed that morning, over charcoal in a mountain tatami room. 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
Roughly ¥4,000–5,000 a head à la carte (grilled cuts about ¥1,000–1,200 each); cash only
Hours
Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri 11:30–15:00, Sat/Sun 11:00–15:00 — in practice doors open around 10:30 and the house closes when sold out
Closed
Wednesdays, and the 2nd and 4th Thursdays
Seats
13 seats, all tatami, around sunken charcoal grills
Payment
Cash only
Getting there
No station — car or taxi; bus from Kumamoto to Yamaga bus centre, then a local bus. About 90 minutes' drive from the city
Party size
No solo diners
Sanroku is not a restaurant so much as a farmhouse that lets you in.
It sits in Shiimochi, a hamlet in the Kahoku hills north of Yamaga
where the road narrows and, in winter, ices; the room is all tatami,
the grills are sunk into the floor, and the birds were slaughtered
that morning — forty or fifty a day by the accounts of visitors who
asked. Kumamoto people drive ninety minutes for it, Tabelog’s
Chicken 100 listed it in 2025, and on weekends the car park is
full before the official opening hour. The house says all of its
chicken is a local jidori from neighbouring Kikuchi.
What you eat
You cook. Plates of thigh and breast — marinated in tare or salted —
skin, liver, heart, gizzard, neck and, while it lasts, offal, go onto
the charcoal in front of you; grilled cuts run about ¥990–1,210 a
plate and a bowl of rice is ¥66, so a generous lunch lands around
¥4,000–5,000 a head with cash the only way to pay. Two things to know
before you order. The rare cuts sell out within minutes of opening —
one Saturday visitor watched the offal go ten minutes after the door
opened — and the house stopped serving chicken sashimi in March
2021, so what the older blogs describe is no longer on the board.
Everything is à la carte; there is no course.
The booking reality
The rule is unusual and the house states it itself. Reservations
are taken by phone, on weekdays only, and only for the 11:30
seating; a reserved party that has not sat down by 11:30 is
cancelled automatically. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays take no
bookings at all — you arrive, take a number from about 09:30, and are
seated in order as the room opens, often earlier than the posted
hour. Weekday bookings are worth making a few weeks out: a 2026 guest
booked a month ahead for a party of seven, and another calling a week
before was told the day was full. The house does not seat solo
diners, and there are no children’s utensils or high chairs. A 2021
blog reported the phone is answered between 15:00 and 17:00; the house
does not publish reception hours today. The number is 0968‑32‑2245,
in Japanese, and our desk makes the call.
Drivers doing the Yamaga–Kikuchi loop — the lantern festival town,
the gorge, the hot springs — who want a lunch that no city could
stage, and who can be at a mountain table at 11:30 on a weekday
with at least one companion. Bring cash, wear clothes you do not mind
smelling of charcoal, and leave the camera for the food only.
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.
Robatayaki Sanroku: common questions
Can you book Robatayaki Sanroku from abroad?
Yes, through our Tokyo desk. Phone in Japanese, weekdays only, for the 11:30 seating only; weekends and holidays are first come, first served. 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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