In shortGifu kaiseki — Gujo river ayu, seasonal nabe and a dashi-first kitchen that trained a generation of cooks. You can book it online yourself, or our Tokyo desk can request the table for you.
Price
Kaiseki ¥13,200 / ¥16,500 / ¥22,000 / ¥33,000, tax included, plus a 10% seat charge; lunch courses from ¥5,500
Forty-five, all in private rooms — a tea room, a sunken-hearth room and tatami rooms on two floors
Payment
Cards (Visa, Master, JCB, Amex); no e-money
Getting there
About five minutes by car from JR Gifu station, or Gifu Bus to Gifu City Hall South Building (Shiyakusho Minami-chosha-mae)
Dress code
No shorts, sandals or bare feet
Gifu city is where travelers change trains for Takayama or stop
for the cormorant fishing on the Nagara, and it is easy to miss
that it has a kaiseki house of national standing. Haruyuki
Takada opened Takada Hassho in 1989; the group now runs five
restaurants in the city, but the original — a sukiya‑style
building in a quiet lane near the city hall — is the one that
matters. Every seat is in a private room, on two floors: a tea room
that takes one party at lunch and one at dinner, a sunken‑hearth
room, tatami rooms of four, six, eight and ten mats. The Michelin
Guide’s Aichi‑Gifu‑Mie 2019 edition gave it one star; Tabelog
awarded it Bronze in 2021 and has kept it among its hundred best
Japanese restaurants in eastern Japan through 2025. Cooks who
trained here now run well‑known houses elsewhere, which is the
kind of reputation that carries in this trade.
What you eat
The house’s own statement of purpose is dashi — bonito, kelp and
water, and the balance between that broth and ingredients ordered
from across the country. Its Gifu signature is ayu, the sweetfish
of the Yoshida and Wara rivers in Gujo, in season from early summer;
guests write of the potato harihari that opens the meal, the
foamed soy sauce the chef devised for sashimi decades before foam
became a fashion, and a nori tea‑rice to close. Kaiseki runs at
¥13,200, ¥16,500, ¥22,000 and ¥33,000, tax included, at both
lunch and dinner, with shorter lunch courses at ¥5,500, ¥7,700 and
¥9,900; the house will also build a menu to a stated budget. In
season, hot‑pot courses at ¥20,000–30,000 follow the calendar:
hamo, snapping turtle, wild fugu, Echizen crab, Himi yellowtail,
Hida beef. A 10% seat charge on the total is added, and the
annexe rooms carry a small per‑person room fee (¥300 at lunch,
¥500 at dinner).
The booking reality
No release day, and two doors. TableCheck confirms instantly
for one to fourteen guests, with the four kaiseki courses
selectable on the page; Pocket Concierge and Hitosara also list the
house. The other door is the telephone, in Japanese, on
058‑262‑1750 — and it is compulsory for some things: any party of
five or more, any request to bring a child, and every change or
cancellation. A guest in May 2026 booked two weeks ahead on
TableCheck; weekends and ayu season deserve a month. The terms are
firm but fair: 50% the day before, 100% on the day, and the
house asks that cancellations reach it seven days out. If you are
more than an hour late without calling, the table may be released. Dress
is unstated except for what is refused — tank tops, shorts,
sandals. For overseas guests the platform works, but the house’s
rules on parties, children and changes run through a Japanese
phone line, which is where our desk comes in.
You can book it online yourself, or our Tokyo desk can request it for you. Request this table →
Go if you
Travelers routing through Gifu between Nagoya and Takayama who
want one serious Japanese meal on the way; visitors for the Nagara
cormorant fishing, from May to October, who can pair it with river
ayu at the source; and groups, who will find a private room here
easier to secure than a counter anywhere.
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.
Takada Hassho: common questions
Can you book Takada Hassho from abroad?
Yes. TableCheck instant booking (also Pocket Concierge) or by phone in Japanese; no release day. You can book online yourself, or our Tokyo desk can request the table for you; our ¥6,000-per-seat fee is charged only if we confirm your table.
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
Cite this page
Facts on this page were checked by our Tokyo desk. You are welcome to quote them with a link:
