Ushimaru sits alone among paddies and vegetable fields in Sammu, half an hour inland from the Kujukuri surf, and it is — by Tabelog’s reckoning — among the very top restaurants in Chiba prefecture of any kind: Tabelog Award Silver in 2024, 2025 and 2026 after seven straight Bronzes, and an Italian EAST Hyakumeiten selection in 2025. The house opened in 2000 as a teppanyaki restaurant. Chef Ken Uchiya, born in Niigata in 1977, cooked Italian and game‑focused French in Tokyo and spent a year in Nagano before taking over the kitchen in 2008 and turning it into what the house calls “chisan‑chisho” Italian: local production, local consumption. He deals with the farmers, fishermen and hunters himself, and keeps a public diary of what turns up — wild mitsuba from Katsuura, chanterelles and yanagi‑matsutake from Sammu, green sansho from Yokoshiba.
What you eat
One course, lunch or dinner, at ¥19,800 including tax with a 10% service charge added, and since April a first drink included (local beer or Champagne; non‑alcoholic cocktail or sparkling tea). The composition changes daily with what arrives: past menus have run from a wild‑duck soup with shiitake grown on logs to Isumi goby, Kujukuri wild eel, Jersey veal aged eighteen months, and — in season — frog and game. Uchiya boils Kujukuri seawater down into the house salt. Christmas, New Year, summer and long‑holiday periods bring a special course at a different price. Vegan meals and seafood‑free meals are not offered; other allergies are handled if declared at booking.
The booking reality
This is a restaurant with a serious reputation and an ordinary booking process, which is a rare and useful combination. The house takes online reservations through its official Toreta page, and Tabelog’s booking calendar also lists it; the telephone works too, in Japanese, on 0479‑86‑1222. There is no release day. Diners in 2026 report booking online two months ahead with seats to spare, and a month ahead without trouble. Every service is a single seating — lunch begins together at 12:00, dinner at 18:00 (Fridays at 19:00) — so arrive on time. Parties of seven or more must phone rather than book online; the web form cannot assign specific seats.
Children are welcome with notice — state their number and ages when booking, though the house may decline on busy dates; from age ten they count as adults, and a ¥6,000 children’s course exists. Dogs are seated only on the terrace, which is sold separately through Ikyu. Smart casual is recommended and perfume is asked to stay home. Cancellation costs 50% of the course the day before and 100% on the day, and reducing the party counts as a cancellation. Our desk handles the Japanese web form or the phone call, passes on allergies and children’s ages, and books the taxi from Narutō station — the part most visitors underestimate.
