Hayama and surrounds?

[kersizm]

Any recommendations for restaurants in Hayama or easily accessible from Hayama on the Miura-Hanto Peninsula?

[Robb S]

Scroll down past Kamakura for Hayama and Kotsubo listings:
http://www.bento.com/r-beach.html#kam...

[kersizm]

Thanks Robb, I didn't think of checking Bento. Silly me.

[kersizm]

After doing some hunting and finding a lot of your writings Robb I am thinking Piscaria is definitely a goer, however, do you know anything about Il Rifugio http://www.ilrifugio-hayama.com/ ? It looks like another rock solid italian.

[Robb S]

Sorry I don't know either of them. Robbie Swinnerton (we're really not the same person) wrote about Piscaria - he actually lives down near there, so I would tend to trust his judgment.

(To make it more confusing, Robbie also wrote up some of our Bento.com listings for that area too.)

[kersizm]

Oh! My apologies Robb!

[Robb S]

no problem, it happens all the time....

[lost squirrel]

Wait, really? I've been wrong about this for years now!

On topic, when I move back in late december I'll be living in Zushi and I hope to try out some local spots and I'll try to write up anything delicious.

[kersizm]

So I made it to il rifugio, unfortunately I missed piscaria.

I really enjoyed il rifugio, the location, staff and chef were all charming. They even had gone to the trouble of translating the menu into English for us.

Hayama Beef Carpaccio - Lots of freshly shaved black truffle sitting atop thickly sliced well marbled beef. Really clean beef fat flavour. It was sensational.

White asparagus with poached egg and white truffle - It is pretty impossible to stuff this dish up!

Boneless Shonen pork rib cooked in white wine - 3 large bits of ribs served with cabbage. It was the fat was soft and unctuous.

Slow cooked Hayama beef cheek - So good my girlfriend didn't let me try any!

Panna cotta - served with a berry coulis was the best panna cotta I've tried. No excess of gelatine. Soft and creamy!

Chestnut semifreddo - Looked and smelt good. Tasted a little "icey" for me, however, the flavours were clear.

Hot chocolate - Really good italian hot chocolate (nuff said!)

Honestly, one of the best italian meals of my life. Considering I had eaten at Aronia two nights earlier, it was hard to fault, excepting the minor icey taste of the semifreddo.

My girlfriend was bugging me to do a day trip from Tokyo to eat there for lunch! ;)

[lost squirrel]

Thanks for the ringing endorsement, I'm definitely going to check it out soon in the new year.