We went on a tour at the Yamazaki Distillery when we were on our Japan trip. The distillery itself is located in a small town called Yamazaki (duh) where there wasn’t very many restaurant choices. We had an hour before our tour so we popped by one of the few restaurants in town near the train station to grab a lunch. We chose Hiro as it had an English menu. Note that Hiro shows up as ヒロ on Google Maps.
INSIDE
The restaurant was nearly empty when we arrived at 12 for lunch. There were more staff working than there were diners. There’s a bar inside the restaurant which was well stocked with whiskey. Note that smoking is allowed in this restaurant. Near the end of our visit, a diner had lit his cigarettes and even though he was a few tables away from us, it was unpleasant.
the food
Howie ordered the katsu sandwich. They were very liberal with putting the ketchup on and we were worried that it would make the breading soggy but it didn’t. The pork katsu still maintained a nice crispy crust. The meat was very tender – they must use fattier cuts of pork here. Though there was one quarter of the sandwich where Howie found the meat to be mostly tendon which wasn’t a fun surprise for him. As someone who is fussy about crusts, Howie wished they had trimmed it off the sandwich.
Guys, you know I love my hamburger steak so please do not be surprised that it’s what I ordered here. I thought the egg yolk was perfectly done and it was so satisfying to see the yolk ooze out when I pierced it. That said, I would’ve preferred some bread so I could soak up some of the yolk and hamburger sauce with it.
I didn’t like that the hamburger steak had so much cabbage inside of it. The top of the hamburger was overcooked though the inside was fatty and juicy. The flavor was too salty. The potato salad was dry and was like eating sand. Overall I was disappointed with this dish.
We don’t think this town is the right place for foodies. It’s clear that the main attraction was the whiskey distillery. You need to go check it out even if you’re not a whiskey fan. However, the food options in this town were so limited and we were so disappointed by Hiro that we would recommend foodies elsewhere.
