Rude & Dirty

I remember walking into Budouya a few years ago with some friends, having a pretty good time and enjoying some drinks over lively conversation. I also remember that my friends who had been to this particular bar/restaurant before, seemed to tiptoe around the owner who takes care of the establishment mostly by himself and speak to him very gingerly. I gathered that he might be a tad touchy or quirky but just how much so I never knew until yesterday when I came with Bonnie and a friend.

Even though the place is fairly large as far as Japanese restaurants and bars go, there was only one group of patrons in the corner who smoked up a sufficient enough cloud to fill the place. Bad ventilation, I guess. Also doesn't help any when the owner smokes as well.

Sitting down at a window table overlooking Heiwa Dori the first thing that struck me was that the table was horribly sticky and no amount of wiping it with damp hand towels made it any better – in fact, I'd say it made it worse. In any establishment where food and drink are served, cleanliness should be paramount, and if I had any pull with the local health inspector, I'd be on the phone with him to investigate any dump that can't be bothered to clean up their sticky floors or tables – if they can't do that much, heaven knows the horrors that might be lurking in the kitchen where the public cannot enter.

Nonetheless, we made our selections from the menu that was in Japanese, but with the last page translated into English, obviously having catered to and welcomed some foreign clientèle over the years. When we were ready to order, I called the owner over I said we'd order some drinks first, and starting with me and then my friend, the conversation went something like this:

“So, what can I get you?”

"I'll have a Guinness..." I said.

“Just water for now,” said my friend when the owner looked at her.

The owner blinked and stared blankly for a moment before spitting out in Japanese, “If you're not ordering, get out!”

“Excuse me?” I asked, bewildered.

“I said, if you're not ordering a drink, get out of here! I don't need you in here. Get out!”

“Well.... we WERE actually going to order a meal. Isn't that acceptable enough?”

“Oh.” He stopped abruptly. “In that case, that's fine. Go ahead.”

At that point I would have told the owner exactly what I thought of him, his restaurant, along with a detailed guide to where I thought he could go and what bus to take to get there. However, showing great restraint, I decided that I didn't want to go exploring for another place to eat due to the late hour and I would still give this guy a fair shake, though I can't even explain why. Masochism, perhaps.

Later on, I spoke to another friend about our experience and he did give me the skinny on common Japanese restaurant culture, indicating that his attitude was quite common – even if you had ten people in a group and one of them didn't want to order anything, the entire group might be up the creek. At the same time, tact and customer service should be important in an industry where competition is only next door. A simple, “I'm sorry but our restaurant has a minimum per-person charge. Might I recommend a drink or appetizer?” And that would make all the difference in the world! Of course, seeing that the restaurant already has a table charge for no particular reason (￥105 per person), combined with the fact that even a glass of soda will cost you over ￥400 just shows me the extent of greed and avariciousness of the owner. Definitely not positive traits and certainly not a place where I would care to spend my money in the future.

Otherwise, following our initial run-in with the Japanese equivalent of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi, every time the owner spoke to us, he was nothing but sugar and spice, and bursting with friendliness. In the end, between the three of us we probably ended up ordering and spending more than he would usually get from a party of three. Jumping to conclusions can be a perilous thing, but somehow I think this concept was lost on him.

Since this is a restaurant/bar, the bar selection is ample with mixed drinks, cocktails, draft beer and wine galore. With a name like Budouya, wines are indeed the house specialty with many local Yamanashi wines ranging in price from ￥525 for a glass of house wine, to ￥4000 for a bottle of premium. Yebisu is on tap for ￥630 and other drinks run about the same price. I was however shocked at the outrageous ￥420 for soft drinks. This combined with a ￥105 table charge and the fact that the owner will gladly throw you out for not ordering a drink is a testament to where the owner's priorities lie. Maybe if he invested some of all that profit in a bottle of cleaning solution... Some manner/hospitality lessons wouldn't hurt either....

The unfortunate thing about this whole experience is that the food served at this restaurant is indeed tasty. A very Italian pasta and pizza menu overflow with authenticity. We ordered Japanese mushroom pizza (￥630) and spicy, anchovy spaghetti with fresh greens (￥735). In addition, I had a plate of delicious kim chi flavoured and marinated sliced beef with onions, and a “stick salad” which was in fact assorted vegetables cut into sticks and served with a mayonnaise dipping sauce. The spaghetti was served al dente a pleasant change from the standard fare I've had in many other places. The pizza order was thoroughly messed up – we received a bacon and tomato pizza instead of the Japanese mushroom pizza we ordered. I didn't dare say anything about it, lest the owner try to throw us out again... Who knows with someone so touchy. It was rather strange that he messed it up anyway, since he did presumably write down our order when he came to the table. But again, such is the result of arrogantly assuming you have everything right and not confirming the customer's order.

In the end, for three people, food and drinks ran us ￥5,250 – not bad at all for the quantity of our order, but yet there are certainly cheaper, better, nicer places out there where the same amount of money will go even further. And to quote Forrest Gump, “That's all I have to say about that.”

Summary:

The Good: The pasta was nicely cooked, all the food tasted great!

The Bad: Dirty. Sticky tables, rude owner, completely messed up our order. Unreasonable price of non-alcoholic beverages, in addition to a table charge and the reality of getting thrown out if every person in your party doesn't spend a bucketful of cash. Hardly anyone was there but it was full of cigarette smoke.

Menu: Japanese pub fare, Italian pasta, pizzas, salads, fried foods, rice dishes. Full bar with a large selection of wines, whiskeys, beers. The Guinness is bottled – not on tap, Yebisu is, though.

Price Range: From ￥420 to ￥630 for drinks (bottles of wine or some whiskeys cost more) and ￥600-900 for food (again, with some exceptions).

Smoking: And how!

Recommended?: No. About as much as I'd recommend shouting, “There's a bomb in my suitcase!” at the airport. There are plenty of wonderful places with great food, atmosphere and excellent customer service so you can avoid places like this and give your money to someone more deserving of your business.

Details:

Budouya
Tel. 055-228-8692
Address: Kofu City Marunouchi 2-29-2 (2F)
Hours: Honestly? I forgot to check, as I won't be back any time soon.
Languages spoken: Presumably Japanese only but a partial menu is available in English
Parking: No. This place is right on Heiwa Dori.