Mitaki-en

Here is a place where, as soon as I walked in, I thought I already wanted to go back. Maybe one fall, maybe any April.

Inside a Japanese mid-mountain forest, a lush and very green forest, because the climate is subtropical, humid and mossy; inside this forest they have built wooden buildings. All in all, the restaurant is big, but it is spread out over an area of forest, so people are here and there, kind of everywhere and nowhere.

The lunch, which we asked for vegetarian, was made up of a myriad of small plates, and exotic but earthy flavors and textures, remarkable discoveries.

We booked by phone: the caller answered in Japanese, we said "English, please," and then there was some noise, some silence, and another voice, who, in very very uncertain English, took the reservation.

This place is called Mitaki-en.