Lunch at Ibusuki Hakusuikan’s Ristorante Fenice

I went to the Ibusuki Onsen area in Kagoshima prefecture, which is famous for its black sand bath. There are several hotels in Ibusuki, but I will stay at one of the most famous and popular hotels, Ibusuki Hakusuikan.

I visited the Italian restaurant Ristorante Fenice which is on the grounds of the hotel. Let me introduce this fancy place.

Ristorante Fenice is attached to the Satsuma Denshokan in Ibusuki Hakusuikan. Satsuma Denshokan is a museum which exhibits about 3,000 works of art from the founders of Ibusuki Hakusuikan.

This time, we had lunch at Ristorante Fenice.
On weekends, it’s very popular and can be difficult to get reservations, so I made a reservation a week in advance.

How to get to Fenice

I took the train from Kagoshima Chuo station to Ibusuki station and took a taxi from Ibusuki to Fenice. There are always several taxis waiting in front of the station, so you don’t need to make a reservation.
It takes about 7 minutes to get to Fenice by taxi.

The white building on the right is the Fenice, and the strong and sturdy building on the left is Satsuma Denshokan. The museum is a very large and magnificent building, and at first glance I didn’t think the white building was a restaurant. It also looks like it’s floating in the water which was serene.

There was a stand to put a smartphone on so that I could take beautiful pictures with buildings, so I took a commemorative photo and went inside.

The spacious restaurant has plenty of seating arrangements, so you can enjoy lunch without worrying about the voices of the surroundings. The garden was beautiful with greenery, and birds came to visit. It feels like a restaurant tucked into the forrest, and it has a great healing effect with a stylish and peaceful atmosphere.

Lunch Course

You can choose from two courses for lunch.

• Course A (2,210 yen)
  Assorted appetizers, soup, bread, pasta, desserts, small sweets, drinks after meals
• B course (3,410 yen)
  A course + main dish (meat or fish)

The staff advised me, “If you are staying at the hotel, the food at night is very filling, so it is better to order the A course to give yourself more space.”

I chose the A course according to the advice, so that I would have enough space for dinner.

Pasta lunch course

Now then, let me briefly introduce the A course.

First is the appetizer. It’s a salad, but like carpaccio, it contains fresh octopus, tuna, and other fish caught in the sea nearby. It’s very fresh and delicious. For a course of this price in Tokyo, I realized that there would be no such high quality appetizer.

Next is burdock soup. This kind of pottage soup is my favorite. The taste of the ingredients is strong and I feel like I could reset my daily unhealthy life with delectable vegetables, so I got power.

You can choose from two types of pasta. I chose oil-based octopus and dried tomato pasta. The other available choice was tomato-based, but the menu seems to change from day to day.

Dried tomato is one of my favorite ingredients because they have a concentrated umami flavor and a strong and delicious taste. I feel that dried tomatoes remove the miscellaneous taste of tomatoes, leaving only the delicious parts of tomatoes.

The last course is dessert. The luxury of the three types on the plate is nice, isn’t it? I can’t make the difficult choice of having only one dessert. There was ice cream, cakes and sweetened fruits on the plate, and I enjoyed it in a well-balanced manner.

After dessert, we had baked goods with tea, and the lunch was done.

If you want to have a stylish lunch in the Ibusuki area, I think Ristorante Fenice is a highly recommended place. The food was excellent and there was a feeling of luxury that you could have lunch while looking at the green outside in a calm atmosphere. I felt that my tired Tokyo heart had recovered a little.

If you are staying at Ibusuki Hakusuikan, it is a good idea to have a late lunch here before check-in and visit the Satsuma Denshokan. The restaurant can be easily used by anyone without staying at a hotel.

Please check out the links below for more about Ibusuki Hakusuikan.