Takadaya Kahee
高田屋
Japan, 〒040-0063 北海道函館市 若松町9-3
+81 138-23-5398
http://takadaya-kahee.com/
0500hrs – 1500hrs
The Hakodate Morning Market sits right next to the Hakodate Station. It is one of the must-see spots in Japan. The place is filled with tourists talking at the top of their lungs. This market is bigger then the Otaru counterpart, possibly because there are stalls located both indoors and outdoors.
Huge tanks with live squids can be found at every corner of the market. Customers can catch squids themselves and have the chef slice and prepare them for consumption.
We stopped at Takadaya–located just outside the Morning Market–for breakfast. Takadaya serves grilled seafood as well as a wide variety of donbori sets. The dining area is huge and they have a few fish tanks holding their fresh catch of the day for the customers to take choose from. Although the place seems to be catered more towards tourists, the staff were unable to communicate in English. We had trouble ordering our food even though we pointed to the pictures in the menu. We ordered two donbori sets and a grilled scallop.
The donbori set was topped with a variety of seafood items. While the sashimi slices are fresh, the donbori sets were slightly overpriced.
The grilled scallop lacked in taste and was under-seasoned.
Apart from the restaurant, Takadaya also has a stall (adjacent to the dining area) selling fresh seafood.
We asked for our bill after eating and after we paid for our meal, we realised that we were overcharged. The staff who handled us the bill had no idea that she had overcharged us. We had to check with another staff and after pointing out the items that we ordered on the menu and calculating the amount, the bill was then finally rectified and we were refunded. There were plenty of other stalls around the market that sells donbori at lower prices and we left the restaurant feeling cheated.
Throughout our Japan trip, this is the only time that we felt that we were blatantly ripped-off due to the fact that we were unsuspecting tourists. There are many other food establishment around the area that you can and should patronise.