Finally, words coming from a local friend living at Ise, she recommended Grill Katayama (グリル片山), a local French bistro where she said locals would go to celebrate occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays.
The best part about Katayama turned out to be the location. It's conveniently situated near the Kintetsu Ujiyamada Train Station. Just a short 5-minute walk would do the trick.
The Ise-shi province is most famous for its seafood so it's not surprising at all to find that the menu is almost exclusively seafood based (apart from some wagyu sirloin steak).
We began with a soup made of the famed Ise prawns. The texture was thick like a cappuccino and tasted average at best (4.5/10).
The next course was the fish course which was a local white fish served with clams and a white wine type of sauce. The fish was quite fresh and tasty but would have liked to see a bit more cooking technique involved (5/10).
Finally, the signature dishes arrived one by one starting with the lobster. The lobster was baked with a vin blanc sauce and cheese. Excellent (5.5/10).
Another signature dish was the fresh abalone served with a petits pois sauce. The sauce had a light pea flavour that somehow failed to mesh well with the abalone (5/10).
Dessert was a bit of a letdown - a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream, a cream puff, a thin slice of fruit cake and some fresh nibbles (3/10).
This is not your typical French bistro. It's more of a contemporary Japanese restaurant with a bit of French inspiration. The food here is not bad at all but we would definitely like to see more creativity in the cooking techniques.
Food Rating: 5/10
Price: ￥￥￥￥
Address: 2-4-37 Iwabuchi, Ise-shi, Mie-ken, Japan
Closest Train Station: Kintetsu Ujiyamada
Tel: +81 596-25-1726
Website: www.g-katayama.jp/index.html
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