Beppu Hirokado

Where Oita's Produce Earns Its Own Argument

Japan's premium kaiseki and Japanese-cuisine counter scene has long been concentrated in Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka. What has shifted over the past decade is the credibility of regional outposts, small, producer-driven counters in cities like Kanazawa, Matsuyama, and now Beppu, where the local ingredient story is strong enough to support its omakase pricing. Beppu Hirokado, which opened in June 2021 in the Horita district of Beppu City, belongs firmly in that regional-counter tier. With a Tabelog score of 4.43 and Silver Awards from the Tabelog Award in 2025 and 2026, upgraded from Bronze in 2023 and 2024, the trajectory is one of a counter finding its feet and then accelerating. It has also been selected for the Tabelog Japanese Cuisine WEST "Tabelog 100" in both 2023 and 2025, a list that ranks it alongside the most-reviewed and highest-rated Japanese cuisine restaurants across western Japan.

For context on what that peer group looks like, counters earning Tabelog Silver in the Japanese cuisine category nationally include venues like Gion Sasaki in Kyoto and HAJIME in Osaka. The fact that Beppu Hirokado holds that tier from a city of roughly 110,000 people, known internationally as a hot-spring destination rather than a dining one, says something specific about the quality of Oita's raw materials and what Chef Taizo Hirokado is doing with them. Oita Prefecture is a recognised source of Wagyu beef, large-variety shiitake mushrooms, and coastal seafood from the Bungo Channel; the counter's declared emphasis on fish and its regional cuisine classification confirm that the sourcing argument is local and deliberate.

The Counter Format and What It Implies

Eight seats is the operative number at Beppu Hirokado. That configuration places it in the smallest and most controlled tier of Japanese counter dining, the same physical format used at the most selective omakase counters in Tokyo's Ginza district, where the chef-to-guest ratio allows for course-by-course adjustment and direct communication across the counter. Compare this to Harutaka in Tokyo or akordu in Nara, where small-seat formats signal the same intentionality, or to Goh in Fukuoka, the closest major city, which operates in a comparable chef-driven idiom. At Beppu Hirokado, the venue description points toward the contrast between delicate sashimi preparation and live-fire or assertive cooking methods often seen in Kyushu-style kaiseki, where charcoal grilling and bold dashi traditions sit alongside more restrained presentations.

The counter setting also carries social implications that align closely with Japan's communal eating and drinking. At eight seats, every guest is within sightline of the kitchen action and, by extension, within earshot of the other guests. The atmosphere tends toward the convivial: diners sharing observations about courses, the chef occasionally addressing the room. The drinks program underlines this, the venue lists shochu (Japan's native spirit and specifically a Kyushu tradition), sake, and wine as its three drink categories, with particular emphasis on sake and wine selection. Shochu being listed first is not incidental; Oita is one of Japan's principal mugi-jochu (barley shochu) producing prefectures, and any serious counter in Beppu would be expected to reference that local spirits culture. BYO is permitted.

Beppu's Onsen Context and the Dining Scene Around It

Beppu processes roughly eight million tourists a year through its onsen infrastructure, a volume that has historically made it a transit stop rather than a dining destination. The city's food culture has traditionally skewed toward casual toriten (tempura chicken), reimen (cold noodles), and the informal eating that supports a high-turnover visitor economy. What Beppu Hirokado represents is a different tier: a reservation-only counter that positions itself against the leading Japanese-cuisine restaurants in western Japan, not against Beppu's tourist dining market. That positioning is what makes the awards trajectory legible. Peers within Oita prefecture include Jimgu, Aji Arai, and Ito, all of which contribute to an emerging fine-dining layer in a prefecture that has historically exported its leading produce to Osaka and Tokyo kitchens rather than serving it locally at this level.

Regional counters earning Tabelog Silver are competing in a scoring system where national outliers like Mitsuyasu in Kyoto, 1000 in Yokohama, and even Japan-influenced formats abroad like Cocoro in Auckland or 6 in Okinawa and Abon in Ashiya define the reference range. Achieving a 4.43 score in that environment requires consistent execution across a large number of reviewer visits; scores at this level are resistant to single outlier meals.