About the Restaurant

Hello travelers!
This is Sanji, your Sarukuma writer.

The air has turned crisp and cold lately — exactly the kind of weather that makes you crave a steaming Japanese hot spring ♨️

Today I’m taking you to a hidden gem in Kurokawa Onsen, Minamioguni, Aso District, Kumamoto Prefecture:
“Yamatake” (自然薯料理やまたけ), a restaurant dedicated to jinenjo (Japanese wild mountain yam) cuisine.

You’ll find Yamatake right at the entrance to Kurokawa Onsen, sitting along National Route 442 in a charming old-style Japanese farmhouse.
The rustic exterior is exactly what you picture when you imagine Aso countryside dining.
Parking is available right in front of the restaurant.

The Aso region is full of soba noodle shops and charcoal-grilled specialty restaurants, but
Yamatake’s signature is jinenjo — wild Japanese mountain yam.

As someone who loves the wonderful slippery, sticky textures of Japanese cuisine, this place was an absolute must-visit!

Let’s step inside.

Inside, there’s a traditional irori — a sunken hearth with glowing charcoal at its center.

It was a chilly day, but the burning charcoal kept the whole interior cozy and warm.

The window-side seats look out onto a tranquil inner garden.

Recommended Menu

This visit, I ordered the recommended “Yokubari-zen” (Greedy Set) and the “Oguni Dengaku-zen” (Oguni Dengaku Set).

For the rice, you can choose between plain white rice or “mukago” rice.

Mukago are tiny bulbils — basically baby mountain yams — that grow on the leaves of the yam plant. With a wild-yam restaurant like this, the choice was obvious: mukago rice, please!

And since there’s a real irori hearth in front of you, ordering dengaku (skewered ingredients grilled over charcoal and dipped in miso) is just non-negotiable.

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After a short wait, the food arrived — and it was a jaw-drop moment ‼️

Yokubari-zen (Greedy Set)
Mukago rice, jinenjo dago-jiru (dumpling soup), gameni (chicken & root-vegetable simmer), nishime (assorted simmered vegetables), 2 small side dishes, pickles, and kanten jelly — all for ¥1,580!

The Oguni Dengaku-zen (¥1,700) is the same Yokubari-zen but with 5 additional dengaku skewers!

The portions are seriously generous!

Mountain trout (yamame), taro, tofu, konjac, shiitake mushroom, and a small river crab!
You grill them yourself over the irori and dip them in sweet miso.

For just an extra ¥120 you get the full dengaku spread,
so we’d absolutely recommend going straight for the Oguni Dengaku-zen!

Unlike standard wheat-flour dumplings, the jinenjo dago in the soup are silky, melt-in-your-mouth tender, almost cloud-like.

The seasoning is gentle and warming.

I also added a side of the jinenjo tororo soup (¥550 a la carte).

I powered through three bowls of rice with it — easy! 😆

The flavors are truly something,
and the value for money on these jinenjo set meals is hard to beat.

This is the perfect season — soak in a Kurokawa Onsen hot spring, then warm up by the irori hearth with a feast of jinenjo cuisine and dengaku. It’s a one-of-a-kind Aso experience.

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Frequently Asked Questions

※Information accurate at time of visit. Prices and hours are subject to change. Please confirm before your visit.