Barrier Restaurant in Kanazawa
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It was my in-laws’ 55th anniversary last month, so we wanted to take them out for a nice dinner. The problem with my wife’s family is that they all suffer from “I don’t know, what do YOU want to eat, anything is fine” disease, leaving me to make decisions when it’s their anniversary so they should get to choose. We ended up going with a restaurant I found online that looked good. It turned out to be a wild experience.
Welcome to Barrier in Kanazawa
Barrier is a restaurant in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing it’s because you’re going to Kanazawa and are looking for a restaurant. A lot of foreigners go to Kanazawa: my sister-in-law told us that it’s the #2 destination for foreign tourists in Japan, behind Hiroshima. I can’t fathom why anyone would want to go to either of those places for more than a day, but apparently they do.
The entrance to Barrier looks like some sort of mad scientist lab/coffee shop. They sell tea at a window, and when you enter, they eye you with suspicion. There are little pots everywhere, and what look like tiny desks. The theme of Barrier is that the cuisine is all based around dashi, or broth. “Dashi” is one of those Japanese words that can mean something specific or very general. You could be given a bottle of sauce at a sushi restaurant and be told “this is dashi flavor,” and if you’re experienced with it, you’d know exactly what to expect taste-wise. But dashi can also be a general term for broth, meaning we didn’t totally know how this food would taste.
Reservations are recommended at Barrier, although when we were there on a Saturday night, it wasn’t close to full, so I’d say you could also call night-of and see if they can fit you in. After a short wait downstairs, we removed our shoes and headed upstairs to the dining area.
Seating, menu, drinks, and ambience at Barrier
Barrier is a unique dining experience, and one that might not be for everyone. The room is quite dark - there are only a few lights, and if you pick something up and pull it toward your face, you will have trouble seeing your food. They play new-age om-om-om music, and you sit on the floor. They brought my in-laws little stools to sit on because they are old, so if you can’t handle sitting cross-legged for an hour and a half, this is an option.
Each person gets their own little red table, with a second table for drinks and a third with a little candle on it. These stations are spaced out pretty far from one another, and the people across from you are several feet away. This means it’s great for solitary diners and lone travelers who just want to sit and eat and screw around on their phones. But if you have a big group that wants a rollicking good time, this is not the restaurant for you.
I mistakenly thought Barrier was a vegan restaurant, but it’s not. They have two vegetarian menus, but also four non-vegetarian choices. Eriko and her parents got the A course, I got the B course, and my sister-in-law tried one of the vegetarian courses.
Appetizers and dining method at Barrier
Along with your drinks (I got tea, which was fine), you get an appetizer of some little fish. It was tasty. Not much to say about that one, but it was good. Oh, and that little white thing under the chopsticks is a small sugary biscuit you can eat at any time if you’re feeling peckish. The wait between courses can be quite long, so be prepared to chill on the floor for a long time.
The gimmick of this place is the dashi. You get it in a pot on a stand,, with a candle beneath it to keep it warm. You are then delivered bowls of ingredients in a little red cabinet, and you add the dashi to your liking. They also bring a bottle of sauce that is extra flavorful if the regular broth isn’t enough for you, and a few tiny dollops of plum, yuzu, and nori-based flavor enhancers that are SUPER strong. Everything is customizable, and you have control over the experience.
First dashi course and sushi
The first course for both the A and B courses was Crispy Taro with Grilled Autumn Mushrooms. I’m not crazy about mushrooms, but this was pretty good. I enjoyed the contents, but what I really enjoyed was playing around with the little flavor enhancers. I can’t say I loved the little dollops, but it was fun to see how they affected the taste.
We were also given three kinds of sushi (vegetarian sushi if you get the vegetarian menu), which were all precisely rectangular-shaped and all pretty good. This is Kanazawa, home of the best sushi in Japan, so you have to do a lot to really wow us there. This was really tasty, but not overwhelmingly so. The meal didn’t really get going until we opened up the red rack we’d each been given and subbed out the first bowl for the next one on the list.
Salmon soup at Barrier
Service is a bit slow at Barrier, but that doesn’t matter so much when you get brought all the bowls at once and get to decide for yourself how fast you eat. The second bowl for the A and B courses was Deep-fried Autumn Salmon with Lemon & Herb Sauce. The crispy deep-fried salmon was delicious, and the lemon really added to the broth. Combining the lemon with the extra mega-strong sauce made this one my favorite of the night. I finished all the broth. Delicious.
Final dashi course: mushroom, pork belly, duck breast
I should take a moment to mention my sister-in-law’s vegetarian food. We couldn’t talk with her and her parents much because they were on the other side of the room, so Eriko and I mostly talked to each other and pretended to be like super Zen with the floor-sitting and darkness and om-om music. But she said the vegetarian options were good.
Courses A and B diverge for this last bowl. Course A gets Grilled Shiitake Mushroom with House-smoked Pork Belly. Eriko liked it, but I tried a bite of her pork and felt it wasn’t that great. Course B had Roasted Duck Breast with Lotus Root Chips and Rosemary Aroma. The duck was juicy and tender, and there was a lot of it. Once again, I added a heaping helping of the extra-strong sauce and drank down the entire broth. Not quite as good as the salmon, but delicious nonetheless.
Ramen course at Barrier
Next up, everyone got some ramen with shrimp and vegetables. By now, we were pretty full, but that didn’t stop me from finishing this entire thing. The dashi here is a light, clear broth, and made for a much lighter, more subtle ramen flavor than you’re used to. They probably don’t need to have this course, since you get plenty of food otherwise, but it was very good, and showed the versatility that can be achieved with the dashi focus.
Dessert at Barrier in Ishikawa
Acai bowl for lunch, microgreens in my ice cream. I am oozing with power.
The dessert course was a real surprise. Have you ever had micro green ice cream? I hadn’t, and I wasn’t sure how it would taste. Not only was it microgreen-flavored, but it had little bits of greens in the actual ice cream. You’d think this wouldn’t taste good, but it did. Not the greatest ice cream of my life, but refreshing after a heavy meal of soups.
Verdict: should you eat at Barrier in Kanazawa?
Barrier is definitely not for everyone, or for every occasion. It was awkward sitting there so far from the rest of our group in an almost completely silent room. But if you’re there as a couple or solo traveler, this is a perfect way to enjoy a type of Japanese food most travelers don’t get to experience, and try it in a unique way. I’d say the ambience was a bit too cool for the couple celebrating their 55th anniversary, but we definitely had fun.
By the way, I know you’re going to look at the picture of me Ninja Turtle meditation-posing and be like “Oh he’s mocking their culture he’s racist.” Well, Eriko was doing that first, but then only took a picture of me when I did it, so blame her don’t @ me woke mafia.
The food at Barrier is really good, the theme is unusual, and the atmosphere is cool. If that’s your thing, it will make a memorable meal for travelers or locals. And it’s not terribly expensive: course A was 4,800 yen ($31) and course B was 5,900 ($38). Not bad for a fancy restaurant. I don’t know if we’ll be back, but we definitely recommend it.
Where to find Barrier restaurant in Ishikawa, Japan
Address: 2 Chome-14-21 Owaricho, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-0902
Hours: 12pm-10:30pm
Reservations: You can reserve a table using Tablelog and Tablecheck (which is in English).
How to get to Kanazawa without breaking the bank
One of the best ways to get around Japan is by purchasing a JR Pass, which will allow you to take unlimited train rides for a set period of time. You can buy a 7, 14, or 21-day national pass, or a pass for a specific region so you’ll only pay for the places you plan to go.
If you’re planning to visit Tokyo and Kyoto and want to stop in Ishikawa, you can purchase the Osaka-Tokyo Hokuriko Arch Pass, which covers Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Toyama, Tokyo, and a lot more. Check out our affiliate link to see if a JR Pass could help you save money on your trip!
