Takayama Gyoza

𝟏 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

I started Takayama Gyoza with the idea of using Hida's ingredients for Japanese dumplings. Gyoza means dumpling. I have a lot guests from overseas as well. I am happy to have them taste Takayama’s flavors. Originally the signboard was written in Japanese, but when I wrote "GYOZA" in Roman letters, the number of overseas guests increased. I think that they are happy that the restaurant’s name it is not written with kanji. It is easy to understand for them. It has been four and a half years now since I started this shop. Now, there are not many guests coming because of COVID-19, but normally, about 90% of my clients are guests from overseas.

𝟐 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐠𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐳𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥?

Making dumplings using Hida ingredients is the main feature of this restaurant. I also make my own dough and I like to experiment putting various vegetables in it. Recently I am using paprika. From the dough to the filling, I only use ingredients from Takayama.

Recently I came up with a new combination: fried shrimps and chili sauce, in Japanese “ebi chili”, to serve with the gyoza as a side this. The idea is to use the chili sauce as a dipping sauce for the gyoza as well.

𝟑 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

I pay attention to my guests and their feedbacks. Traditionally, in Japan, you serve gyoza along with the sauce and the baked crispy part facing up. Here, the dumplings are flavored with the dipping sauce and they are served with the wrapped part turned up. The reason I do this is because overseas customers always take pictures of the folded part of the gyoza and they are not used to have the dip sauce separated from the dish so I figured it was better to server the dumplings that way to meet my guests expectations.

I also cherish to be able to interact with my guests. Therefore, I cooperate with English conversation students to host gyouza-making sessions.

As you can see there are a lot of drawing on the wall. Guests often draw pictures for me and I like to hang them on the wall. Sometimes, you can also see customers coming here because they want to leave their drawing. In the last 4 years I got more than 10,000 drawings!

𝟒 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞?

I am doing my best to please my guests, so I am happy when they ask me to take a picture with them or I feel like I am part of the group. Once, an Asian game designer came all the way here and drew a wonderful picture. After that, I discovered he was quite a famous designer. Often guests come here to take pictures and that painting.

In spite the restaurant being small, overseas guests are willing to line and to wait no matter how crowded the shops is. While waiting, they often get along with each other and make friends. I am very happy with this.

𝟓 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐨𝐛?

When I started to get a lot of foreign guests, I was at a loss because I could not speak English very well. At some point I realized that people who came to Japan want to try to speak Japanese a little or know some basic words. With that in mind, I decided to try to communicate with them using simple Japanese and it was a success. They were happy they could use the Japanese they learned and for me it was much easier to attend to them.

𝟔 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞

I like Hida Kaiun No Mori. I think it is a great spot to take pictures and has a nice atmosphere. It is difficult to reach because it is on a hill, but it is not uncommon to have guests that went there after hearing about it.

𝟕 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

In China, dumplings are simply boiled or steamed. Grilled dumplings are a Japanese food tradition.

𝟖 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬

The restaurant is equipped with disinfectant. I also wear masks and have few people at time enter the shops.