Yufuin Kappa Shokudo Review: Toriten Set Meal to Try

Hello! Today I’m sharing a review of Kappa Shokudo, a Japanese home-style restaurant I visited in Yufuin during my Fukuoka trip. I headed there as soon as I arrived in Yufuin. There was some waiting, and it felt a bit far to get to, so the trip there was not effortless—but the taste was excellent.

The restaurant is located right near Yufuin’s Kinrin Lake. From Yufuin Station, it takes about 20 minutes on foot, so it is a bit of a walk. But since I was planning to visit Kinrin Lake anyway, I went straight to Kappa Shokudo after getting off in Yufuin. One important note: it is a no-kids restaurant. According to the review, children aged 12 or younger are not allowed. Maybe because of that, the inside of the restaurant felt fairly quiet.

If you see the sign with a kappa drawn on it at the entrance, you have found the right place. Go up to the second floor, and a staff member will kindly guide you from the entrance. The opening notice says 11:30, but I heard they may open around 11:00. If you want to do an “open-run” visit, arriving sometime after 10:40 may help you eat without waiting.

When I visited on a Saturday morning, there was one group waiting ahead of me. Once you go in, they give you the menu in advance and take your order before you are seated. I think I waited about five minutes. Maybe because we ordered first, the food came out quickly.

There were different seating options, including tables and bar seats. Luckily, we were shown to a spacious table. Next to the seat, small plates and various sauces were already prepared.

Cups, water, chopsticks, wet wipes, and other useful items were already set up, so it was comfortable to eat without needing to ask for much.

What we ordered: Hirekatsu set Toriten set Yufuin cider

We ordered the most famous item, the toriten set, plus the hirekatsu set, which looked like an easy and reliable choice. Since we were in Yufuin, we also decided to try a Yufuin drink and ordered Yufuin cider. I think both set meals were under ¥2,000 each.

The food came out quite quickly. Since they were set meals, they came with side dishes, soup, sauce, and dessert. I shared the main dishes half-and-half with my mom.

The hirekatsu came with sauce already poured over it, and the portion was fairly large. There were four fried pieces, each about the size of a fist. It felt like enough to make one adult woman quite full. The taste was similar to the tenderloin katsu I already knew. The sauce felt less like regular tonkatsu sauce and more like chili or chipotle. The sauce tasted good, but personally I did not love that it came poured on top. Also, the parts without sauce felt a bit dry for me.

But the reason I recommend this place is the toriten set. I had never had fried chicken with this kind of texture before. It was incredibly soft and really unusual.

To exaggerate only slightly, the fried pieces were so soft that I might have believed someone had fried pudding. The sauce served with it tasted like a light soy-based sauce, and it helped cut through any greasiness, so I kept dipping the toriten into it. The side dishes were just okay for me. The toriten itself was definitely the best part.

The Yufuin cider, which I had been looking forward to, was not really my style. Rather than the Korean-style cider taste I expected, it felt more like a carbonated soda drink. Unless you are very thirsty or genuinely curious, I would not especially recommend ordering it. Honestly, I would rather suggest having draft beer instead. The cup and ice served for pouring the cider were pretty, though.

This was the dessert included with the set meal. It felt somewhere between pudding and yogurt. The syrup tasted a little artificial to me, so it was not my favorite. But if you want something at the end of the meal to clear away the richness of the fried food, it could work. The side dishes and dessert were not especially to my taste, but the toriten set was seriously memorable. If you try it, you will understand what I mean by “like fried pudding.” It is hard to believe that texture comes from chicken.