Location: Urasoe, Minatogawa area; driving south on the 58 turn left at the intersection marked by a HUGE Nissan dealership (north and west side of intersection) and a HUGE pachinko building (southeastern side of intersection. Travel 500m and on your left will be Tida. There is a small building which is the bakery, a driveway to a small parking area, and a larger building which is the restaurant/cafe/gift store complex. The restaurant is through the gift store, on the second floor. The cafe entrance is on the street.
Hours: Lunch starts at 11am. The buffet is not available on Sunday. Dinner is 1800-2100 (separate dinner menu)
This is a very civilised restaurant; we went midday on a Saturday and it was packed with Japanese couples and ladies who lunch. The kind of place where you have a quiet adult conversation. There are white walls, small tables, and upholstered chairs. For 1000Y you choose one of 5 spaghetti dishes (shrimp/mushroom cream, salmon cream, tomato-olive-caper, onion-bacon-tomato, etc) and get to partake of the salad and beverage buffet. For an extra 250Y, you get a slice of dessert. The pasta, salads, and desserts all change from visit to visit, we don't know with what frequency.
The salad dishes are fresh and attentively prepared. On one visit we had salad greens, marinated red and yellow peppers, fried chicken bits with cabbage, spinach with prosciutto, and baked tomato with prosciutto and cheese. The latter two were especially delightful. On another visit the salad greens and peppers were found to be a constant; the other dishes were carrots with gruyere, broiled fish, and an amazing salad of kyoto green with fried garlic slices and a creamy dressing.
The beverage bar includes iced and hot tea and coffee (the hot coffee from an automatic espresso maker), and several juices, as well as serve-yourself water.
The pasta dishes were tasty, though not the star of the show - spaghetti cooked al dente with the right amount of rather delicately flavored sauces. Not heavy enough on fresh herbs for my liking, but good.
The desserts here seem to be a real treat - you can choose from anything in the display case. We usually find an inverse relationship between the beauty of the dessert and the tastiness. Our cassis and yogurt tarte actually performed well on both counts. The berry mousse was not too sweet, the gelatinised yogurt layer in the middle was tangy, and the crust was a cross between biscotti and angel food cake. Really lovely.
If you come at a non-buffet time (ie Sunday or dinner) you get the regular menu. At lunch this is sandwiches on fresh-baked bread (approx 650Y) or pasta (approx 1050Y). Coffees are >400Y and desserts 450Y. Dinner seems to be choice of a couple set meals, but we didn't catch the price.
