I would have to say Nobuo is my favorite restaurant in town! My wife and I stopped in on Sat. night without a reservation and we were offered the only seat in the house in the "lounge". It's a leather couch off of the kitchen in a seperate room next to the bathroom. Has a fairly large wooden low table to match. We were good with this!! How many times do you get to totally chill and chow at the same time eating out!!
The staff and the kitchen really took care of us! Really enjoyed the black sole with bone chips, kumamotos with uni, hamachi, foie, kimchi, squash blossoms, housemade cocktail with lemongrass and ginger, tetaki with beets and my favorite beer, Kohishikari (sp?) Echigo!
Chef Nobuo is one of our valley's treasures!!