Simples

Mariko and the Case for Dining Outside the City Centre

Japan's most decorated innovative cuisine tends to cluster in urban dense zones: Ginza, Kitashinchi, Gion. The premise behind Mariko, the old post-town district on Shizuoka's western edge, runs counter to that logic. The area sits along the former Tōkaidō highway, where travellers historically stopped before the mountain crossing, and its atmosphere still carries that quality of pause. Arriving at Simples, which occupies a house-format building at 3262-1 Mariko, the setting registers before anything else: a residential neighbourhood, quiet roads, a structure that reads as a home rather than a restaurant. That contrast, between the surroundings and what happens inside, is part of what the Tabelog community has been responding to since the restaurant opened in May 2023.

What Nineteen Seats and a Fish Focus Actually Mean

The innovative cuisine category in Japan spans a wide register, from tasting menus that lean on French technique to more fluid formats that resist easy classification. Simples sits within the latter, with a 19-seat room that includes counter seating alongside a relaxing space, and an emphasis the kitchen places explicitly on fish. That specificity matters. In a region where Suruga Bay delivers some of Japan's most varied deep-water catch, a fish-focused innovative course connects directly to the prefecture's most compelling raw material. The wider Shizuoka restaurant scene, which includes long-established kaiseki houses like Asaba (Kaiseki) and contemporary formats like LAT.34°N by Ao (French, Innovative, Auberge), tends to draw on that same bay produce but through different culinary frameworks. Simples applies an innovative lens to fish in a way that positions it differently from the prefecture's more traditional eel specialists, such as Ichi Unagi (Unagi (Eel)), while sharing with them a local-produce orientation.

The wine program is treated with comparable seriousness. A sommelier is present for each service, and the restaurant's own description flags the wine selection as something the team has particular conviction about. For an innovative course restaurant at this price level, a strong floor presence from someone with wine credentials is a signal about the room's ambitions: it places the dining experience closer to a full European-style tasting menu format than to the more food-focused, minimal-drink model some Japanese innovative tables operate under.

Recognition Within Two Years of Opening

Simples opened on 1 May 2023. By 2025, it had been selected for the Tabelog Innovative/Creative Cuisine "Tabelog 100", a peer-reviewed designation that identifies the hundred most significant creative cuisine restaurants across Japan. The 2026 Tabelog Award followed with a Bronze classification and a score of 4.13 on the platform. That trajectory, from opening to national-tier recognition in under three years, is relatively uncommon on Tabelog, where scores in the innovative category are measured against a large, geographically diverse pool. For context, the innovative/creative category on Tabelog includes high-volume competitors in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, so a provincial Shizuoka table placing inside the national 100 carries weight beyond regional positioning.

Across the broader innovative dining scene in Japan, the restaurants that reach national significance from outside the major cities tend to share certain attributes: tight capacity, controlled sourcing, and a specific regional argument encoded in the menu. Simples, with its 19 seats and fish focus, matches that pattern. Comparable restaurants operating in that register nationally include HAJIME in Osaka, Goh in Fukuoka, and akordu in Nara, each making a regional case through an innovative format. In Tokyo, restaurants like MAZ and Harutaka represent different points on the spectrum of what "innovative" means in a capital context. Simples occupies a quieter, more specific node on that map.

The Physical Experience of the Room

The house-restaurant format carries implications for how the evening feels. The property is categorised on Tabelog under "hideout" and "beautiful view", two designations that speak to atmosphere before they say anything about food. Private rooms are available, which at a 19-seat total means those rooms account for a meaningful share of the capacity and shift the overall noise and social register of the space. Counter seating, which runs alongside the private-room option, typically brings diners closer to the kitchen rhythm and service interaction. The result is a room that can feel either intimate and semi-private or engaged with the kitchen depending on where you sit, an architectural quality that some restaurants charge considerably more to replicate.

Parking is available on-site, a practical detail that signals the restaurant's awareness that it draws guests arriving by car rather than foot or metro. The Mariko location, roughly 15 minutes by taxi from JR Shizuoka Station's north exit, or accessible by Shizutetsu bus to Togetsuhou Sunpu Takumi Shuku Entrance followed by a short walk, functions differently from urban restaurant access. The journey out of the city is part of how the experience begins: by the time guests arrive, the urban frame has already fallen away.

Positioning Inside the Shizuoka Dining Scene

Shizuoka's dining map has historically been defined by traditional formats: kaiseki along the city's more established restaurant streets, unagi tied to the Abe River corridor, tempura houses with long track records. The emergence of a nationally recognised innovative restaurant in the Mariko district represents a meaningful addition to what the prefecture can offer to serious diners. Rin and FUJI represent other points in the contemporary Shizuoka dining conversation; viewed alongside Simples, they suggest the city's restaurant culture is generating original work rather than simply importing formats from Tokyo or Osaka.

For visitors building a broader Shizuoka itinerary, the city's dining scene sits within reach of several interconnected travel priorities. Our full Shizuoka restaurants guide maps the wider field, while the Shizuoka hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the broader picture. The Izumigaya Kogeino Yado Waraku auberge is attached to the same property as Simples, which opens the possibility of staying on-site — a format that shifts Simples from a destination restaurant into something closer to an inn dining experience. Regional comparisons for that auberge-restaurant combination exist in Shizuoka's neighbour prefectures, with Gion Sasaki in Kyoto and 1000 in Yokohama representing related premium dining formats in different urban registers. alla prima in Seoul adds an international reference point for what the innovative/creative course format looks like across the wider region.

Planning Your Visit

Simples operates Tuesday through Sunday with dinner service beginning at 17:30, closing at 22:00. Tuesdays are closed. The dinner price range runs from JPY 15,000 to JPY 19,999 per person at the stated average, with review-based data suggesting some guests reach the JPY 20,000 to JPY 29,999 bracket when accounting for wine. Major credit cards are accepted (VISA, Mastercard, JCB, AMEX, Diners Club), though electronic money and QR code payments are not. Reservations are required and must be made through TableCheck at the restaurant's booking portal. The restaurant is non-smoking throughout. Birthday plates and celebration requests can be accommodated with advance notice, and business occasions are flagged as a particularly suitable context by the Tabelog review community.