Kobe: a warm cheesecake, a room in the old settlement, a bar with a fire
An afternoon and a night in Kobe for two: the city's cheesecake since 1975 in Motomachi, a room at The Orient in the old foreign settlement, and a bar up the Kitano slope that has kept a wood fire since 1966.
The bar's hours were not printed in BRUTUS, so check before you walk up.
- Where
- Kobe
- How long
- 1 day
- Stops
- 3
- Distance
- 2 km · 1.9 km on foot
- On the clock
- about 6.5 h
- Pace
- slow
- Season
- all
- Mood
- romance · night · slow
Times are the editor’s plan, not a timetable. ≈ marks our own rough estimate; check the train times before you go.
Per person, one adult. Each place’s figure is what its source printed, and the stop names the source and the date; the fares are the operators’ own published figures. Meals and rides with no printed figure are not in the total, and a figure printed more than a year ago says so. Converted at the European Central Bank reference rate of 2026-09-24, not a bank rate.
- 甘観音屋 元町本店
Kobe's cheesecake since 1975, made with fresh Danish cheese and meant to be eaten warm. Hanako printed a box of six at ¥2,400 in January 2024.
神戸市 · Hanako · 40 minHours10:30–20:30; open every day · Hanako, Jan 2024 · may have changed
The place →Open in maps ↗ - Walk≈10 min · 0.6 km
- 宿THE ORIENT ジ オリエント(旧ORIENTAL HOTEL)
In the old foreign settlement, looking out over the port to Mount Rokko. Jalan lists a room for two with breakfast from ¥29,640 a person.
神戸市 · Jalan Net News · 60 min¥29,640per personas printed by Jalan September 14Booking requiredThe place →Open in maps ↗ - Walk≈22 min · 1.3 km
- 酒YANAGASE
A bar on the slope since 1966: a YANAGASE sign you can see from below, ivy on the walls, logs in the fireplace, and always a cocktail of fresh fruit in season, per the musician haruka nakamura in BRUTUS.
神戸市 · BRUTUS · 90 minHoursNot printed in the article; check before you go
The place →Open in maps ↗
In the old foreign settlement, looking out over the port to Mount Rokko. Jalan lists a room for two with breakfast from ¥29,640 a person.
On the wire this week
Sora Nakamura was born in Kanazawa, grew up between a fish market and a grandmother's kitchen, and spent her twenties cooking in Tokyo, Lyon and Melbourne before she put down the knife to write. Back in Tokyo since 2019, she keeps a spreadsheet of every place she has eaten at since 2011 and a bicycle she rides to most of them. She writes routes, not rankings, and believes the best restaurant in any town is the one that has been open long enough to have a regular who died there.