Yakiniku Ran: For a Very Satisfying and Affordable Steak Lunch

Not all yakiniku, or Korean BBQ restaurants are open for lunch so it's interesting to see what's on the menu for lunches. At Yakiniku Ran there's only one option for menu, teppan grilled steak. You can choose the weight though, 100g (1000 yen), 150g (1500 yen) or 200g (about 2000 yen). For lunch the chef grills it for you and it is brought to your table in a hot skillet along with sides of potato salad, napolitan (Japanese ketchup pasta), and veggies. Being Nagoya, where napolitan is often served in a hot skillet with egg poured underneath, here too, egg was added into the hot cast iron skillet. Lastly, rice and a clear broth soup with wakame seaweed was also included. 

The meat definitely was wagyu (a Japanese breed of cow), and was so soft you wouldn't need a knife. You can use chopsticks and bite into the large thick pieces of meat. Once you sink your teeth in, the juice just succulently bursts out into the mouth. 

Area: West side of Nagoya Station, 3-min walk southeast of Kamejima Station 亀島駅
Restaurant: Yakiniku Ran 焼肉欄
Map and Info: https://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230101/23002384/

Cafe & Meal Muji: Not All Muji's Have Cafes, But You Can Visit One in Nagoya

Mujirushi Ryohin, or Muji as it is known in countries outside of Japan is now widely known throughout the world, but did you know that some Muji stores in Japan have cafes?

Before the Covid outbreak, I was able to visit one Muji Cafe at Nagoya Station located in the Meitetsu department store. It is a deli-style cafe where you pick 3 or 4 hot or cold dishes to make up a one-plate meal. I ordered the 4-choice meal (1000 yen) which came with miso soup and a choice of white or 10-grain rice. They used to have bread as an option, but not anymore it seems.

Here are the 4 dishes I chose (starting at the top and going clockwise on the plate):
1. Mayonnaise curry cauliflower and chicken: Large pieces of chicken breast and cauliflower covered in a mild mayonnaise and curry powder sauce. All the components went well together.

2. Chicken and apple cream: I could definitely taste butter and white wine in this dish. It was sweet from the natural flavour of the apples, but this sweetness was a nice change from the other 3 dishes.

3. Liver and konnyaku with a mustard sesame dressing: The often-seen sesame dressing was brought one step up with a touch of mustard. This dish was heavily seasoned, but that made sure the originally flavourless konnyaku absorbed all the flavours.

4. Spicy buri (yellowtail) daikon: The traditional buri daikon dish uses a soy sauce based sweet and savoury broth, so this spicy doubanjiang (Chinese salty broad bean chili sauce) was an interesting change from the normal. I feel like maybe there was some yuzu kosho in this dish, but I could be mistaken. The daikon had some crunch still which is also a change from the usual where it is often very soft.

Although the yellowtail and cream chicken dishes were chosen from the hot deli section, there all seemed the same room temperature to me. The miso soup, being Nagoya, used a red miso, and a niboshi (dried sardines) dashi broth. Abura age, or fried tofu and wakame were also in this soup.

This location is a large open space with a cooking class right next to it, so it's not the quietest place, but the noises are all somehow dampened, perhaps by the low ceiling. There is music, but can't really be heard over the other noises, and the music playing in the cooking class area. There is booth seating in the back, a big communal table in the middle and tables for 2 that can be moved around in case you have a party of 3 or more.

Area: Meitestu Department Store, Men's Wing 6F, Nagoya Station 名駅、名鉄百貨店メンズ館６F
Restaurant: Cafe & Meal Muji  無印良品
Map and Website: https://www.muji.com/jp/ja/shop/detail/045196
Hours: 10am-10pm

Beard Papa's: Probably the Freshest Cream Puff You Can Find

Shu-cream, or choux a la creme in French, is a dessert you can find almost anywhere in Japan, including convenience stores. One popular shu-cream take-out specialty shop is Beard Papa. They not only have stores all over Japan, but also overseas as far as the US and Canada. For fresh shu-cream this is the place to go. Most shu-creams are filled with custard and packaged or put into display cases so the outer pastry absorbs the moisture and is soft. However at Beard Papa, they fill the pastry shell with cream upon ordering so you can experience a fresh one. The difference is that the shell stays flaky, or crisp in the case of their cookie shu.

Regular shu (left) and cookie shu (right)

This time I wanted to take advantage of the freshness and ordered a cookie shu-cream filled with the original plain custard. The shell had bits of crunchy caramelized cookie bits that added a great texture and extra sweetness to the mildly sweetened custard. The plain pastry shell itself is not that sweet and has that characteristic eggy flavour. Look at the amount of cream they put in there! ...it's great for people who like that silky light texture in sweets.

Cookie shu

Packed with custard

Area: Sunroad (underground shopping at Nagoya Station), サンロード（名古屋駅）
Shop: Beard Papa's ビアードパパ
Website and Map: https://www.beardpapa.jp/shop/detail/D397/
Hours: 10am-9pm

La Soeur aux Bacchanales: Very Reasonable French Fare

This is one restaurant I keep coming back to for a leisurely lunch when dining alone. Although busy, it has a nice, relaxing atmosphere, with comfortable plush seats, jazz music playing lightly over the speakers and all of the sounds are muffled by the low ceiling and carpeting.

Interior

Another reason I like this place is for the reasonable lunches (¥1000) that sometimes use ingredients or cooking techniques that are a bit different than you may normally see. There is always a choice of 3 lunches, a meat, fish, and other dish. Today’s specials included a grilled pork tenderloin, salmon saute with couscous, or a deer meat tartine. I had to go with the tartine because I rarely get to eat deer, and because what better place to order a tartine at a French bistro style restaurant.

The meal started with a salad that was lightly dressed with a simple vinaigrette. It also came with 2 slices of baguette (I had to ask for it because the server didn't bring it, perhaps because my meal included toasted bread). The tartine looked much like the salad, using the same types of greens. It  was a toasted slice of boule bread with a sour cream spread, a sunny lettuce and watercress topping, finished with an onsen tamago (much like a poached egg). I found the slices of bread to be charred a bit too much leading to a very bitter overpowering taste. Good thing I asked for the baguette! The entire dish was not seasoned very much but I think that’s because the deer meat was prepared like bacon providing the dishes’ seasoning. The deer meet was the best part, not too salty and with streaks of fat running through it giving the well cooked meat some juiciness, while retaining its gamey flavour.

Starter salad (top left) and deer tartine (centre)

On a different occasion, the main was a very tender and rare roast beef.

Area: Midland Square, on the east side of Nagoya Station ミッドランドスクエア（名古屋駅）
Restaurant: La Soeur aux Bacchanales ラスールオーバカナル
Website and Map: https://lasoeurauxbacchanales.dino.vc/wf/shop/17142839
Hours: 8am-10pm

Daidoko Mori: Special Miso Oden

Immediately when stepping into this restaurant I got a waft of fragrant red miso. The company is actually a sake brewer so they are masters at fermentation. The teacups and even water glasses resembled sake cups with that characteristic blue ring design on the bottom. As such, two of their lunch mains were marinated with sake lees. I however wanted to try their signature oden lunch set. Oden is often considered a warming dish of winter since it consists of ingredients simmered for a long time in broth.

The oden sauce that the restaurant uses is a rare 2 year fermented red miso. It had a really nice fragrant flavour; you might think by the deep colour and smell that it would be very overpowering but it was just perfect. The daikon was soft and flavoured all the way through, a result of long simmering. The red fish cake was not salty so it went well with savoury dark sauce. The konnyaku also had great flavour which is hard to achieve without it getting really rubbery. Grilled tofu and a hard-boiled egg were the other oden items. The accompanying soup was a clear dashi which is good so that you don’t get  an overload of miso were it to come with miso soup like the other set meals. The escabeche and the tomato salad were both good palate cleansers with light acidity of vinegar in the marinade and dressing. The amount of rice served was perfect for those wanting  a lighter meal.

My only complaint was that the restaurant was quite hot, I think they could have used some air-conditioning for a better experience.

Area: Nagoya Station, JR Gate Tower 12F 名古屋駅　JRゲートタワー
Restaurant: Daidoko Morita 厨 森田
Store info: https://r.gnavi.co.jp/gzje7dss0000/?sc_lid=smp_top_01
Hours: Lunch 11am-3pm (LO 2:30pm), Dinner 5-11pm (LO 10pm)

Solo Pizza Napoletana; The Best pizza in Nagoya

One of my favourite foods every since childhood has got to be pizza. What kid didn't enjoy pizza day at school? I got hooked on it early. Now that I'm in Japan, I can't just go into a Pizza Pizza and buy a large slice of pizza and a drink. There are some big world-wide chains such as Pizza Hut and Domino's Pizza here, but you cannot buy a personal sized pizza. I am not partial to eating only thin crust, or certain toppings, I just like a good pizza! While I do enjoy the big chains and their Asian flavour toppings such as teriyaki chicken and mayonnaise or Korean kalbi, I think I have found the best pizza in Nagoya. It's a pizzeria called Solo Pizza Napoletana. From the name, you can tell they specialize in the thin crust of Napoli.

All their pizza have conventional toppings (no Asian flavours), some of them being a bit more gourmet style. I just had to try the Pulcinella, truffle sauce, mushrooms, mozzarella and roast ham . First of all the crust (which is the same base for every pizza here), it is just perfect; chewy, charred but not too burnt, with a good balance of salt and yeast. It's one crust you don't want to skip, it can be savoured even on it's own.

Next, the toppings. The porcini mushrooms were tender, and bursting with it's signature flavor. Thin slices of ham acted well as a good seasoning for the overall pizza. A few leaves of basil gave the pizza a nice accent. This was a tomato sauce-less pie, but the truffle oil and porcini juices were flavour enough!

For a side, I really do recommend the pickles as a flavour changer. Although they are a bit on the salty side (as pickles usually are), when you take a bite into the pizza again the truffle and porcini flavours are that much more enhanced! The pickling juice is not just vinegar and salt, there is a visible variety of herbs, I could taste the rosemary and perhaps oregano among them. The mix even had gobo (burdock root) in it, which I think is pretty rare.

Sitting outside on the patio is so refreshing and makes you feel as if you’re in a different world, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday Japan. Autumn is the best time because it’s not so hot and muggy! The pizza is good even when it cools down so you can take your sweet time eating it.
The pizza's are also reasonably priced. The one I ordered was ¥1320 (with the new 10% tax). but this was considered more of a specialty pizza. You can get a margherita the same size for half that! The pickles were ¥275 which had a ¥50 discount attached for buying it with a pizza (or with the receipt that shows you just bought a pizza).

Area: Dainagoya building 1F(on the east side, across the street from Nagoya Station) 大名古屋ビルディング1F
Restaurant: Solo Pizza Napoletana ソロピッツァナポレターナ
Website: https://solopizza.jp/
Hours: 11am-11:30pm (LO 11:15pm)

Hakata Hitokuchi Chibimaru Gyoza: Even Though Gyoza is the Specialty, the Ramen is Worth the Trip

Hakata ramen (from Fukuoka) can be smelly with its tonkotsu broth (pork broth has a distinctive smell) and it can feel quite heavy in the mouth. However at this restaurant, the signature ramen is made from chicken broth. The noodles are thin, characteristic to hakata ramen and are cooked al dente; even to the last bite, they don’t get soggy. The broth's chicken flavour is very prominent and is creamy like a cream of mushroom soup with less fat compared to a tonkotsu pork broth. It coats the  noodles nicely, not too thick. The tree ear fungus gives no particular addition in flavour but adds a crunchy texture in addition to the negi (Japanese leek), which makes it a bit healthier with some veggies. The coarse black pepper provides a good disctraction from the saltiness (as does the negi). The housemade chicken cha-siu uses thigh meat so it’s fairly juicy and flavorful. The outer layer of skin is melt-in-your-mouth soft and adds great chicken umami. The nitamago (boiled egg that has been flavoured by simmering or marinating in a soy sauce based broth) is not too salty as often can be, and goes perfectly with this chicken based ramen who's broth brings out the creaminess of the yolk. I don’t usually drink the broth of my ramen, but this is one that I like to do. I still have to drink lots of water with it though to cut through the saltiness.

Pai-tan ramen

Ramen menu

Gyoza menu

 When not busy it’s a nice place to sit and enjoy the meal. Music was j-pop, rock playing quietly.

The interior

Area: east side of Nagoya station, Unimall underground shopping area

Restaurant: Hakata Hitokuchi Chibimaru Gyoza 　博多一口ちびまる餃子

Map and Info: https://retty.me/area/PRE23/ARE61/SUB6101/100001222005/?utm_y_pc_res_title

Hours: 11am-10pm (LO 9:30pm)

Saru Cafe: For a Tasty Japanese Tex-Mex Dish (Closed 2019)

Although Tex-Mex is not easy to find in Japan, they do have a dish that can be considered Japan's version of Tex-Mex. It is called taco rice and you can find it in cafes, family restaurants or on the tables of home-cooked meals. To get my Tex-Mex fix, I went to try a cafe version at one of Nagoya's long running popular chain stores, Saru Cafe.

On Sakuradori road

Taco rice is basically the fillings of a taco put on top of a bed of rice; usually you'll find seasoned ground meat, lettuce and tomatoes. Saru cafe adds to the regular toppings with flavoured tortilla chips (much like Doritos) crumbled on top, fresh avocado and an onsen egg (runny egg, similar to poached). The chips made it more like an actual taco with a nice crunch (except after a while they get a bit soggy or stale). The meat was well-seasoned with chili powder and reminded me of the Te-Mex I’ve eaten back in Canada. The combination of the meat, the chips, the grated parmesan cheese and cesar dressing made it very salty overall, but that’s why the plain rice underneath it is necessary. The runny egg is also a nice addition to mellow out the saltiness a bit. The lettuce and avocado add some lightness and refreshing flavours making the dish easier to finish the last bite.

Taco Rice

Topped with an onsen egg

This particular branch (on Sakuradori road, just east of Nagoya Station), was busy on the Saturday of my visit. Saru Cafe tries to cater to the young working class, so it is open for lunch and late dinner and has a more lounge/bar type vibe. Their dinner menu is extensive with various appetizers (hot and cold), salads, hamburger skillets, pastas, pizzas and rice dishes as well as a complete alcoholic drink list. It was lively with the voices and laughter of other customers drowning out the music playing over the speakers. A good place to get together with friends for some chat or a celebration. 

Seat located at the entrance

Area: 5-minute walk east of Nagoya Station 名古屋駅
Restaurant: Saru Cafe 猿カフェ
Map: www.hotpepper.jp/strJ000739522/map/
Hours: 11:30am-11pm (LO 10pm), open on holidays

Origami: A Good Place to Try Beef 'Sashimi'

One of the latest trends in Japan is niku zushi. It's basically sushi that is topped with raw meat (usually beef or horse) instead of fish. For many, the sound of eating raw meat may make you apprehensive, but at Origami, a 10 minute walk from Nagoya Station, you can try a version that's not quite raw and will give you an idea of what meat sashimi is like.

The items on the menu here say sashimi fuu. This fuu means "in the syle of". So it may not be exactly sashimi but it is a similar take on it.

Beef, sashimi-style

It looks raw doesn't it? It's actually been passed through a very low temp to get this effect. The restaurant recommends using their slightly sweet soy sauce which goes very well with the red meat. It's just like in Kyushu where they dip their horse sashimi (basashi) in a sweeter than normal soy sauce. Eating this meat 'sashimi', you can enjoy the flavour of the fat and meat as opposed to the juices when you eat warmed, grilled meat. 

Beef liver, sashimi-style

Here, we have liver that is served to look and taste like sashimi. Beef liver is now prohibited by law to be served raw in restaurants, so this is a really good dish mimicking the sashimi version. Sprinkle salt on the slices that have been drizzled with sesame oil for a crunchy texture and to bring out the umami. It was a common way to eat beef liver, and the combination goes so well together.

Uni niku yukke-style

Topping beef with sea urchin is another trend that started a few years ago but is still apparent. Yukke is originally a Korean dish made by mixing strips of raw beef with a gochujang-based sauce. I guess it can be considered a kind of steak tartare. At this restaurant, the seasoning is more of a Japanese style sauce that is sweeter and soy sauce-based, and this meat also although looks raw, is yukke-fuu. From the photo you can tell that it uses a lot of the fatty part of the meat so you get a lot of umami from that. I like uni, however I found that even though the ratio of uni to beef was small, the flavour of the uni overpowered that of the meat. Perhaps is this dish 'sans uni' would be the way to enjoy the beef. 

The restaurant itself was nice to have a quiet, private dinner as all the tables are in separated rooms. You don't even have to call a waitress since ordering can be done on a touch pad. It seems they try to be a little more on the high-end, so you can imagine that it can get pricey. That being said, they do have a good deal on an all-you-can-eat niku zushi course meal. Overall a good place to start if you're new to beef sashimi or beef sushi, but if you want the real thing, you may have to look elsewhere.

Area: a 5-minute walk from Nagoya Station exit 1 名古屋駅出口１, or a 7-minute walk from Kamejima Station 亀島駅

Restaurant: Origami オリガミ

Map: www.hotpepper.jp/strJ000650458/

Hours: Mon-Thurs 5-12pm (LO 11pm), Fri and Sat 5pm-1am (LO 12am), Sun and Holidays 5-11pm (LO 10pm)

Wired Cafe: A Different Take On a Popular Tuna Dish

Negi toro is a popular tuna on rice dish in Japan. It consists of the prized fatty part of tuna chopped up into a paste, or essentially ground. The fat gives it a nice flavour as you would get from eating a slice of toro sashimi and because it is ground, a soft melt-in-the-mouth texture. Eating negi toro you get the flavour of expensive cuts of sashimi, but for a fraction of the price.

Normally it is found in Japanese food restaurants that sell sushi or those that specialize in kaisen don (sashimi rice bowls). This is why I was curious about the cafe’s take on it. At Wired Cafe, on the 12th floor of the JR Gate Tower at Nagoya station, there is a dish on the menu called the Negi Toro Bowl (980 yen plus tax).

Negi Toro Bowl

I was actually pretty impressed by this version of the negi toro don because it’s a complete balanced meal all in one. The negi toro was flavorful and went really well with the nori tsukudani sauce (a sweet and savory soy sauce based seaweed paste) and the mayonnaise, a combo not usually found on traditional negi toro don. The carbs seemed a bit healthier than plain white rice because it was mixed with some millet grains. You can't go wrong with onsen tamago (like a poached egg but the whites are softer); when the yolk is broken it runs over the tuna and rice creating the perfect combination. The protein in this meal of course comes from the egg and tuna. The salad provides a variety of vitamins and nutrients. You also get healthy fats from the avocado which was a lovely ripe colour and actually goes really nicely with Japanese food that uses soy sauce. Toppings of takuwan (pickled daikon) and tobiko (fish eggs) add a great flavour changer and savoury accent.
The restaurant itself is quite busy and often has a line up but once your seated it's a good place to relax alone or chat with friends. Half the cafe is in an open space surrounded only by a low portable fence so it may feel a little less cozy there. American pop music was playing softly in the background. It's a lively atmosphere, but not so noisy that you can’t hear the person next to you.

Area: JR Gate Tower, 12F (Nagoya Station), 名古屋駅JRゲートタワー12F
Restaurant: Wired Cafe　ワイアードカフェ
Map and Website: https://www.cafecompany.com/brands/wiredcafe/nagoya/
Hours: 11am-11pm (LO 10pm)

Yokoi: For the ORIGINAL Nagoya Ankake Spaghetti Taste

If you've ever visited Nagoya, you'll probably have heard of ankake pasta or spaghetti. This dish has become well-liked by the people of this city. It has made it's way into guide books as one of the dishes to eat while in Nagoya. This spaghetti is unlike any other noodle dish you'll find in Japan.

So what is ankake spaghetti? It can be described as thick spaghetti that has been boiled, then sauteed in lard or oil in a pan, and topped with a peppery tomato-based meat sauce thickened with starch. At an ankake restaurant the variety in the menu comes from your choice of topping. The veggies often include green pepper, onion, tomatoes and mushrooms or corn. Then there are the fried toppings such as pork cutlet and breaded shrimp, fish or oysters. Other popular toppings may include eggs, wieners, ham, bacon, clams and ground meat patties.

What differs largely between shops is the sauce. Some are spicy, some are more peppery, some use more tomatoes, others taste more like demi-glace sauce. Since lard is widely known to be unhealthy, there are some restaurants that advertise that their healthy ankake pastas are topped with plenty of veggies and that do not use lard.

At Yokoi, you can try the original Nagoya ankake. They claim to be the creators of this popular dish. I have tried many ankake restaurants and recently I was able to try Yokoi's version.

Pork Piccata Ankake

This is the pork piccata ankake. Unfortunately the dish did not come with a vegetable topping, but at least there was a small salad (coleslaw) served on the side. In Japan, piccata are slices of meat coated in egg and pan-fried. While the dish in the photo looks quite plain, the sauce is rather concentrated with quite a black pepper punch. It is gloopy (the norm for ankake sauces) due to the starch slurry used to thicken it, but this helps to coat the thick noodles. The pasta is boiled al dente and becomes slightly dryer when put in the pan, but this also makes the sauce become the star ingredient. Their sauce reminded me a little bit of Swiss Chalet dipping sauce (you'll know what I'm talking about if you're Canadian!). I liked that it wasn't overpowered by pepper, and you can tell by the depth of flavour that it uses broth that has been simmered for days (it is demi-glace based). The meat was soft and not overcooked, thanks to the coating of egg sealing in the juices. 

Overall, a good ankake, but my advice is to eat it before the noodles cool and you can feel the lard solidify of the noodles, or just make sure to coat the noodles in the sauce well.  The family restaurant atmosphere makes it a bright and suitable place to have a hearty lunch. 

Area: Just north of Nagoya Station, KITTE Nagoya B1F  名古屋駅、KITTE名古屋B1F

Restaurant: Yokoi KITTE Nagoya-ten ヨコイKITTE名古屋店

Map and Website: https://yokoi-anspa.jp/shop/ヨコイkitte名古屋店

Hours: 11am-11pm (LO 10pm)

Norabo: Regular Udon With a Unique Topping

Udon is one dish that is pretty consistent throughout Japan. The slight differences come with the origin of flour used for the noodles, the method of kneading the dough, and the type of dried kelp and/or fish used to make the broth.

It's fun visiting various udon specialty shops to taste the subtle differences between them. At Norabo, they go for more bold flavours in their toppings. I tried the Norabo special (840 yen) which was topped with niboshi tempura (dried sardine), wakame, Japanese leek, grated ginger, bonito flakes and a raw egg.

Storefront

This restaurant's dashi, or broth, is more on the mild side, and I think it's because the toppings are meant to add flavour to them. Niboshi and bonito flakes are two ingredients that are commonly simmered and strained when making dashi, so as toppings to this dish they made a bold impact. I personally found the tempura a little too salty and overpowering, perhaps a smaller portion would have been more fitting.

The Norabo Special

The sanuki noodles (udon originally from the Kanagawa region), were on the softer side of the udon noodle scale. They were not as soft as ise udon, but they didn't seem to have much bite to them either.

The menu

The shop is quite cozy with dim lighting and a nice view from the 12th floor of the JR Tower. It didn't seem particularly popular on a day when the other restaurants in the area had lineups outside, but it's perfect for a break from the crowds.

Quiet setting

Meat udon

On a separate occasion I tried the meat udon. The pork belly is so heavily seasoned with a soy sauce and sugar based flavor that you might not even need to pour the soup over it. 

Area: JR Gate Tower 12F (Nagoya Station) ゲートタワー12F（名古屋駅）

Restaurant: Norabo 野らぼー

Website and Map: http://www.norabow.jp/shopinfo/JRGATE.html

Hours: 11am-11pm (LO 10:30pm)

Maruya Honten: For A Real Nagoya-Style Eel Dish

I've always loved eating unagi or eel; growing up in Canada we could find it in shrink packs, already seasoned and cooked at the closest Japanese grocery store. There isn't anybody I know who doesn't like the combination with a sweet soy sauce-based seasoning (called kabayaki-style). Unagi is often served on top of steaming white rice and the sauce absorbed by it makes a match made in heaven.

I was pleasantly surprised when I came to Nagoya to find out that one of the dishes they were known for included this kabayaki unagi. One reason it had become a specialty item is the way they cooked and ate it. The Nagoya unagi sounded new to me and so mouth-watering. The version they are known for is called hitsumabushi. The eel is usually grilled so that the skin side has a bit of a crispy char. It is served in a large wooden container. First you scoop some of the kabayaki unagi and rice into a smaller bowl, making it easier to hold and eat. It's usually recommended to enjoy it as is upon first bite. Then on your second bowl, you sprinkle condiments of choice such as green onion, shiso (Japanese basil), strips of seaweed or wasabi. Finally on your last bowl, you pour in the special house-made dashi (soup) provided and add a bit of wasabi if you like. Most unagi restaurants will have sansho or Japanese pepper on the tables because it goes so well with the dish.

There are countless hitsumabushi restaurants in this city and they all serve different versions of the dish. Some grill the unagi with more 'fluffiness' and less crispiness, others take pride in the sauce which has been 'used' since the opening of the store by their grandfathers, and has been topped up everyday.

Maruya Honten has become well known in Nagoya for their histumabushi and can be found in major locations such as Nagoya Station, Chubu International Airport, and even Seoul, Korea. If you want to try 'real' Nagoya-style eel, I suggest a visit to Maruya Honten. They actually get the unagi pretty crispy compared to other restaurants I've tried which seem to focus on making the overall feel more soft and fatty in the mouth. It all depends on your taste, but for a Nagoya experience, Maruya Honten does it well.

Nicely charred hitsumabushi eel

Area: Meitetsu Building at Nagoya Station, 9F　名鉄百貨店本館９F　レストラン街

Restaurant: Maruya Honten　〇や本店

Map and Website: http://www.maruya-honten.com/shop/まるや本店%e3%80%80名駅店

Hours: 11am-11pm (LO 10pm)

The Lady's Set Is Great for Variety in One Meal

You might be wondering what a Lady's Set is...
In Japan, you'll often find these on lunch menus in many restaurants. It's basically a lunch that is not so heavy, but comes with a variety of little dishes. Japanese women often can't decide what to order especially when there are so many choices and often say they would like to try a little of everything.  Of course they can't order every item because either it wouldn't fit into their stomachs or the bill would be too large in the end. Somebody had the brilliant idea of creating a lunch that would satisfy these women and give them an easy choice. Women are also known to like a tea or something sweet after their meals so many Lady's Sets also include these.

I visited a washoku (Japanese-style cooking) restaurant at the Dai Nagoya Building, just across the street from the East entrance of Nagoya Station. The Lady's Set on the lunch menu posted outside the restaurant drew me to try this shop, Shutei Kanda Sakuma, for the first time.

The decor itself gave this place an eastern Asia feel (not completely Japanese). The tables were set far apart so it didn't feel busy or as if you had to rush your eating. I was shown to a a table in a small room near the back of the restaurant since all the front seats were taken. As I peeked into the rooms at the farthest from the entrance, I could see that there were also tatami mat tables. There was a large menu for alcoholic drinks so I assume that for dinner it's more of an izakaya (Japanese Pub).

The Lady's Set was also called the Obanzai lunch (about ¥1300). Obanzai are basically side dishes meant to go with a main. However, sometimes as in this case, a variety of obanzai can be served instead of one main dish.

Today's obanzai lunch included some simmered veggies in a Japanese broth, tai (sea bream) sashimi, kinpira gobo (stir-fried burdock root), okara (seasoned tofu curds), pickled cabbage, tempura, grilled fish, tamagoyaki (rolled egg omelette), miso soup, Japanese pickles and rice. The picture doesn't include the small chawan mushi (steamed savoury egg custard), but it was also part of the lunch.

Obanzai Lunch (Lady's Set)

To be honest, nothing really stood out in terms of flavour. They were all very standard obanzai, similar to the obanzai I can find in the prepared food section at my local grocery store. The chawan mushi tasted as if it had some sort of cinammon-like spice in it, but I could not tell what gave it this unusual flavour. All-in-all, a great Lady's Set, a combination of several small dishes just as it should be.

Area: Nagoya Station 名古屋駅, Dai Nagoya Building 大名古屋ビルヂング

Restaurant: Shutei Kanda Sakuma 酒亭・神田さくま

Map: https://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230101/23059263/

Hours: Lunch 11am-2:30pm (LO 2pm), Dinner 5-11pm (food LO 10pm, drink LO 10:30pm)

Lunch for Only 500 Yen At Sakura Suisan

Sashimi Teishoku (set meal)

This restaurant does its business mainly as an Izakaya, so it has kind of a dim setting, fitting for a pub. However, for this reason (I assume they make most of their profits at night), they can afford to sell their lunches for as little as 500 yen! The 'hi-gawari', or daily lunch will change everyday, but today it was buri and kampachi sashimi (both are types of yellowtail fish).  I was surprised to find that the sashimi was cut thickly and had a fair amount of fat marbling, making the quality pretty satisfactory for a 'one-coin' lunch. I suppose their secret is that they do specialize in seafood. The miso soup had lots of wakame (seaweed) and daikon in it, providing th veggies of the meal. If it doesn't seem filling to you, I saw a sign by the self-serve water saying that the eggs, Japanese pickles, rice and miso soup are all-you-can-eat! They eggs are raw, but they do go so well with the warm steamed rice (just beat a little with some soy sauce in the bowl provided, and pour over your rice).

Other lunch menu items included tempura, simmered mackeral, grilled fish, fried chicken, and if there aren't enough veggies for you, there is the option to add a salad for 150 yen. Not all the menu items are one-coin, but I don't think any of them surpassed 1000 yen.

Restaurant: Sakura Suisan さくら水産

Area: Sako Station 栄生駅 (Meitetsu 名鉄 Line), one stop away from Nagoya Station
Website and Map: https://www.sakusui.jp/shop/detail.html?shop=154
Hours: Lunch (weekdays only, closed holidays) 11am-2pm, Izakaya 4-11:30pm (last order 10:45pm)

Iso Maru Suisan: Can Satisfy a Late-Night Craving

Negi toro, tuna and salmon sashimi rice bowl

The best part about this restaurant is that it's open 24/7, so you don't have to worry about making it in time for lunch or dinner hours. If you have a break from work at an odd time, this place is ready to fill your tummy at anytime. The other appeal is that it is inexpensive and quick. This salmon, maguro (tuna), and negi-toro (minced fatty tuna) rice bowl was only 730 yen. A regular size beer was also only 300 yen at lunch! Although I'd say the quality of the sashimi wasn't the best (lacking luster and shine, and the negi-toro may not have been all fatty tuna), it was surely enough to satisfy my hunger and craving for kaisen-don (a sashimi rice bowl).

The atmosphere of the restaurant is quite lively as it is meant to look like a Japanese fish market. It also makes a great place to have a drink and good time with friends.

Restaurant: Iso Maru Suisan 磯丸水産
Area: Nagoya Station
Map: https://www.hotpepper.jp/strJ001203934/map/
Hours: open 24 hours

Johnnie's Brasserie; Proof That the Japanese Know How to do Dessert

I just had a conversation with a Japanese friend of mine about how good desserts in Japan are. She has had some nice dessert experiences in all different parts of the world, but is convinced that Japan’s are the best. Her view may be biased but as I thought about it, her statement might be true. I’ll use my most recent, non-convenience store dessert experience as an example. 

Johnnie’s Brasserie cafe time dessert: strawberry millfeuille

On another occasion with a different friend, I visited a restaurant called Johnnie’s Brasserie (see shop information below) at Nagoya Station. It was mid-afternoon and we felt like chatting over coffee. The restaurant level in the JR Gate Tower has a wide variety of restaurants and cafes so we decided to look there. This restaurant had a nice high-rise view of the city and I thought it might be nice for my friend visiting Japan from overseas. We hadn’t planned on ordering any sweets but when they brought the cafe time menu to us, the sound of the desserts made our mouths water and we ended up ordering the “cafe set”. This type of set is common after lunch hours in many shops in Japan. Usually the price includes a drink (tea, coffee or juice) with a choice of dessert. This particular restaurant’s set ¥1000 which is pretty good considering the upscale feel of the shop. The restaurant is not a dessert shop, nor does it even mention their desserts on their homepage website. They are, as the name reveals, a brasserie after all, specializing in French food (and other Western style dishes).

When our desserts came to the table we were impressed first by the presentation. Not only were they pretty, the fruits looked fresh and the whole plate looked as if whoever made it took a lot of time in the placement of each components, like artwork. Most importantly, it tasted like heaven. My dessert, the one in the photo above, was just the right amount of sweetness (the Japanese tend to stay on the milder side of sweetness), the millefeuille pastry had a wonderful buttery flavour and stayed crisp and flakey even with all those fresh toppings. The pistachio ice cream went really nicely with the dish with its nutty punch.                             

Fruit pavlova with raspberry sorbet

I only had a bite, but my friend’s dish was also delicious and she was just as satisfied with her choice. This is JUST one example of a dessert in Japan, but I can say that it is not uncommon to find a delicious, well-plated, mouth-watering, and not overly sweet dessert anywhere in japan; they do desserts well.                          

Restaurant: Johnnie’s Brasserie

Area: JR Gate Tower at Nagoya Station, 13th floor

Website: www.johnnies-brasserie.jp

Hours: lunch 11:00-14:30, cafe 14:30-17:00/18:00 on weekends (LO 16:00, 17:00 on weekends and holidays), dinner 18:00-23:00 (LO 22:00) 

Misen; the Hottest and Spiciest Thing I've Ever Had in Japan

If you've ever been to Nagoya, you've probably heard of the Chinese restaurant Misen. Their main dish has become a Nagoya specialty and attracts locals as well as the tourists. The dish is called Taiwan Ramen. It's not actually Taiwanese, but I believe it has roots from a Taiwanese dish using ground meat sauteed with spices. Now that Taiwan ramen has become a dish of Nagoya, many Chinese restaurants in this city make their own versions of it, but Misen claims to be the originators of this popular bowl of noodles.

Taiwan ramen and stir-fried greens

This is probably one of the hottest and spiciest of any dish I've ever had in Japan! I never would have thought that something this spicy could be this popular here. Luckily I shared this with a friend; I would not be able to finish a bowl on my own. It's hot the minute any part of it, whether it's the noodles, meat, soup or even the garlic chives comes in contact with the mouth. And it just keeps getting hotter and hotter, (lips burning more) the more you eat it. Having said that, I must admit, it does have a flavour (it's not just all about the heat), one that keeps you wanting to dig in more even though your mouth is on fire.

If you can take hot things, I do recommend Misen's Taiwan ramen if you're in the Nagoya area. Just make sure to also order some fried rice or something to take the edge off the heat in between bites!

Area: Various locations. Nagoya station branch (Nagoya eki ten 名古屋駅店）shown in photo above
Restaurant: Misen 味仙
Website: http://www.misen.ne.jp/store
Hours: at Nagoya-eki ten 11am-11pm (LO 10pm)