My blog and my Facebook/Instagram pages are about “coffee, food, photography, and a bit of dentistry”. We’ve talked about coffee in the last post. What about food in Nagoya?
Well I have to admit I’m a bit boring in this trip. Instead of looking for local delicacies (like miso soup udon and chicken wings, I just looked for nice Japanese food in general. I had sushi, unagi and sukiyaki again. I did have some Hida beef which is famous in this area. (Two meals in fact, one BBQ and one French style).
I said earlier it’s my mission to look for the best unagi restaurant in Japan. I reported that I found one in Okayama. But now I have to make a correction. The place in Okayama was best for its Shirayaki Unagi (白燒鰻魚), but for the ordinary Kabayaki Unagi (蒲燒鰻魚), I’ve found my new favourite — Houraiken (蓬萊軒) in Nagoya. I was reluctant about visiting it at first because it was famous among tourists, meaning a long queue is expected and food may just be overrated. However the truth is it’s also famous among locals and indeed over half of the queue comprised the Japanese. The unagi was crispier than other unagi I’ve tried, and the Kabayaki source was richer. And if you want to elevate your unagi experience you have to try Kimoyaki (鰻肝).
If you think that travelling is all about the surprises you encounter during the journey, I have to remind you there are both good surprises and bad surprises. The nice cafe I encountered in Takayama is for sure a good surprise, but the restaurant I’m about to mention is a bad surprise.
Determined to try something new, I booked a whole new beef restaurant to have sukiyaki all the while knowing there’s a branch of Imahan (人形町今半, the first sukiyaki I had ever) in Nagoya. That restaurant was as inhospitable as a restaurant in Japan could get. My goal was to have sukiyaki with Hida beef. I made a reservation one week ago. I arrived on time. I was seated in a table for four, which wasn’t surprising in Japan at all. I ordered a sukiyaki set (the menu said ¥xxxxx/pax). All seemed smooth. But then I was told that sukiyaki can only be ordered for two people up. What’s worse, I was later led to a smaller table because apparently they had a group of four. I eventually had to resort to BBQ Hida beef, which was still good, but the experience I got meant this restaurant will never be ranked top of my list.
[TBC]