Motor City Munchies: 10 of Nagoya’s Best Restaurants

Widely known as Japan’s heart of manufacturing, Nagoya — capital of Aichi Prefecture — is a popular domestic travel destination, especially for travelers looking for a short trip from Kyoto or Osaka. 

While it may not be quite as popular as the Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto trinity, Nagoya certainly has its fair share of attractions: as the oldest surviving castle in Japan, Inuyama Castle is popular among history buffs. 

The Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium hosts the country’s largest outdoor tank. And of course the Ghibli Park draws hordes of visitors looking for a glimpse of the pastoral scenes from the mind of Miyazaki Hayao.

But the food scene of the fourth-most populous city in Japan is unfairly slept on. Of course, Nagoya’s signature foods include tebasaki, or chicken wings, and miso katsu — fried pork cutlets drizzled with a thick, dark miso-based sauce. 

Still, if you think that’s where Nagoya’s culinary scene ends, you’d be sorely mistaken. Read on to find out more about the culinary gems of Japan’s industrial center. 

1. Kawabun
2. Hijikata
3. Setsugekka Tanaka Satoru
4. Kappo Shinsuke
5. Reminiscence
6. Restaurant Cheval Blanc
7. Sushi Hijikata
8. Amaki (Nagoya Kanko Hotel)
9. Unafuji
10. Ozashiki Tempura Ayame

Kawabun is a point of particular pride for Nagoya, being the oldest restaurant in the city. Its clientele is an equal mix of history or architecture buffs and gourmets looking to taste its traditional Japanese cuisine. Often, those who come as one leave as the other. 

The entire building is a celebration of Japanese architecture, with some of the country’s greatest architectural minds across the ages having a hand in its design. 

The main dining room, called Mizukagami no Ma, or In the Water’s Reflection, is particularly noteworthy: an open space with floor-to-ceiling windows that afford diners views of the garden outside, which offers different scenery as the seasons change. 

An extremely popular wedding venue, the majority of the building’s structures were designated as Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan in 2005. 

Just as its rooms and halls are celebrations of architectural brilliance, Kawabun’s kaiseki course menus are similarly exquisite showcases of Japan’s famously seasonal traditional cuisine, nihon-ryori, thanks to expert chefs and access to some of the best ingredients in the whole of Aichi Prefecture.

Reserve your table at Kawabun.

Sometimes called Nihonryori Hijikata, Hijikata is paradoxically one of the most famous restaurants in the whole of Aichi Prefecture — and yet one of the most unknown. A search for it online reveals surprisingly few results; like most legacy restaurants in Japan, it has no official website. 

Chef and owner Hijikata Shoji has been in the industry for almost 50 years, but he is known to shun the spotlight. Yet his kaiseki-style cuisine was good enough to earn it three stars in the special edition of the Michelin Guide Aichi-Gifu-Mie 2019, making it one of only three restaurants to earn the distinction. 

Hijikata earned its Michelin stars through a combination of technique honed over decades of training, and a dedication to sourcing the best possible ingredients from all over the country — both of which are driven by an unrelenting desire to serve his guests nothing but the best. 

Diners can expect to find bluefin tuna from as far as Aomori served alongside locally caught delicacies like shiro-ebi white shrimp; even his fruit selection contains the likes of the Yamanashi shine muscat and the eye-wateringly expensive Miyazaki mango known as Taiyo no Tamago. 

Just as important to the cohesiveness of a kaiseki meal is the sake pairings that go with it, and Hijikata knows this well. As such, Chef Hijikata stocks over 200 types of sake in a dedicated sake cellar, featuring some of the finest from breweries in Niigata, Osaka, Kagawa and more. 

Reserve your table at Hijikata.

There are few people better versed in wagyu beef than Tanaka Satoru — a legendary butcher who has been dealing in this luxurious meat since he was just 25 years old. 

At his eponymous restaurant Setsugekka Tanaka Satoru, which received a Michelin Plate (now called Michelin Selected) and the Tabelog Award, he serves nothing but the best wagyu available to him. 

The restaurant is particularly selective about its chefs; they must be trained extensively in preparation techniques, including how to recognize the ideal aging period for each cut of meat, and even the ideal angle at which to cut the grain of the meat.

It’s one of the most luxurious ways to experience wagyu in Nagoya, with all-private-room seating and access to some of the best beef in Japan, including the vaunted Kobe and Matsusaka beefs — two of the undisputed Three Great Beefs of Japan. (The title of third is an accolade that remains hotly contested to this day, but guests can be assured that many of the contenders can be tried at Setsugekka.) 

Walk-ins are possible, but the best way to experience the wagyu here is through a course menu, each of which provides a comprehensive selection of cuts to let guests compare various tastes and textures. However, these have to be reserved at least two days in advance, so plan accordingly if you want a taste.

Reserve your table at Setsugekka Tanaka Satoru.

Chef Ota Shinsuke started his own kappo restaurant after several years of grueling training in one of Kyoto’s most famous kappo restaurants, Masuda. 

It was a period marked by failure and self-doubt, but he ultimately credits it to his current level of culinary achievement: For excellence in traditional Japanese cuisine, Kappo Shinsuke received a star in the special edition of the Michelin Guide Aichi-Gifu-Mie 2019. 

Such an extended period training in such a harsh environment made him especially attuned to choosing the ideal ingredients, which is something many culinary critics have noted in their reviews of his restaurant. 

Interestingly, while his operations may be in Nagoya, he prefers to use mountain produce from Hida-Takayama, his Gifu hometown. His meat, meanwhile, is largely wild fowl sourced from Niigata Prefecture. 

This results in a distinctly rustic taste that permeates his restaurant’s offerings, which provides an interesting culinary contrast to his refined Kyoto-trained technique.

Reserve your table at Kappo Shinsuke.

It might come as a surprise to many, but Nagoya’s French culinary scene is actually one of the most well-regarded in Japan, boasting names like Mikuni and L’Auberge de l’Ill Nagoya. It’s easily the gastronomic French quarter of the Tokai region.

However, there is one name that is synonymous with French food in Nagoya, and that is Reminiscence. A recipient of two Michelin stars in the special edition of the Michelin Guide Aichi-Gifu-Mie 2019 and formerly one of Japan’s 50 Best Restaurants, its head chef trained at both Quintessence in Tokyo and Hajime in Osaka — themselves three-starred in their respective Michelin Guides. 

In spite of specializing in French cuisine, the fare at Reminiscence is also unmistakably Japanese. Chef Kuzuhara Masaki took up a stint at the historic Nagoya unagi restaurant Atsuta Houraiken just to make his signature eel dish, which is prepared completely differently depending on the season. 

He also incorporates seasonal ingredients into his cooking, with ayu sweetfish being a particular standout in his summer menus.

Reserve your table at Reminiscence.

In the same vein as Reminiscence, Restaurant Cheval Blanc is another excellent option for those craving French cuisine. Itself a recipient of one Michelin star, and a Top 100 in Gault and Millau’s French Restaurants, Cheval Blanc’s reputation comes primarily from the creativity of its head chef Yamamoto Yoshihige. 

Opening Cheval Blanc in 2013 to almost instantaneous critical acclaim, Chef Yamamoto has spent the last decade refining and redefining his culinary technique. While it is firmly rooted in French tradition, with heavy use of locally hunted game and freshly caught seafood, Cheval Blanc’s menu also sees constant revision and incorporation.

Those looking for a meal that will look good on Instagram would also do well to make a reservation; while the ever-changing menu has been revamped countless times, one thing remains constant: the striking plating and presentation of each dish. 

Chef Yamamoto often states that presentation is one of the most important aspects of a dish — “A restaurant’s job is to take time to make something look delicious,” to be precise — and it definitely shows. 

Reserve your table at Restaurant Cheval Blanc.

Often understandably confused with the similarly named Hijikata above, Sushi Hijikata is confusingly unrelated to the kaiseki restaurant. 

However, it might be the case that any chef bearing the name Hjikata must be destined for greatness; in the special edition of the Michelin Guide Aichi-Gifu-Mie 2019, it received two Michelin stars, and prior to that, it was presented with the Tabelog Award in 2017 and 2018.

Located a few blocks northwest of Sakae Station, Sushi Hijikata is a reservation-only sushi restaurant just west of the Chubu Electric Power Mirai Tower, and easily accessible from either Sakae or Sakaemachi Stations. 

As is to be expected for the holder of two Michelin stars, reservations are difficult to make, even with two dedicated services per day; in any given month, the waitlist is at least a dozen people long. That does little to stem the tide. 

Guests from overseas make up a substantial number of applicants, drawn not just by the seafood and skill, but also from the detailed explanation of each course menu that head Chef Hjikata Akira graces his guests with.

Reserve your table at Sushi Hijikata.

There are very few sushi restaurants that can rival Sushi Hijikata in popularity, but Amaki is one of them. Formerly located in the Hisayaodori area of Nagoya, it has since found a new home in the Nagoya Kanko Hotel in May 2024. 

There, it keeps good company with the hotel’s numerous other critically acclaimed restaurants, as a silver medallist in the Tabelog Awards 2023.

Perhaps even more so than Hijikata, Amaki is renowned for its dedication to seafood procured from the nearby Mikawa and Ise Bays. A plain and unadorned wooden counter provides no visual distractions, allowing guests to focus on the magnificent seafood being transformed into flawless nigiri before their eyes.

As is to be expected, however, reservations are difficult to secure — in fact, the only reason why the calendar is comparatively empty is because the move to the Nagoya Kanko Hotel has been fairly recent, so the majority of prospective guests are not yet aware of its new premises. 

Reserve your table at Amaki.

When you think Aichi, you think unagi eel; when you think unagi, you think Unafuji. It’s as simple as that. There are many restaurants — especially in Nagoya — that claim to have the best unagi, but none are quite as recognized as Unafuji. 

Whether Unafuji truly is the best is a matter of personal preference (after all, there is a ludicrous number of unagi specialists), but it is a fact that it is far and away the most recognizable. 

Even without its list of awards — including a mention in the special edition of the Michelin Guide 2019 Aichi-Gifu-Mie, a 4-year consecutive Tabelog Award and three years placing in the Tabelog Top 100 — Unafuji’s reputation is carried far and wide.

Unafuji is particularly notable for using only blue eels, or ao-unagi, which are said to have a lighter, cleaner flavor. Unafuji also claims that its eels are also particularly large, at up to 30% larger than the industry average, making for a particularly meaty serving. 

The success of its initial Nagoya store has resulted in Unafuji spreading all over Japan with outlets as far as Tokyo. Still, there’s nothing quite like getting it at the original, where it all began. 

The hitsumabushi — grilled eel over a bed of rice and eaten four different ways — is a must-try, but unagi fiends who just can’t get enough should also add a few skewers of kabayaki to their order.

Reserve a table at Unafuji.

While not strictly a Nagoya delicacy, ebi-fry (breaded deep-fried shrimp, sometimes ebi-furai) became inextricably linked to the city overnight when a late-night comedian made an offhand comment about how Nagoyans love ebi-fry, and the association instantly stuck.

While you won’t find ebi-fry at Ozashiki Tempura Ayame, you will get the opportunity to try Mikawa Bay’s famous shrimp in the form of tempura — a way of enjoying shrimp that’s just as delicious. The recipient of a Michelin star in the Michelin Guide Aichi-Gifu-Mie 2019, Tempura Ayame is one of the most famous tempura restaurants in the whole city. 

With just six seats, competition to taste this family-run restaurant’s famous tempura is fierce. The majority of the ingredients are chosen from within Aichi Prefecture, and what isn’t is sourced from suppliers that have been vetted by the head chef personally. The kuruma-ebi, or Japanese tiger prawns, are said to be especially delicious and sweet.

Reserve a table at Ozashiki Tempura Ayame.

While you’re hungry for all things Nagoya, find out the best things to do in Nagoya, join a cooking class or discover all the best things to do in Aichi Prefecture (where Nagoya is!).

Here are 15 must-try foods in Nagoya:

1. Miso Katsu
2. Hitsumabushi
3. Kishimen
4. Miso Nikomi Udon
5. Doteni & Doteyaki
6. Miso Oden
7. Tebasaki
8. Ogura Toast
9. Ten-musu
10. Taiwan Ramen
11. Ankake Spaghetti
12. Cochin (Nagoya Chicken)
13. Curry Udon
14. Morning Set
15. Pyorin

Find out all about them in our article of what to eat in Nagoya!

Nagoya is famous for its street food, which you can explore along with byFood host Shizuka Anderson:

Watch the full video.

We also have a selection of the best food tours in Nagoya, allowing a local expert to take you to must-see attractions and hidden gems throughout the city.

Make time to visit some of the best spots in Nagoya, including Nagoya Castle, Atsuta Jingu, the Toyota Museum, and the Tokugawa Art Museum. 

Browse our article of the best things to do in Nagoya and start ticking them off!