Must Eat Foods in Nagoya and Where to Eat Them

One thing I find about Japanese food is that it’s always so visually appealing. To find the best-looking food in Nagoya, you should head over to Nagoya Castle where you can buy what’s known as golden ice cream. It’s actually just vanilla ice cream with an edible gold coating, but as you can imagine, it's super shiny and sparkly and makes for amazing pictures. It’s a little expensive at about nine-hundred yen, but it’s definitely worth it if you ask me - even if you just get it for your Instagram. Believe me when I say that people do this, especially in Japan! When you’re done taking photos, the ice cream actually tastes really good too which is a great bonus (this might sound strange if you’re from the West, but the Instagram food trend is big in Japan!). Then, to top it all off you can enjoy it all by sitting in the garden area outside one of the most beautiful buildings in this area of Japan.

This is a total classic when it comes to Japanese food. Right on your way to Atsuta Shrine is an amazing little restaurant called Sushiro and it’s pretty quickly becoming one of my personal favourite places to eat in Nagoya. I think the whole experience of stacking your plates ten or even twenty high so that you can pay for them at the end is just so exciting. When most people come to Japan and have sushi, they want to have the full experience with the conveyor belt and priced bowls too, which is exactly what you get at Sushiro. Each bowl only costs about one hundred Yen, which is only around one dollar so they’re super cheap too if you’re on a budget. The only downside is that once you start taking bowls of the conveyor belt, you might not be able to stop!

Picture Six: 田中 駿二, Wikipedia

For a true taste of Nagoya, you definitely need to try the ebi fry. All it is a deep-fried shrimp, but it’s the size of them that I can just never believe. They’re honestly about the size of my forearm! This is super, super famous and I’d say it’s probably what Nagoya has become known for across Japan. If you’re looking for where to eat in Nagoya that’s going to give you the most authentic experience, then you should go to the traditional downtown area of Sakae - it’s one of our best neighbourhoods for food and entertainment. This is the crazy entertainment area of the city, so there’s pretty much an endless supply of places to get great food from. The ebi fry is so popular it will be in most places in this part of the city, especially during lunch time because it’s generally seen to be more of a daytime thing.

You might know what Udon noodles are, but Nagoya is special and actually has its own flat version of them. A lot of Japanese people will tell you that this is definitely one of the must eat foods in Nagoya, although for a non-Japanese person like myself, it kind of just tastes the same as regular Udon. As I’ve said before though, Japanese food is so often about the visual element as much as the taste. I’ve been to two places for this food in Nagoya; number one was the beautiful Inuyama Castle. It’s a really special experience to be able to sit outside of a building that was built nearly five-hundred years ago, whilst enjoying one of the city’s most famous foods. The second place I’d recommend is the Atsuta Shrine, which is in a bit more of a central location so you can fit it into any daily itinerary. It probably has less of a queue to get in as well, so you won’t have to wait to get your hands on a tasty bowl of flat Nagoya Udon. 

Here in Nagoya we have little hole-in-the-wall dessert places where you can get traditional Japanese confectionery. My favourite one is Suzume Odori in the traditional Sakae part of downtown. This is probably my favourite place on this entire Nagoya food guide, and it’s purely down to the fact that it’s over one hundred and fifty years old. They have spent years perfecting their craft for making amazing Japanese desserts, and you can really tell. The shaved ice from here is so good - you’ll be coming back multiple times on your trip, I promise. Another great thing about it is that it’s such a hidden gem, so you won’t have to battle the tourists just to get it. Even a lot of Japanese people don’t even know it’s here which is actually kind of sad. Oh well, more shaved iced for us!

Most people in Nagoya like to do something called yaki, which literally translates to fried meat. You can find these all over the city at the side of the roads or in restaurants, although the restaurants can be super small and confined. The two usual types to go for is either yakiniku (fried beef) or yakitori (fried chicken), but it’s the yakiniku that seems to be more popular here. To find where to eat in Nagoya that’s got great yakiniku and yakitori, you should go to a little place in the Ossu area called Kadoya. It’s actually more known for its chicken in here, but I have to say the yakiniku is really good too. Again, this is a super authentic place where hardly any tourists seem to venture.

Hitsumabushi is one of the most unique dishes we have here and it’s definitely one of the must eat foods in Nagoya. I don’t know if fried eel sounds overly appealing to you, but I have to say it’s really good, and that’s coming from an American. The eels are prepared in a very special way which involves slitting the eel open and cooking the whole thing intact. It is then severed simply on top of a bed of sticky rice. The best hitsumabushi Nagoya has to offer can be found inside Atsuta Haroiken jingu, which is just outside of the Atsuta Shrine. I’m not sure how true this is, but apparently at one point this was the only place in Nagoya where you could get Hitsumabushi. Sit inside this beautiful, authentic Japanese space with the plain white walls and mats to sit on the floor with you tasty fried eels. That’s about as truly Nagoya as it gets.