If one had Googled about what to eat in Nagoya, the results will likely include foods like kishimen, cochin chicken, miso nikomi, tebasaki and ogura toast. Did a two-days stay in Nagoya and managed to try some of the local delicacies. This was my second time in Nagoya and the first was just a one-night stay so this time round, extended to another night.
Was travelling solo as Shermaine decided to do her own route hence, we parted ways in Asakusa. The next morning, I took the Shinkansen from Kinshicho to Nagoya. As with JR-Pass, am able to take Shinkansen Hikari which was about 2+ hours to Nagoya.
Stayed at Nagoya Liberty Hotel this time round. About 10 minutes walk to the train station and a rather old-school hotel.
Nagoya Liberty Hotel
room
Now that am all settled in for the accommodation, next would be food. The ESCA underground shopping is just about 6 minutes walk away hence, that became my favourite food destination in Nagoya. That, or Family-Mart or the train station where there's plenty of food as well.
Here are some that were bought from Nagoya train station. There are many wings with different restaurant and food kiosks.
Minomisho JR Nagoya Station (food kiosk)
tamagoyaki and karaage from Minomisho Nagoya Station
lovely rolled egg omelette
The take-away set of rolled egg and karaage was close to ¥700. The karaage was lacklustre because it was rather hard and cold. While the omelette was also cold, it had a nice flavour which was a good balance of savoury and sweet.
Furaibo ESCA 風来坊 エスカ店
Furaibo Tebasaki (Chicken Wings) @ ¥590
small fried wings with salt, pepper and lemon
Furaibo seemed packed during dinner, so did a takeaway since am dining solo. There are options for half a dozen or a dozen wings. Opted for the former and ate in comfort in the hotel. Picked up an apple sochu from convenience store as accompaniment. The wings were small, cold and lacklustre. Hmm, am I missing something here?
Luckily, I had a packet of strawberries bought from the department store. When in Japan, I'd make sure to buy strawberries. But often times, it was scarce since it was not in season. Happy that I found some and it was so juicy and sweet! Yums. It lasted me two nights.
strawberries
いちご
Next installment, let's checkout some Nagoya restaurant food.
It was a quick lunch before heading to Kyoto. In the morning we were exploring Inuyama and returned to Nagoya for lunch and to get our luggage bags before continuing to Kyoto. As usual, we went to find food at JR Central Towers at Nagoya Station. All looked pretty enticing but we were in the mood for some meat. Hard to choose between steakhouse and this BBQ place. In the end, decided to just try Toraji.
We were given window seats but it was so hot, haha! Heat from the grill and heat from the window. Double grilled! The view was overlooking the tracks of the train station. Quite cool.
window seat
Ordered a yakiniku lunch set (S) for ¥1700. It has two prawns and some pieces of beef. For that price, there wasn't any Japanese beef included though. My friend had the Toraji lunch set at ¥2500 and that has Japanese beef.
charcoal grill, yay!
Yakiniku Lunch Set (S)
Was pretty happy with my set. Loved the seaweed soup, the small side salad and the kimchi. So yums. The meat was tasty, well marinated and tender. Lovely and value for money. It doesn't matter if it was not Japanese beef. Still loved it!
close up of the meat
let's get cooking
The meat only needed that quick sear and it was good to eat.
yummy in my tummy
Was surprised that there was dessert included in the meal. All diners got a complimentary ice-cream (like our ice-cream potong) of milk flavour.
ice-cream to end the meal
The service staff was friendly and helpful. The food was good and prices reasonable. Would love to return one day.
Yakiniku Toraji 焼肉トラジ 名古屋セントラルタワーズ店
Location: 〒450-6012 12F JR Central Building, 1-1-4 Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi
Funny how I had compiled a list of restaurants with food to eat before the trip and once there, it was all discarded. Yup, decided to be lazy and just eat around the hotel area or the station area.
But I had a clear idea of what to eat. For Nagoya, that would be hitsumabushi, oyakodon and tebasaki. So we did the grilled eel earlier that day, hence for dinner, we went to the basement food street and found a shop that has oyakodon and tebasaki (and drinks..but that's irrelevant).
menu
I wasn't feeling very hungry so shared the chicken wings with friend who was having the set with oyakodon. Imagine my disbelief when he said he hasn't tried any oyakodon before. I mean, how was that even possible!? Hmm, but I guess it is somewhat possible even in food haven like Singapore.
oyakodon
tebasaki
The chicken wings were nice but they were just fried wings. Think we got the wrong Nagoya wings. Hmm.
But anyways, I ordered a Chita highball. Feeling thirsty after visiting Nagoya Castle earlier that day.
Chita Highball with yuzu @ ¥510
And ordered some yakitori to go along with the drinks. Unfortunately, they ran out of hearts. Never mind, liver will do as well.
pork belly skewer
momo and reba
Tetsuemon てつえもん
Location: JR Nagoya Station Nagoya umaimon street, 1-1-4, Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi, 450-0002 Contact: 052-589-1255 (+81-52-589-1255) Website: https://tabelog.com/en/aichi/A2301/A230101/23058354/ Business Hours:
Our first meal in Nagoya was at this place at the 12th floor of JR Central Towers at Nagoya Station. One of the things that I wanted to try was the Hitsumabushi or grilled eel bowl. Authentic ones, please.
As usual, we were hungry. Hotel was nearby Nagoya Station and we were too tired to go hunt for food. Was walking around and saw the directory for restaurants at the station. Hmm, Din Tai Fung? No thanks. But it was pretty popular amongst the locals there. Steak? Ooh, maybe. Grilled eel? Yes please!
this was how we decided on lunch
So having locked on our target, we went up to recce the restaurant. Thankfully, the queue wasn't too long and so we put our names down and sat quietly awaiting to be called.
Chikuyotei shopfront
Once seated, we were served hot tea and wet towel.
We were quick to decide on the Hitsumabushi lunch course. One could choose amongst two styles; Nagoya or Tokyo style. Friend chose the Nagoya style so I had the Tokyo one. We enquired on what's the difference and was informed that the difference was only in the sauce. Nagoya-styled has sauce glazed onto the eel.
Tokyo-styled Hitsumabushi @ ¥3,640 (incl. tax)
One could read the instructions from the card on the 3-ways of enjoying the Hitsumabushi dish. Or, do it free-style as you like!
can't wait to dig in
I liked the Tokyo style and so did my friend. The Nagoya styled eel had a more crispy exterior and a tad tougher. Mine was all soft and nice. Yummy! But I think mine had more rice, judging from the size of the bowl.
Nagoya-styled Hitsumabushi
eaten with soup
There's sansho peppers powder on the table to jazz up the taste if you think it was a tad too boring. It has a slight numbing effect much like the peppercorn in mala-hotpot so exercise caution!
sansho pepper 山椒
It was a satisfying meal. Made a mental note to try this in Kyoto to check out the difference or simply, to enjoy grilled eel again.
Tokyo Chikuyotei 东京竹叶亭
Location: JR Central Towers 12F, 1-1-4 Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, 450-6012, Japan Website: http://www.chikuyotei.com/nagoya-en.html Tel: +81(52)589-0112 Business Hours:
Lunch: 11:00～15:30 (Last order 15:00)
Dinner: 17:00～23:00 (Last order 21:30)
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