Restaurants and Bars

Yokohama has been open to the outside influences of foreigners for longer than any other Japanese city and this shows in the variety of restaurants you can find here. In addition to all types and grades of Japanese cuisine, you can find Chinese, Thai, French, Italian, German, American, Mexican and many more sumptuous varieties besides.

At the top end of the food chain in Japanese restaurants is kaiseki ryori (for example Kishou or Shinakaizumi), in which bottom-end prices start at around JPY5,000. A course consists of up to 15 small dishes that vary according to the season. The typical kaiseki menu includes a good deal of seafood--sashimi, tempura, and grilled fish--as well as small portions of exquisitely prepared vegetables. Next in line are the sushi restaurants (try うおや亭), but be forewarned that the traditional ones can be very expensive. If you want to try sushi, you might be advised to try a kaiten sushi, relatively inexpensive restaurants where plates of sushi move round the counter on a conveyor belt. On a par with sushi are the sukiyaki and shabushabu restaurants, which specialize in meat dishes. Sukiyaki consists of thin slices of beef and vegetables simmered in a sweet sauce, and shabushabu is a form of fondue (thin slices of beef dipped into a sesame- or soy-based sauce). Delicious!

As you move into the realm of more reasonably priced Japanese food, your choice widens enormously. Tempura (deep-fried battered fish and vegetables) is popular with visitors. Try Tenkichi. Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) and katsudon (pork cutlet on a bed of rice) are regular Japanese favorites, especially at lunch time. A set course usually includes salad and miso (bean paste) soup. Noodles are also very popular choices, and they come in many variations, hot or cold, plain or in elaborate presentations. Try some soba (buckwheat noodles), udon (thick rice flour noodles) or somen (cold summer noodles); they all make a great change from the ubiquitous ramen (Chinese egg noodles).

Those who are more adventurous might want to try some of the local dishes that are unique to Japan. In the hot summer months, the Japanese like to eat unagi (e.g., at Wakana), broiled eel in a barbecue sauce on a bed of rice. It is not only delicious but is also reputed to restore the energy that the summer heat drains away. Then there is fugu, or blowfish. This exotic dish, which can be deadly, and is only available in certain licensed restaurants from October to March, is certainly worth trying out at least once.

If you want to experience drinking the Japanese way, go to an izakaya (Japanese-style pub) or akachochin ("red lantern" shop). These traditional drinking establishments are easily recognized, and sometimes misinterpreted, by the red lanterns hanging outside. The experience is well worth it. Not only do you have a great selection of Japanese food and sometimes even Western dishes as well as beer, sake and shochu, a strong clear distilled spirit, but the atmosphere is amazing. These are usually smoky, packed and quite noisy.

Once you have eaten your way through the whole spectrum of Japanese cuisine, you may be ready to try something different. Chinatown, with about 160 restaurants (Peking Hanten, Heichinro and Kaseiro are some examples), is almost synonymous with Yokohama. In fact the Chinese have been here since the settlement was first open to foreigners and their influence is evident almost everywhere in Japan, as can be seen by the number of restaurants serving ramen, nikuman (pork buns) or gyoza (pan-fried mince wraps). Just about every regional Chinese cuisine is represented in Chinatown, including Beijing, Cantonese, Shanghai, Sichuan, Hunan and Taiwanese.

Korean cuisine is also well represented in Yokohama (Kaen). Typical Korean restaurants specialize in yakiniku, grilled meat, in which you order a selection of meat cuts to grill at your table. They also serve seafood and vegetables, so if you are not carnivorous you can still eat in these restaurants. Thai food is increasing in popularity (Erawan), and so are the ethnic restaurants that serve a mixture of mainly Southeast Asian cuisine. Indian restaurants have been part of the culinary landscape of Japan for some time now, especially in Yokohama, which boasts some of the best in the country. Try Khazana, Mr. India or Kandy Street.

There are so many European restaurants in Yokohama that there seems to be one on every corner of every street. Look out for the flags that tell you what cuisine is served. You will see so many French (Le Triomphe, Caravelle), Italian (Domani Italiano, Ricksha Room), Spanish (Isabella), German, Greek (Myconos), Danish and even British (The Tavern) flags that you might think a delegation from the EU is in town. There are also some excellent Middle Eastern and North African restaurants.

If you do not have the time, money or inclination to sit down in a proper restaurant, there are fast food outlets all over town. Just about every burger, fried chicken or pizza chain is present in the city. There are also local fast foods, such as gyudon (beef on a bowl of rice) and oden (a kind of stew with fish cakes, vegetables and seaweed cooked in clear broth), and for those in a real hurry there are tachisoba restaurants in which diners stand at high counters and slurp down bowls of noodles as quickly and as noisily as possible.

When you have eaten more than you can handle and just want to relax with a drink, there are all kinds of drinking opportunities ranging from yatai (street stalls) and chain izakaya to high-class hostess bars that cost a month's wages for a single drink, and everything in between. You can enjoy live music like rock or jazz while sipping a whisky or relax in a top-floor hotel bar lingering over a cocktail and the harbor lights. There are beer halls in shopping malls and beer gardens on rooftops, as well as laid-back cocktail bars where the conversation centers around literature. And, there are wild, raucous joints that serve as pick-up points for the young adult crowd. Enjoy!