Restaurant: Yumeri / ゆめり
Neighborhood: Kanazawa behind the Rifare Building / 金沢市 リファレビルの後ろ
Style: Japanese / 和食
Website: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/ajiraku/yumeri/
My friend Yasuko had suggested two places right away to eat.
Itaru was the first, but Yumeri was the second, and on my last night in Kanazawa
I managed to get reservations here (which are always suggested, it's quite
often booked). Just like you would hope, my last meal in Kanazawa was
the very best!
Yumeri was started by a chef who previously trained at Itaru, so it also
is a Japanese restaurant emphasizing seafood.
Accordingly, for the third night in a row we started out with the
sashimi moriawase, and it was the capper of all the great sushi I had
in Kanazawa (and once again the buri was probably the single best).
We followed that up with quite a variety of other seafood, based
mostly on the chef's recommendations, and every single dish was fantastic.
The atmosphere here is generally more upscale than Itaru or Hirosaka-tei and the prices are also somewhat higher;
although we didn't have much to drink it still came to over 6000 yen per person.
Still, it was a great deal for a sumptuous meal.
Yumeri is very conveniently located if you're around the station area.
Follow the main road heading SE away from the station, and in less than
five minutes you'll come to a huge building called Rifare; Yumeri is on the
street behind Rifare. There's no particular English menu or English speakers
here, so be sure to have a Japanese speaker with you (especially so you can
ask the chef about tonight's recommendations!).
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Great Eating in Kanazawa, Part 3 of 4
Restaurant: Mojo Cafe / Kopi Gallery
Neighborhood: Near Kenrokuen in Kanazawa / 金沢市、兼六園に近い
Style: Western-style Coffeeshop
Website: None but there's a tabelog or the owner's blog
Quite different from the very Japanese food I was eating in the evening was the pleasant afternoons at Cafe Mojo. I wish there was a cafe like this in my neighborhood in Tokyo!
Cafe Mojo is a very mellow coffeeshop. It's shockingly large for a Japanese business, with open-plan seating featuring a lot of overstuffed chairs and couches. The coffee is very good, but the clear winner here is the scones: real homemade, crumbly scones served with clotted cream and organic jam. The Queene Anne in Victoria doesn't really do it any better than this!
The cafe also has free WiFi, which is rare in Japan, so this cafe is a definite must-go place for the traveler. The owner (who is usually the sole employee) speaks perfect English, and the menu is largely bilingual anyway, so a lot of the local foreigner community will stop by here in the afternoon if they can.
This cafe is an easy 5-minute walk from Kenrokuen Garden Ishikawa-mon, but it's not labelled with a big sign. If you have Google Maps here's a link; otherwise, when you come out of Ishikawa-mon, walk down the hill to the large intersection, cross the street to the police box, and walk around the left side of the police box and up the street. The cafe is just after a parking lot on the right, and from the outside it looks like a retail store or something.
This is a lunch + afternoon sort of place, open Wed-Sun 11am-5pm.
Neighborhood: Near Kenrokuen in Kanazawa / 金沢市、兼六園に近い
Style: Western-style Coffeeshop
Website: None but there's a tabelog or the owner's blog
Quite different from the very Japanese food I was eating in the evening was the pleasant afternoons at Cafe Mojo. I wish there was a cafe like this in my neighborhood in Tokyo!
Cafe Mojo is a very mellow coffeeshop. It's shockingly large for a Japanese business, with open-plan seating featuring a lot of overstuffed chairs and couches. The coffee is very good, but the clear winner here is the scones: real homemade, crumbly scones served with clotted cream and organic jam. The Queene Anne in Victoria doesn't really do it any better than this!
 |
| From Kanazawa Jan 2012 |
The cafe also has free WiFi, which is rare in Japan, so this cafe is a definite must-go place for the traveler. The owner (who is usually the sole employee) speaks perfect English, and the menu is largely bilingual anyway, so a lot of the local foreigner community will stop by here in the afternoon if they can.
This cafe is an easy 5-minute walk from Kenrokuen Garden Ishikawa-mon, but it's not labelled with a big sign. If you have Google Maps here's a link; otherwise, when you come out of Ishikawa-mon, walk down the hill to the large intersection, cross the street to the police box, and walk around the left side of the police box and up the street. The cafe is just after a parking lot on the right, and from the outside it looks like a retail store or something.
This is a lunch + afternoon sort of place, open Wed-Sun 11am-5pm.
Great Eating in Kanazawa, Part 2 of 4
Restaurant: Hirosaka-tei / ヒロサカ亭
Neighborhood: Katamachi in Kanazawa / 金沢市片町
Style: Izakaya
Website: http://www.hirosaka.com/index1.html
The second day I explored off on my own. There actually is a very nice Kanazawa page on Wikitravel which is a good read if you're heading there. I picked Hirosaka-tei out of the mid-range section and checked it out.
It was another great night of eating! The highlights here were the sashimi moriawase (again) and the tempura. The place doesn't have an English menu but the owner speaks excellent English having lived in the US for many years, so if you don't speak Japanese feel free to go here but be sure to sit at the counter where the owner can help you out himself.
I continued trying the local nihonshu here with Kagatobi / 加賀鳶, a nice medium-dry sake with a lot of fruitiness.
Hirosaka-tei is just a touch cheaper than Itaru, at about 4000 to 4500 yen per person. The (weeknight) when I was there, it wasn't busy so I had a great time chatting with the owner and waitress in Japanese.
Neighborhood: Katamachi in Kanazawa / 金沢市片町
Style: Izakaya
Website: http://www.hirosaka.com/index1.html
The second day I explored off on my own. There actually is a very nice Kanazawa page on Wikitravel which is a good read if you're heading there. I picked Hirosaka-tei out of the mid-range section and checked it out.
It was another great night of eating! The highlights here were the sashimi moriawase (again) and the tempura. The place doesn't have an English menu but the owner speaks excellent English having lived in the US for many years, so if you don't speak Japanese feel free to go here but be sure to sit at the counter where the owner can help you out himself.
I continued trying the local nihonshu here with Kagatobi / 加賀鳶, a nice medium-dry sake with a lot of fruitiness.
Hirosaka-tei is just a touch cheaper than Itaru, at about 4000 to 4500 yen per person. The (weeknight) when I was there, it wasn't busy so I had a great time chatting with the owner and waitress in Japanese.
Great Eating in Kanazawa, Part 1 of 4
Restaurant: Itaru / いたる
Neighborhood: Kanazawa, near Kenrokuen and the 21st Century Museum / 金沢市
Style: Izakaya with emphasis on Seafood
Website: http://www.itaru.ne.jp/
Many years ago, I studied Japanese in Kanazawa. I've been there in the spring, summer, and fall, but I'd never been there in winter to see the famous Kenrokuen Gardens covered in snow. Just before my new job starts, I made a quick trip to see them (and indeed it was gorgeous).
However, the other advantage of going to the Hokuriku region in winter is getting to eat great food! Food in Kanazawa is always great, but winter is the best time for seafood and so I had three great days of eating out in Kanazawa.
My friend Yasuko suggested Itaru as the first place to try in Kanazawa. Itaru is very popular among locals, so reservations are a good idea; you'll frequently be turned away even on a weeknight without them. It's easy to get here either by walking, or by taxi (unlike Tokyo, taxis in Kanazawa are not too expensive); just tell the driver "itaru honten".
Itaru is the familiar open-kitchen, counter-oriented izakaya format, and the food has a special emphasis on seafood but encompasses the full range you'd expect from a high-end izakaya. This is a Japanese restaurant, so having a Japanese speaker in the group is essential.
Some of the highlights here the night I went were the sashimi moriawase, which of course included the Buri that hokuriku is well-known for in winter (in fact, I ate delicious buri sashimi every night I was in Kanazawa), Shirako (look it up), and grilled buri. Everything here was really good, and as with most Japanese restaurants, it's a good bet to ask the chef what's good tonight and order that.
We had a toriaezu beer but after that moved on to Nihonshu, there was a delightful dry sake but I forgot to note the name!
A lot of food and a generous amount of sake at Itaru still only came out to about 5000 yen per person, great food value.
Neighborhood: Kanazawa, near Kenrokuen and the 21st Century Museum / 金沢市
Style: Izakaya with emphasis on Seafood
Website: http://www.itaru.ne.jp/
Many years ago, I studied Japanese in Kanazawa. I've been there in the spring, summer, and fall, but I'd never been there in winter to see the famous Kenrokuen Gardens covered in snow. Just before my new job starts, I made a quick trip to see them (and indeed it was gorgeous).
However, the other advantage of going to the Hokuriku region in winter is getting to eat great food! Food in Kanazawa is always great, but winter is the best time for seafood and so I had three great days of eating out in Kanazawa.
My friend Yasuko suggested Itaru as the first place to try in Kanazawa. Itaru is very popular among locals, so reservations are a good idea; you'll frequently be turned away even on a weeknight without them. It's easy to get here either by walking, or by taxi (unlike Tokyo, taxis in Kanazawa are not too expensive); just tell the driver "itaru honten".
Itaru is the familiar open-kitchen, counter-oriented izakaya format, and the food has a special emphasis on seafood but encompasses the full range you'd expect from a high-end izakaya. This is a Japanese restaurant, so having a Japanese speaker in the group is essential.
Some of the highlights here the night I went were the sashimi moriawase, which of course included the Buri that hokuriku is well-known for in winter (in fact, I ate delicious buri sashimi every night I was in Kanazawa), Shirako (look it up), and grilled buri. Everything here was really good, and as with most Japanese restaurants, it's a good bet to ask the chef what's good tonight and order that.
We had a toriaezu beer but after that moved on to Nihonshu, there was a delightful dry sake but I forgot to note the name!
A lot of food and a generous amount of sake at Itaru still only came out to about 5000 yen per person, great food value.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)