15 Foods you Have to Eat in Japan

How this list was created

OMAKASE writers developed this list based on their own experiences and glowing recommendations from others visiting Japan. We’ve intentionally skipped foods like unagi and oden, which have seasonal connotations and might be harder to find during certain parts of the year. These foods, sweets, and snacks are the most essential and exciting components of Japanese cuisine. Make a checklist and see how many of these Japanese foods you can pack into your Japan trip.

Ichiban Dashi

Dashi is one of the most essential components in Japanese food, earning its place at the top of this list. At kaiseki restaurants such as Kiyama in Kyoto or Tokyo Washoku Club in Roppongi, a small dish of dashi broth is served as part of the course. At other spots, like the Okaka shabu shabu chain, dashi becomes the main event.

Dashi can be made of seaweed, mushrooms, and many varieties of seafood, most commonly bonito. The wide range of flavors and subtle differences across uses and regions helps to build an appreciation for the essence of Japanese food. Premium, aged ingredients can become a delicious dashi in seconds, with no additional salt or seasoning – just water. Its versatility makes it easy to see how this simple soup has become such an integral part of Japanese cuisine.

Soba

During the Edo period, traveling soba vendors satisfied the cravings and rumbling stomachs of the people of old Tokyo. In Tokyo, a two-part flour, eight-part buckwheat blend is the most common type of soba, with 100% buckwheat noodles sometimes being named inaka (countryside) soba due to their more rustic flavor and texture.

Soba is served warm or cold, with broth (called tsuyu) poured on top or served on the side for dipping. It continues to be a quick staple meal people turn to again and again. Nearly every train station has a quick-service soba vendor, but these noodles have found elevated status at venues like Juu-go in Kyoto. Here, diners experience the gamut of buckwheat’s possibilities while feeling the respect of the soba master chef for his chosen medium.

Gyudon

Like soba, gyudon is a comforting dish that Japanese people eat all times of day. Schoolchildren pull up on bikes after school for an early dinner and exhausted workers slump over steamy bowls at 2am. A good gyudon is satisfyingly simple and filling, but not too heavy. Thin slices of beef marinated or stir fried in a sweet and savory soy sauce base get a boost from soft onions and hot rice. 

Chain restaurants serving gyudon are open 24 hours. Most regulars have their favorite arrangement of toppings, sides and meat-to-rice ratio. If sandwiches and chips/fries are the everyman fast food of the west, gyudon is the humble blue collar meal of Japan. Take your trip as an opportunity to discover your own perfect gyudon bowl.

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a famous food from Osaka, representative of the area’s flour-based food culture. Along with takoyaki and panko-breaded kushiage, Okonomiyaki has become a world-wide favorite. The name literally means “as you like it grill.” Okonomiyaki are thick, pancake-like cakes made from an egg-flour-cabbage batter, with a variety of mix-ins and toppings.

Okonomiyaki is both food and experience, with many restaurants inviting diners to try their hand at mixing the batter and grilling it on the hot tabletop (hibachi/teppan style) by themselves. While pork belly is one of the most popular mix-ins, okonomiyaki can be prepared vegetarian or pescatarian. It’s a local food that melds to the needs of diners and bridges cultures with its unique flour-base and Japanese flavor.

Tempura

Tempura was one of the first foods to be popularized during the Edo period, which stretched through the 17-1800’s. As people flocked to the capital of Edo and the non-ruling classes found financial empowerment, indulgent foods like tempura and unagi became popular. Tempura is a simple food, just ingredients battered and fried.

Tempura likely traces back to the first Portuguese influence in Japan. Its light, crispy batter is carefully temperature controlled and finicky — but premium tempura is an unforgettable experience. Equally delicious with fish or vegetables, modern tempura restaurants get creative with novel ingredients while iterating on tradition. For a taste of exquisite modern tempura, try Ten Masa.

Ekiben

Any traveler going long distances in Japan will likely experience a ride on the Shinkansen, Japan’s high-speed bullet train. They may be surprised to find that these trains don’t have drink or snack services. If you’re thinking about being on a train for 3 or 4 hours and wondering “What am I going to eat?”ekiben holds the answer.

Ekiben are pre-made bento boxes (or any kind of packed lunch) sold in major train stations. They feature a wide range of ingredients, from chilled sushi ekiben to self-heating wagyu ekiben and some even served in collectible pottery. The first train lunch was a simple ham and cheese sandwich, but now ekiben have expanded to feature regional ingredients that represent the places you can go while eating them. They are a fun tradition to make long journeys more exciting.

Wagyu

Any traveler that likes food has to try wagyu at least once. Domestic wagyu includes branded beef like Kobe and Matsusaka-gyu, both delicious and reared to strict standards. Teppanyaki and yakiniku restaurants serve much of the best wagyu, but premium cuts of razor-thin steak can also be enjoyed as shabu shabu for lower prices. Teppanyaki restaurants, while now ubiquitous, were invented in the 1960s as a way to satisfy inbound visitors with premium steak and hearty grilled meals. Venues like Sekishintei in the Hotel New Ohtani are still some of the best places to enjoy premium wagyu.

Yakiniku is best enjoyed with a group, where members can take turns grilling marbled beef, pork, and chicken as they enjoy Korean-inspired side dishes like kimchi, choregi salad, and chilled noodles. At high end yakiniku venues, staff expertly grill and season each morsel to perfection, bringing out the best of this live-cooking feast.

Daifuku

Daifuku, often just called “mochi” overseas, are a beloved and simple wagashi. Daifuku are traditionally made from red bean paste wrapped in gyuhi, the mochi “skin” made of pounding and stretching glutinous rice. Despite the name, it’s typically gluten free. Mochi itself can be made into many things, including cute dango on a stick and warm, savory grilled rice cakes like isobe mochi.

Ichigo-daifuku, strawberry-stuffed-daifuku are a favorite sweet found at festivals and wagashi shops around the country. Nowadays, daifuku take many forms – they may be stuffed with ice cream or flavored white bean paste, whipped cream and fruit, and even peanuts! While this sweet has made it around the world, Japan’s traditional daifuku are a must-try.

Sushi

Sushi is a bit of a no-brainer, but it’s an essential element of Japanese food culture. Sushi is often considered celebratory and saved for special occasions, such as holidays, when chirashi-sushi and temaki parties bring people together to cook and eat together. Casual kaiten sushi restaurants are often filled with friends and families.

At the other end of the spectrum are the prim, almost austere sushi counters that are featured in media and literature, such as Jiro’s famous restaurant and Sushi Saito. While the current “sushi boom” has made some seats increasingly difficult to book, fine sushi can be found around the country. Even among Michelin-starred sushi venues, there are still a few more hidden gems, like Sushidoko Kurosugi Shinkan, whose lower media buzz makes them an ideal sushi experience without the fight.

Yakitori

Like ichiban dashi, yakitori is a cuisine that thrives on simplicity. Doing more with less, and more on the back end, before a piece of food ever meets the heat. Yakitori, simply meaning grilled chicken, is a shockingly noble craft that relies on the chef to carefully control live flames, knife and skewering work, and even down to the farms that raise their chickens. 

High-end yakitori restaurants offer guests a chance to experience small plates of otsumami and drinks as they enjoy the delicious simplicity of grilled chicken. Depending on the season, different cuts are served, including the elusive chouchin. Some dining experts say that a chef’s mastery of the tsukune - a chicken meatball on a skewer - is the ultimate test of quality yakitori. 

If you’ve tried...

If you’ve already had many of Japan’s classic dishes, check out this list of food to widen your culinary repertoire. From craveable side dishes to deep bites of culture, these leveled up Japanese foods are the connoisseur’s best kept secrets.

If you’ve had tonkatsu, try menchikatsu

Tonkatsu, panko-breaded and fried cuts of pork, are an accessible and filling meal best enjoyed at dedicated tonkatsu specialists like Narikura or old-fashioned Tonkatsu Tonki in Meguro. However, if given the chance, dive in a little deeper with menchikatsu.　Menchikatsu is not as common as hire-katsu (loin) and roast-kastu (roast) but it is an unforgettable explosion of soft, juicy pork hidden beneath a perfectly crunchy outside.

Menchikatsu are patties made from ground pork, sometimes with onions and spices or breadcrumbs mixed in, that are dredged and coated just like traditional tonkatsu. If you’re lucky, you may be able to order it as a side, though some restaurants serve dedicated menchikatsu meals.

If you’ve had souffle pancakes, try kashipan

Maybe you’ve already waited in line outside of Amam Decotan and stuck your fork into their impossibly tender, cloud-esque souffle pancakes. But have you explored the great wide world of kashipan (pronounced kah-shee pahn)? From melon-pan to cream-pan and red-bean stuffed anpan, the soft bread, sweet fillings, and charming shapes of kashipan make them timelessly popular snacks.

While all of these kashipan can be found at your average convenience store, bakeries like Boulangerie Sudo and Kyoto’s SIZUYAPAN offer a notch above pre-packaged and factory produced snacks. Almost every local bakery in Japan will have their own take on melon-pan, cream-pan, and an-pan, so take a moment to stop in and try them while traveling around the country.

If you’ve had Japanese curry, try spice curry

Now that curry is available in chain stores across Japan and has even been popularized abroad thanks to brands like GOGO curry, plenty of visitors will come to Japan already having tasted Japanese curry. If not, it’s usually one of their earliest meals. However, Japan’s devotion for curry actually goes much deeper than the Indo-european brown-roux curry served with fried foods and cheese. 

If you want to get to the heart of Japan’s modern curry culture, you have to immerse in the minutia of spice curry – the hand-made roux, achaar pickles and fragrant rice that take on an artisan quality in dedicated hands. Traveling chefs like Wadashi curry stoke their fanbases on social media, while long beloved hidey holes like Hatsukoi curry in Shibuya wait for people to stumble upon them.

If you’ve had ramen, try chuuka-soba

Anyone who knows ramen knows that the chef’s personal tastes are as important to these noodles’ artistry as any fine dining restaurant. It’s how brands like Afuri and Mensho have exploded in popularity while tiny hole-in-the-walls win recognition by the Michelin guide. Ramen is absolutely a food travelers need to try when coming to Japan, but it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the variety – miso, tonkotsu, shoyu, shio, niboshi, ie-kei, tori paitan, then the tsukemen dipping-noodle versions of all of these...the list goes on and on.

For true ramen fans, a step back in time to the humble Chinese origins of ramen will bring them to chuuka-soba (pronounced choo-kah soba), the mother of modern ramen. These soy-sauce based bowls of ramen are a simple, warming dish that contains all the key components of ramen. If you’ve been through all the varieties and still struggle to understand the meaning of these globally renowned noodles, look to chuuka-soba.

If you’ve had onigiri, try tamago-kake-gohan

Onigiri are just as much a soul food as a quick snack. These fist-sized balls of rice contain the heart and flavor of the nation, and are available at devoted specialty purveyors and convenience stores. They’re even endorsed by Shohei Ohtani. But chances are that they’ve been checked off of the “must-try-food” list pretty early into your Japanese food journey.

In that case, try tamago-kake-gohan, the breakfast staple enjoyed by millions around the country. The ingredients are simple, warm rice and raw egg. Thanks to the unique sanitization process Japanese eggs undergo, they are generally safe to eat raw. With this use in mind, farmers carefully raise their stock with ingredients like wine or color-enhancing shrimp, developing eggs to suit all kinds of yolk-lovers. Best of all, TKG can be enjoyed at a hotel breakfast buffet as easily as at a specialty restaurant.