Kikkoman Corporation

In this final article in our series on Japan's various dining styles, we introduce the specialty restaurant, where the spotlight is on just one dish. These are restaurants where customers can experience some of the brightest examples of Japanese cuisine.

What comes to mind when you think of Japanese cuisine? Sushi, tempura, yakitori . . . or perhaps soba or udon? Some might think of grilled eel (unagi). In Japan there are many restaurants that serve all of these favorites, but there are also those that specialize in only one, competing among themselves in the quality and taste of a particular dish. Ranked at the top are those exclusive establishments considered the finest restaurants in Japan, famous names whose thresholds few ever have the opportunity to cross.

Humble Beginnings

The origin of the specialty restaurant can be traced back to the simple yatai, or portable stall, which flourished in Edo (present-day Tokyo) about 200 years ago. The yatai served basic foods such as noodles, tempura, unagi or sushi to customers who ate standing at a counter alongside the stall. At sushi stalls, for example, sushi was not so much a meal as a snack, and customers would stand at counters while the sushi-maker sat inside, preparing orders—ironically, the reverse of what is common today, where the sushi chef generally works standing up while the customers are seated. The sushi bar arrangement where chef and customer are in close interaction is unmistakably a legacy of the yatai.

Established specialty restaurants began to appear some time around the mid-nineteenth century. A list of famous unagi restaurants in Edo was printed around 1850 that includes the names of about 200 unagi specialty shops. During the same era, there began to emerge some famous names of sushi and tempura specialty restaurants as well.

Tasteful Specialties

It is perhaps the sushi restaurants that show the greatest range of quality, from the plebeian to the ultra-posh. And these days, sushi is available more cheaply and informally with the advent of kaitenzushi shops, where inexpensive plates of sushi are served on a conveyor belt that revolves around the dining counter. At the other end of the spectrum are sushi restaurants in Ginza where the per-customer charge may be 50,000 yen (US$400) or more.

Sushi restaurants in general may serve other dishes, but most offer only sashimi appetizers in addition to the sushi. Throughout Japan, sushi chefs make standard nigiri-zushi (the so-called Edo-mae style, where slices of raw fish or other ingredients are pressed onto a ball of rice) as well as chirashi-zushi, sushi rice served in a box topped with a mixture of fish, shredded omelet and other toppings.

Like sushi bars, many tempura restaurants have a counter where customers are served directly by the chef. More upscale establishments offer o-zashiki tempura, where guests relax in private tatami rooms and eat tempura that has been prepared in a corner of the room. This particular type of restaurant also serves sashimi and other dishes meant to accompany beer and sake. The ingredients for tempura include seafood such as shrimp, conger eel (anago) and flathead (kochi), as well as eggplant, onion and other root vegetables in season. It is common for ingredients of more than ten types to be served, one after another, and the best way to eat them is piping hot.

When it comes to unagi, there is always a choice to be made between Kansai and Kanto styles. Kanto-style unagi is grilled briefly without flavoring. It is then steamed, dipped in a mixture of mirin and soy sauce and grilled again, producing a tender, light-textured dish. Kansai-style unagi is grilled on an open flame without steaming; the skin of the eel is tougher but the flavor is rich. Both styles have their followers, but Kanto-style unagi has recently become the overwhelming favorite.

At some unagi restaurants, one can enjoy unagi grilled without sauce (shirayaki) or as an ingredient in other dishes, but the unaju method of serving eel on a bed of hot rice is by far the most popular. This style was originally devised to keep the unagi warm for home deliveries; these days, this is less of a concern as unagi is most often grilled to order and eaten in restaurants. Ultimately, however, this combination of unagi together with rice—flavored by the sauce that trickles down into it—has made unaju a hands-down favorite.

Another popular dish of specialty restaurants is soba or buckwheat noodles. In fact, with the possible exception of sushi restaurants, soba shops account for the largest number of specialty restaurants in Japan. Soba shops frequently offer donburi-mono (meals served on rice in large bowls) and udon (wheat noodles) as well, but soba-only shops are actually increasing in number.

Soba is served in one of two ways: hot kakesoba in a bowl of flavored soup, or cold zarusoba on a bamboo draining mat, eaten after dipping in cup of flavored broth. Soba noodles served in soup may be topped with tempura or other ingredients, but cold noodles are served plain or with tempura on the side. Soba is such a very simple and popular dish in Japan that it has not evolved as the specialty of any of the more exclusive restaurants.

Besides restaurants that specialize in tempura, sushi, unagi and soba, there are those that feature more arcane foods such as tofu and fugu(blowfish). Some grill up only yakitori; others—while perhaps not considered strictly "Japanese cuisine"—focus on yakiniku (grilled meat).

Finally, there are shojin ryori restaurants, where the menu features neither fish nor meat. A type of vegetarian cuisine, shojin ryori is the tradition of cooking in observance of Buddhist teachings that forbid the taking of life. In these days of health-conscious living, many have come to enjoy shojin ryori, even if they are not Buddhists.

Author's Profile

Isao Kumakura was born in Tokyo in 1943. He taught at Tsukuba University from 1978 to 1992, and then held the position of Professor of Japanese Culture at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka. Since 2004, he has been director of the Hayashibara Museum of Art, Okayama. Among his many publications are Tea in Japan and The History of Japanese Food.