3 Best Restaurants in Hagi, Western Honshu

Imagine a kappo (fine dining) course that includes squid and scallops cooked before you with butter on a sizzling-hot river stone and such goodies as fugu—served as sashimi or cooked tempura-style—stuffed with foie gras. Zingy homemade pickles reset your palate for each successive treat. Women beautifully dressed in formal wear serve you in a classically elegant manner, and off to the right of the intimate 10-seat counter are views of a mossy green and flowery window garden. All seating is Japanese style, and no English menu is available. Cheaper lunch options are also available. 

Colorful local characters come to this casual restaurant for beer and sake and seiro-soba (thin buckwheat noodles served in steaming-hot baskets) and hot tempura served on fragrant handmade cypress trays. The restaurant is usually open by 11 am (or when the noodles are ready), but it closes at 6 (or when all the noodles are gone), so only a very early dinner is possible here.

Set-menu courses at this reliable and popular traditional restaurant typically offer a variety of fish, mountain vegetables, miso soup, and steamed rice. Nakamura has tatami and Western seating, but no English-language menu. You can select your food from the tempting window display. Reservations are accepted and recommended for larger parties.