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Eating in Shikoku can be a surprisingly cosmopolitan experience. Matsuyama offers the widest variety of cuisines, everything from French to Indian. Takamatsu is another foodie haven, with many bistros, cafés, and izakaya pubs in and around the shopping arcades. Kochi and Tokushima have fewer foreign restaurants, but small Japanese eateries here serve local specialties. In the main cities some restaurants stay open late, but in smaller towns most places close by 8 pm.
Located near the Art House Project in Honmura, Aisunao is known for its healthy and predominantly vegetarian lunches, although you can also stop just for ice cream, sweets, and soft drinks. Diners sit on raised tatami mats overlooking a garden of a traditional Japanese guesthouse. It's the perfect place to recharge your batteries between exploring the various art sites of Naoshima.
This delightful café-restaurant sits just south of the main drag between Harimaya-bashi and the castle. Choose a table by the window and people-watch on the cobbled lane, or head indoors to the quirky third-floor dining area. The cake, incidentally, is excellent.
This rustic restaurant at the bottom of the steps to the shrine has been making sanuki udon noodles since the late 1950s. The local soul food of Kagawa Prefecture, these chewy wheat noodles can be enjoyed in a hot broth or with a chilled dipping sauce and ordered with sides such as shrimp tempura.
Connected to a small gallery a few doors down from the I ♥ Yu baths in Miyanoura, this rickety looking restaurant serves up traditional, simple teishoku set meals for lunch. With the classic combo of rice, miso soup, and pickles, expect super-fresh sashimi and other seafood options. When the weather is nice, enjoy your meal on the restaurant's wooden terrace. The restaurant is often closed on weekdays (except for Friday), but it sometimes opens on other days.
This lively café brews some of the best single-origin coffee in Matsuyama, but you can also get decaf, lattes, and frozen drinks. If you have a sweet tooth, there are Japanese-style crêpes stuffed with fruit and cream.
Locals take fierce pride in Kagawa's culinary specialty, sanuki-udon noodles, traveling distances that defy common sense to sample the ones served at this restored riverside house at the base of Shikoku Mura. Stop here for lunch and enjoy the rustic waterwheel (it closes early at 5:30). If you're with a party of three or more, choose the family-size noodle barrel for the most bang for your slurping buck. Or to elevate simple slurping to something more decadent, opt for noodles with a topping of shrimp tempura. Either way, you'll eat well for less than ¥1,000.
In Hyogo-machi, the northern part of Takamatsu's warren of arcades, Yoridorimidori is one of those places locals tell you to go to try Takamatsu soul food. It doesn't disappoint. The specialty is honetsukidori, grilled garlicky chicken thigh on the bone. Staff suggest trying both types, the young chicken and the mature chicken, the first of which is superbly tender under its crispy skin, the latter firmer but more flavorful. Also on the menu is a selection of izakaya staples, plus sake and beer to wash it all down with. It's worth getting here early or having your hotel book a table, as it fills up quickly.
