17 Best Restaurants in The Japan Alps and the North Chubu Coast, Japan

This restaurant is famous for its vegetarian shojin ryori (temple food), which it serves up in a 200-year-old building south of the Higashiyama temple area. Set menus change with the seasons and aren't always fully vegetarian; they can include salt-grilled river fish, crispy tempura, handmade soba noodles, or tofu chilled in ice-cold Takayama water. The 12th-generation owner, the English-speaking Sumitake-san, can explain what all the dishes are. You need to book in advance and might want to dress up a bit.

The Akiyoshi chain of yakitori-ya is an institution across the Hokuriku region thanks to its combination of good quality chicken, pork, and beef skewers, low cost, and lively vibe. At the Korinbo branch, you can watch the chefs working at grills that spit fire and smoke while you sit at the counter, and the cooked skewers are unceremoniously laid out in a metal trough for you to eat.

This stately building just outside the gates of Zenko-ji combines a bar, lounge, café, and fantastic Italian restaurant. The rather formal modern dining room offers prix-fixe or à la carte options featuring high-quality local ingredients, while the bar and lounge serve up light meals in elegant surroundings and the café is a little more relaxed. There is no formal dress code, but the restaurant is something you'll feel like dressing smartly for.

Seasonal seafood and regional specialties dominate the menu here, with dishes like wappa-meshi (rice steamed in a wooden box with toppings of salmon, chicken, or crab) making for an inexpensive and excellent lunch and, depending on the season, more elaborate dinner courses including yanagi karei hitohoshi-yaki (grilled flounder), nodo-guro shioyaki (grilled blackthroat seaperch), and buri teriyaki (yellowtail). Inaka-ya is found in the heart of Furumachi, the local eating and drinking district.

In business for more than half a century, this small restaurant in Aikawa specializes in seafood, with excellent sashimi and simmered dishes, but also a local favorite called ikagoro—squid (innards and all) mixed with sliced onions, mushrooms, and miso paste before being sauteed. If you are staying without a meal plan at the Hotel Oosado, just down the coast from central Aikawa, this is a good value option for a local dinner.

The tiled bar and wooden tables are as inviting as the staff of this family-friendly restaurant a few blocks north of Karuizawa Station. The menu is centered on rotisserie chicken, served alongside healthy salads and other dishes using local, seasonal produce. To go with that is a solid selection of wines and local craft beers, as well as soft drinks such as honey and yuzu soda.

As the seasons change, so do the menu options at this kaiseki ryori–focused restaurant set in a Meiji-era villa by the Saigawa River. In spring your meal may include hotaru-ika (firefly squid) and iidako (baby octopus) no larger than your thumbnail; in fall expect matsutake mushrooms to make an appearance. Dinner courses can be very expensive, though lunch offers are more affordable way to experience the refined cuisine. Reservations are essential but can be made online in English.

Here you'll find all kinds of fresh fish, some of which are found only in the Sea of Japan. For easy ordering, opt for a set course and ask for a Niigata sake to go with it; nowhere in Japan does sake better. Marui closes during midafternoon. It's one block off the Furumachi arcade.

At this place in the renowned Kenroku Garden, excellent fish and vegetable dishes have been carefully prepared for nearly 100 years. The prices are still reasonable, and the garden views from the tatami are an added bonus. If you aren't hungry, you could stop by for green tea and sweets.

Slip into this little shop, in business since 1859, for a scoop of delicious sofuto kurimu (soft-serve ice cream) or a cup of tea. You can relax in the small garden in the rear or on benches out front. At the far end of the Tate-machi shopping street, the heavenly scent of roasting green tea leaves wafts out the door. The café is open daily 9:30 to 6:30.

Two blocks before the Chitose-bashi Bridge, this Japanese version of a traditional British pub serves fish-and-chips and pizza along with local Matsumoto beer and rotating craft brews from elsewhere. It's close to Parco department store, between the station and castle.

Seasonal delights like pungent Matsutake mushrooms are packed into the take-out bento (box lunches; from ¥2,000) and more indulgent eat-in courses at this traditional eatery, which has an open-air terrace and a glass-walled interior. A few blocks southwest of Zenko-ji, it's attached to the sake factory and warehouses of the famous distiller Yoshinoya. From 9 to 5 you can tour for free, ending with a sampling of fresh sake.

On the south bank of the Saigawa River close to the Sakura-bashi Bridge, this refined restaurant serves Kaga specialties. Dinner in a private room overlooking the garden is a splurge but worth it. In traditional Japanese style, the meal finishes with rice, pickles, and soup; in autumn the broth is clear, with herbs and a shrimp dumpling. If you want to experience the food without the high price of dinner, lunch sets start at half the cost of dinner. It's a fancy place, so you'll want to dress up a bit, and you'll need a reservation at least three days ahead.

This restaurant's recipes have been passed down over several generations—the house specialty is the superb and inexpensive sansai-ryori, as well as more expensive dishes using highly rated Hida beef. Suzuya is in a traditional Hida-style house, and the wood-beamed dining room has an intimate feel. There's an English menu, and the staff is used to serving foreign guests. From the station turn onto Kokubunji-dori and take a right after five blocks. Lunch is served until 2 pm, and dinner begins at 5.

A short drive from the ferry terminal in Ogi, this three-story building has a fish shop on the ground level and a casual seafood restaurant upstairs serving super-fresh seasonal fish. The restaurant owners sometimes take unscheduled days off, so call in advance to make sure they're open.

The specialty of this tiny restaurant in Omicho Market is kaisendon (海鮮丼), a bowl of rice topped with fresh, raw seafood. The signature kaisendon here, the Noto Fugu Don, combines yellowtail, salmon roe and (potentially lethal if prepared badly) pufferfish, although you could instead opt for tuna, salmon, or other combinations. With only a half-dozen small tables, the restaurant can fill up quickly. If the queue is too long, the budget sushi restaurant next door also gets great reviews from locals.

With a retro vibe, Yume-ya specializes in old-style yakitori (skewered, grilled meat and vegetables). Cozy up to the narrow counter for food and drinks, or sit outside during the warmer months. Little English is spoken by the staff, but the cooks are happy to explain the menu with exaggerated gestures. If it's full, just down the street is a second branch that specializes in a different kind of skewer, kushiage, deep-fried skewers of meat, seafood, vegetables, and even cheese.