A Culinary Trip to Enjoy Wakayama Gourmet: 11 Popular Restaurants for Local Specialties and Regional Dishes

Located in central Wakayama City, Yamatame Shokudo is a restaurant serving chuka soba and set meals. Its specialty is chuka soba, known as Wakayama ramen.
The rich pork bone and soy sauce soup is full of depth, yet the aftertaste is not heavy. It pairs well with the thick noodles and offers a satisfying bite.

Marui Junibancho Branch is a ramen shop serving Wakayama ramen.
It was also featured as a Michelin Plate in Michelin Guide Wakayama 2022.
Its signature menu item is chashu men.
The straight, medium-thick noodles blend with the rich pork bone and soy sauce soup, enhancing both the texture and flavor of the noodles.

Founded in 1953, Wakayama Chuka Soba Ide Shoten has faithfully preserved the flavor created through the trial and error of its founder and second-generation owner, and lines still form there today.
Its soup is rich and mellow with a light finish, creating a taste so distinctive that other shops cannot imitate it.

Kishu Waka Beef Laboratory is located a 4-minute walk from JR Wakayama Station.
This restaurant specializes in Kishu Waka Beef, a branded wagyu from Wakayama.
Kishu Waka Beef is known for its low fat melting point and healthy meat quality that brings out the rich flavor of the lean meat. In the shabu-shabu course, you can enjoy premium short rib and specially selected loin with a variety of condiments.

Meat Dining Kumano is operated by a cooperative made up of local producers and retail and wholesale businesses.
Each cut of meat is prepared to make the most of its characteristics and carefully grilled on custom-made iron plates.
You can enjoy juicy, flavorful meat, with the signature beef skirt steak being especially popular, along with loin steak and diced steak.

Yakiniku Kumano is a yakiniku restaurant in Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture. It serves carefully selected local meats centered on Kumano beef.
The meat is carefully grilled on smokeless roasters to bring out its tenderness and flavor to the fullest.
The popular short rib and loin are mainly made with Japanese black wagyu, and you can also enjoy various cuts of Kumano beef.

A yakiniku restaurant with Approx. 50 years of history, centered on serving Kumano beef.
Kumano beef is praised for the irresistible flavor of its melt-in-your-mouth fat. Because shipment volumes are limited, the restaurant also offers carefully selected Japanese black wagyu from around the country.
Inside, you can choose from counter seats, tables, or tatami seating, depending on your preference.

Located in central Shirahama, Kozushi serves sushi and kaiseki meals made with seasonal seafood caught off the Kishu coast.
It is known for carefully hand-shaping each piece using seasonal seafood delivered directly from local fishing ports.
Its specialty is the seasonal nigiri sushi course.
You can enjoy nigiri made with fresh local fish such as tuna, sea bream, and silver-skinned fish, served one piece at a time.

A long-established restaurant that has carried on its tradition for three generations.
Near Wakayama’s fishing grounds are factories where whitebait can be boiled immediately after landing, allowing the just-caught, plump shirasu to be processed at once without losing freshness.
In addition to kamaage shirasu, the menu also includes raw shirasu, whose freshness is everything, which is a welcome treat.

Founded around 1882, this long-established sushi restaurant is now run by the fourth and fifth generations.
Its signature dish is nare-zushi, a traditional local dish of Kishu.
It is known for its distinctive smell, but the flavor and aroma vary depending on the season and degree of fermentation, so be sure to give this dish, often called the original form of sushi, a try.

Opened in 2018 on the eastern side of Kinokawa at the foot of Mt. Kannonyama, Kannonyama Fruit Parlor Main Store is a fruit parlor run by local fruit farmers.
Its specialty is the Farm Parfait with Seasonal Wakayama Fruits, filled with seasonal fruit grown in Wakayama Prefecture.
The selection of fruit changes with the seasons, with strawberries from winter to spring, peaches and grapes in summer, and persimmons and chestnuts in fall.