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Japan’s Hokuriku region really is a foodie paradise most tourists haven’t caught onto yet.

Close to the Sea of Japan, rich in produce, and best of all, delicious without being expensive. Go to Takayama for meat, go to Toyama for seafood.

Toyama is genuinely a fascinating place — slow-paced, unhurried. Conveyor-belt sushi and izakayas are everywhere; walk into any random spot and you’ll find sashimi platters, seafood rice bowls, or robatayaki on the menu.

It’s also a paradise for sake lovers — top sake brands Masuizumi and IWA 5 are both based in Toyama Prefecture.

Don’t assume a city is far just because there’s no direct flight.

Here’s an example — say your home is near Beijing’s 3rd Ring Road.

Leaving from home in Beijing, it takes roughly 8 hours to reach a hotel in central Tokyo.

Reaching a hotel in central Toyama only adds about 2.5 hours on top of that. If everything goes smoothly, you’d even have an hour to spare — enough to grab an ekiben boxed lunch at Tokyo Station, then have a drink at the in-station sake bar, Hasegawa Sake Shop. You could even bring a bottle onto the train and pass the two-hour Shinkansen ride with it.

Eat and drink your way there, and you’ve arrived.

Sounds like you could leave right now, doesn’t it?

This piece covers a Toyama trip, roughly 4-5 days including travel there and back.

2 kaiseki restaurants, 2 sushi restaurants (including 1 to avoid), 1 Western-style restaurant, 1 dessert shop, and 2 drinking spots.

Listed in order of Tabelog rating within the article. Scroll to the end for the full list.

Hope everyone has a great time with this guide in hand — eat well without gaining weight.

✦ • ✦

L’ évo (レヴォ) | Western-style

Tabelog 4.55 ¥22,000 ++

Reservations via Tablecheck

Every city’s restaurants have a bit of their own character — the top-ranked restaurant in Toyama Prefecture on Tabelog is, of all things, a farmhouse restaurant.

And of course, it’s also: a Tabelog Gold Award restaurant, two Michelin stars, and #69 on Asia’s 50 Best… etc.

Conger eel

Ribbonfish (beltfish)

The restaurant stands entirely on its own, built deep in the mountain forest, reachable only by bus or taxi. Yet diners from around the world consider it a must-visit restaurant in Hokuriku.

No need to worry about getting there though — the restaurant can help arrange a taxi, about 1hr20min from Toyama.

Firefly squid

Soft-shell turtle

Compared to a restaurant, this feels more like a food-exploration base tucked in the mountains, doubling as a museum of modern Toyama craft.

All the restaurant’s ingredients and tableware come from within Toyama itself.

Yet the chef is actually from Osaka — so as an outsider chef without formal local training, every ‘product of Toyama’ used in the restaurant was something Chef Taniguchi worked out bit by bit on his own. It says a lot about his love for Toyama.

Daimon somen noodles

Tilefish

Taken as a whole meal, compared to city restaurants’ intense, insistent way of expressing the chef’s own philosophy, L’ évo turns its gaze more gently toward ‘the gifts of Toyama’s nature’ — every dish’s star ingredient and seasoning carries something distinctly local.

The cooking doesn’t look particularly showy on the surface, but the wood-fire cooking alone is already a serious test of a kitchen’s skill level.

Suckling pig

Kuromoji (spicebush) skewer

This meal left a strong impression —

This is a flavor you can only get in Toyama Prefecture, at L’ évo.

Full dining record here → L’ évo

✦ • ✦

御料理 ふじ居 | Kaiseki

Tabelog 4.32 ¥30,250 ++

Reservations via Pocket Concierge

On the north side of Toyama city near the sea, right next to Masuizumi’s sake brewery — famously Toyama’s eternal runner-up.

Two Michelin stars, Tabelog Silver Award, formerly #2 in Hokuriku, currently #2 within Toyama Prefecture.

But speaking seriously about kaiseki, ふじ居 is unquestionably Toyama’s best.

Snow crab meatball, tofu, myoga ginger

Head chef Fujii trained at a culinary school in Tokyo, then spent 11 years training at ‘Nihon Ryori Zeniya’ in Kanazawa and ‘Ajishita’ in Kyoto’s Gion district — a résumé that spells out ‘excellence’ in bold letters.

The restaurant’s whole concept is also steeped in Toyama pride and a sense of luxury —

using water from Masuizumi’s own brewery cellar to make Toyama’s seasonal cuisine.

Lotus root, flounder

Red snow crab claw, crab miso

Hassun | fig with sesame oil, pear-wrapped ham, kochia seed puff

Salmon roe, chestnut, rolled egg, taro

The menu changes with the season, priced anywhere from ¥30,000 to ¥120,000, with Masuizumi + IWA5 offered as a full pairing throughout the meal.

Overall, 御料理 ふじ居 radiates tradition and specialization through and through. Every detail carries the chef’s dedication and focus, and the entire meal is strung together by a high concentration of umami — absolutely worth experiencing with full attention.

Grilled Japanese sea bass (suzuki)

Ayu sweetfish rice pot

Full dining record here → Toyama Kaiseki chapter

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SOTO | Sushi

Tabelog 3.82 🍣22,000 + 🍶4,000

Reservations via Pocket Concierge

Ceviche | red sea bream, squid, botan shrimp

Bonito

Flagging this up front — this is the ‘avoid’ place mentioned at the start.

Not recommended, and I personally won’t be going back.

As far as Toyama sushi goes, SOTO was actually on our radar for a long time before this trip.

A background rooted in a sushi family, 32 years of overseas experience in New York and Houston — chef Sotohiro Kosugi, already 63 years old. With Michelin two stars earned in both New York and Toyama, this meal came with high expectations.

Octopus leg

Flounder

Dinner was 12 sakana (drink-pairing dishes) + 10 sushi pieces, with an optional 10-dish drink pairing for an extra ¥4,000.

The value for money on the food-and-drink combo is exceptionally high.

White shrimp, sea urchin, seaweed

Rosy seabass, scallop, maitake mushroom

But the overall dining experience can only be described as underwhelming.

The sakana dishes were creative in concept, but the overall seasoning was noticeably heavy — salt buried any trace of the sweet umami we’d expected from the ingredients. Worse, several of the dishes clearly felt like they’d been prepped ahead of time and kept in the fridge — ice-cold with every bite.

I understand this approach exists to accommodate guests’ arrival times, but for an Omakase, a choice like this is a real letdown.

As for the drink pairings, there were plenty of options, but no real logic connecting them to the food, and none of them showcased the character of local sake — the best way to describe it is ‘pairings paired just for the sake of pairing.’

Full dining record here → Toyama Sushi chapter

✦ • ✦

海老亭別館 | Kaiseki

Tabelog 3.72 ¥24,000 ++

Reservations via Pocket Concierge

Compared to the more famous ふじ居, this fourth-generation ryotei keeps a fairly low profile —

but don’t underestimate its skill.

It held two stars in the 2016 Toyama-Ishikawa special edition Michelin Guide (the Toyama-Ishikawa special edition currently comes out once every 5 years; in 2021 Ebitei Bekkan happened to be temporarily closed, so its last rating dates back to 2016), then in 2018 boldly closed up shop to go train at the famous Tokyo restaurant ‘Matsukawa.’

Sweet shrimp cured in kelp

Ribbonfish, onion, daikon

Four years later, the current Ebitei Bekkan opened along the river near Toyama Castle Park.

No old-fashioned manor or kneeling service here. The restaurant is set in a modern two-story building, with a warm yet appropriately reserved feel to both the space and the service. Sit at the counter and look up, and outside the window are beautiful cherry blossom trees.

Red snow crab shinjo

Crab leg, crab claw, crab miso

The dining experience felt noticeably lighter and livelier. The head chef chats with you now and then, even joking about how spicy the chili pepper turns out to be — pure luck of the draw.

His hands never stop working, the skill is solid, and the dishes that come out carry real personal character — gentle yet full of tension.

There might be small imperfections here and there, but the next moment always brings some other surprise to make up for it.

Scallop and ayu sweetfish, water pepper

Dried tilefish, lotus root

Small sardine, roe-bearing firefly squid, salmon roe, conger eel with burdock (served over rice)

Full dining record here → Toyama Kaiseki chapter (second half)

✦ • ✦

立ち喰い鮨 人人 | Sushi

Tabelog 3.75 ¥3,800 ++

Reservations via phone or Instagram

The tomato lemon sour is freshly shaved from ice right at the counter — a nice touch

This sushi restaurant, ranked #4 in Toyama city, is friendly to last-minute reservations and hits hard on price.

Booking Jinjin during the trip was a spur-of-the-moment decision made after waking up early.

Getting a same-day sushi reservation is honestly a stroke of luck you wouldn’t normally expect on a Japan trip. We later found out this restaurant only takes about 30 minutes per meal, turns tables fast, and basically always has a seat available.

The basic sushi sets come in ¥3,800 and ¥5,400 tiers, 8 or 10 pieces respectively, with a full Omakase option also available — and even the top course isn’t too pricey. All in, you’re looking at anywhere from under 200 RMB to a max of around 750 for a complete sushi experience.

You could call it ‘omakase that regular people can actually afford.’

The restaurant’s chops speak for themselves too. Head chef Izumi Kimura’s previous restaurant, Sushi Shibito, was Hokuriku’s #1-ranked sushi restaurant on Tabelog (score 4.20), and also held one star in the previous edition of the Toyama Michelin Guide.

In terms of the overall meal, the fish quality is naturally a step down from top-tier sushi restaurants, but the satisfaction factor absolutely exceeds what you’d expect at this price point. The rice is gentle, the pacing is well-judged, and a handful of small creative touches keep the excitement of the meal running high throughout.

A thirty-minute lunch, priced under 200 RMB, delivering a hit of dopamine through sheer speed and value.

Full dining record here → Toyama Sushi chapter (second half)

✦ • ✦

沙石 | Drinking spot

Tabelog 4.69 ¥2,000 ++

As mentioned above, Toyama’s top kaiseki restaurant, 御料理 ふじ居, sits right next to Masuizumi’s sake brewery. And 沙石 is exactly Masuizumi’s own Tasting Room.

Masuizumi truly lives up to its reputation as one of the greats. The tasting here is ¥2,000 (about 100 RMB) for 15 minutes, with free choice from three large refrigerated cases of bottles.

The brewery’s full flagship lineup is all on display, but you’d hardly expect the tasting to also include a sake aged in a former Henri Jayer wine barrel, or a bottle personally brewed by the late Koichi Sanpai — once one of Noto’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ of sake brewing.

The shop also sells a lot of Masuizumi merchandise, plus some local snacks to go with your drink.

A tip here: 沙石 closes at 5:00pm, while 御料理 ふじ居’s single dinner seating starts at 6:30pm. If you’re planning to pair the two together, you can wander next door in between to Tajiri Honten, a sake shop that carries Toyama’s popular local sake Katsukoma — a brand that’s basically only sold through restaurant channels.

✦ • ✦

醍醐Premium | Drinking spot

Tabelog 3.61 ¥3,000 ++

Toyama produces excellent fish and sake, and most izakayas here carry solid local sake.

But if you’re a sake lover visiting Toyama, you absolutely cannot miss Daigo’s all-you-can-drink deal.

The shop stocks over 400 sake brands from across Japan, with a 2-hour all-you-can-drink option split into two tiers: ¥3,000 for sake up to ¥800/glass, or ¥3,500 for sake up to ¥1,000/glass.

Basically, for about 200 RMB, you can drink pretty much anything short of Juyondai.

This includes flagship local sake bottles from Masuizumi and Katsukoma, as well as multiple limited-release bottles from currently trending breweries like Aramasa, Senkin, and Denshu.

For beginners, it’s a chance to open up the world of sake from multiple angles, while for enthusiasts, it’s a great opportunity to freely enjoy hard-to-find bottles.

Just be careful not to overdo it~

AND Daigo’s bar snacks are mediocre at best, so make sure you’re full before you go.

✦ • ✦

ムッシュージー Monsieur J | Dessert

Tabelog 3.44 🍰2,000 ++

Even though every day in Toyama is stuffed to the brim —

there’s still always room for one bite of a beautiful dessert.

Sitting in our bookmarks, and recommended by a few local chefs we chatted with, was this shop, Monsieur J.

A handsome French pastry chef and his wife settled down and opened this shop in Toyama, now running for over a decade. To this day, the shop still sells candies made with vanilla from Tahiti — the place where the couple first met. Ugh, what a wholesome bit of relationship trivia.

Judging by the desserts themselves, they sit somewhere between Japanese and French, unexpectedly leaning a touch more toward the French side. Japanese seasonal ingredients are used throughout, but the visual flair of the shapes is preserved, with plenty of complexity in texture and flavor, delivered in an unrestrained, straightforward style.

For example, the two options available that day: a chestnut tart with a sweet, crisp, substantial shell, its light chestnut fragrance carried through by Japanese pear. The chocolate dessert, meanwhile, was silky on entry with an endless finish.

An absolute hidden gem of a dessert shop, well worth savoring.

↓ Full restaurant information ↓

レヴォ — L’ évo

100 Daikanba Tashima, Togamura, Nanto, Toyama Prefecture

https://levo.toyama.jp/

御料理 ふじ居

93 Higashi-Iwase-machi, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture

https://www.oryouri-fujii.jp/

SOTO

2-8-21 Izumi-machi, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture

https://www.soto-toyama.com

海老亭別館

2-4-10 Anno-ya-machi, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture

https://ebitei-bekkan.com/

立ち喰い鮨 人人

3-8 Ichiban-cho, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture

https://sushi-jinjin.com/

沙石

93 Iwase-omachi, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture

醍醐Premium

2-1 Uchisachi-machi, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, A Building 1F

https://syusuidaigo.com/premium/

ムッシュージー Monsieur J

2-7-22 Isobe-machi, Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture

https://www.monsieurj-patisserie.com/