Home / Food & Drink / Japanese dishes
FOOD & DRINK / DISH DISCOVERY
Japanese dishes: six delicious places to begin
A glistening piece of sushi, the crackle of tempura, a mountain of cabbage settling on a hotplate: Japanese cooking offers wonderfully different pleasures. These six dishes give you a way into that variety, from the ingredients that define them to the small choices that change a meal.
Showing Sushi
Sushi: the rice matters as much as the topping
Sushi begins with vinegared rice. Seafood, egg and vegetables bring colour and contrast, whether served raw or cooked. In nigiri, a topping rests on a hand-shaped mound of rice; maki rolls the ingredients together; chirashi spreads the toppings over a bowl. Sashimi is different: sliced seafood served without the sushi rice.
The rice gives each piece its quiet foundation: a balance of vinegar, sweetness and texture beneath the topping. A mixed set lets you explore that range in one order. Omakase leaves the selection to the chef; agree the price and explain dietary requirements when arranging the meal. JNTO’s sushi guide introduces the many forms.
Ramen: noodles, stock and seasoning working together
Ramen’s spring comes from wheat noodles made with kansui, an alkaline ingredient that gives them their characteristic bounce. Stock and seasoning surround those strands, while toppings might add braised pork, egg, bamboo shoots or spring onion. A bowl can be restrained and clear or gloriously rich.
Menu words describe different parts of that construction. Shoyu means soy-sauce seasoning, shio salt and miso fermented soybean paste. Tonkotsu names pork-bone stock. A shop can combine a stock with one of those seasonings, so the names are a starting point rather than a complete ingredient list.
For another format, tsukemen serves noodles alongside a concentrated dipping soup. At a shop with a ticket machine, select and pay for your meal there, then hand the ticket to staff. Elsewhere, order at the table or counter. JNTO’s ramen guide explores the styles.
Tempura: a delicate shell around seafood and vegetables
Tempura turns a thin coating of batter into a crisp, airy shell. Inside, a prawn or a piece of seasonal vegetable keeps its own shape and character. The contrast is the delight: a fragile crunch followed by the ingredient underneath.
It may arrive as a selection with rice, over noodles or piece by piece at a counter. Enjoy it while the coating is crisp, using the offered dipping sauce or seasoning. A vegetable selection still calls for ingredient questions if you have dietary restrictions: batter, dipping sauce and shared frying oil matter as well as the filling.
Soba and udon: two very different noodle pleasures
Soba brings buckwheat to the bowl, with slender, often grey-brown strands and an earthy character. Udon is made from wheat flour: pale, thick noodles whose smooth surface and springy chew give a very different impression. Both appear in hot broth or chilled with a separate dipping sauce.
The way udon is handled after cooking changes its texture. In Kagawa, kamaage comes straight from the pot without a cold-water rinse, giving a softer, yielding result. Zaru udon is cooled and served with sauce alongside; bukkake pours a stronger sauce directly over the noodles.
Our Sanuki udon guide follows those differences into egg-coated kamatama. Our soba guide explores buckwheat aromas, regional bowls and how to enjoy the dipping sauce. For soba, remember that buckwheat noodles may also contain wheat; ask about the flour blend and the broth when relevant to your diet.
Yakitori: the character of each chicken cut
Yakitori makes a whole menu out of chicken and fire. Negima alternates chicken with spring onion; other skewers use skin, gizzard or hearts. The cut changes the texture as much as the seasoning does, turning a modest skewer into something worth choosing carefully.
Shio is salt seasoning; tare is a sweet-savoury sauce. Where the shop offers a choice, either can bring a different character to the same cut. Order a small selection and confirm whether the listed price buys one skewer or a set. JNTO’s yakitori guide explains the common choices.
Okonomiyaki: mixed or built in layers
Cabbage and batter become a deeply satisfying hotplate meal. In Osaka’s familiar Kansai style, ingredients are mixed into the batter before cooking. Hiroshima’s version is built in layers: a thin batter base, a generous pile of cabbage, other fillings, noodles and egg.
Those layers make watching the cook part of the pleasure. The tall mound becomes a compact meal, finished with sauce, while the vegetables, noodles and egg remain distinct inside. Our Hiroshima okonomiyaki guide explores the cooking and the city’s attachment to it.
Some restaurants cook for you; others provide a table hotplate for diners. Ask which arrangement applies before starting, and keep clear of the hot surface and the cook’s working area.
A few questions that make ordering easier
Tell staff about allergies or dietary restrictions before ordering or buying a meal ticket. Ask about stock, sauces, batter and shared equipment as well as visible toppings. Fish stock can appear in a vegetable noodle dish, and a dish’s name alone does not establish its ingredients.
Use our dietary-needs guide to prepare those questions. Then follow the regional food guide to see how these pleasures change across Japan—from Kagawa’s udon culture to Hiroshima’s layered hotplate cooking.
Photo credits
Sushi: Photo: MUSUBI KILN, Authentic Sushi set by MUSUBI KILN – 51501989298.jpg · CC BY-SA 2.0
Ramen: Photo: Ocdp, source · CC0 1.0
Tempura: Photo: Ocdp, source · CC0 1.0
Sanuki udon: Photo: Kanesue, source · CC BY 4.0
Soba: Photo: Siriusplot, Wikimedia Commons source · CC BY 3.0
Yakitori: Photo: Ocdp, source · CC0 1.0
Osaka-style okonomiyaki: Photo: Elijah, Mayo and Okonomiyaki · CC BY 2.0
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki: Photo: EllieBellie25, Wikimedia Commons source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Places, experiences and practical ways to get there.