Yokohama Restaurants: What's Worth It

1 The Destination Tier: SHIMOMURA Is the One Booking, With la Tenda Rossa, RISTORANTE REGA, Fukumitsuen honten and Santou ni gouten Worth Planning an Evening Around

After midnight along Yamashita-cho, the grid that makes up Yokohama Chinatown, steam fogs the windows and wok smoke settles over the pavement. Two of this tier's five kitchens sit there; the other three are in Ishikawacho and Otamachi, a short walk south and west. We group them together because each one asks you to plan around it, whether with a reservation or a late night.

SHIMOMURA is the one booking, serving Japanese courses in Ishikawacho 3-chome from Tuesday to Sunday, lunch from 11:30 to 15:30 and dinner from 18:00 to 22:30. On a first visit, order the lunch course: it comes from the same kitchen, and keeping the afternoon free leaves time for Motomachi. Courses change with the season, so call +81 452638989 for current menus and prices before you commit.

The Italian pair comes next: la Tenda Rossa, at 75 Otamachi near Kannai, runs lunch from 11:45 to 15:00 and dinner from 17:30, while RISTORANTE REGA, in Ishikawacho 2-chome, starts dinner at 18:00 and stretches weekend lunch to 15:30. Book la Tenda Rossa for a weeknight pasta dinner that can run until 22:30, and RISTORANTE REGA for a slow Saturday lunch. Both close on Mondays.

The Chinatown pair's standout order is a bowl of noodles. Fukumitsuen honten opens at 11:00 and serves ramen and Chinese noodles until 01:00 on weeknights, stretching to 02:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, while Santou ni gouten keeps 11:00 to 01:00 every day of the week. Go to Fukumitsuen honten for one hot bowl after the Kannai bars close on a Saturday, and to Santou ni gouten for a shared table on a Monday, when SHIMOMURA, la Tenda Rossa and RISTORANTE REGA are all dark.

Skip the fixed-price banquet sets pitched at tour groups on Chinatown's busiest streets. A bowl of noodles at 01:00 is the better test of a Chinatown kitchen, and Fukumitsuen honten posts its full menu at fukumanen.jp.

SHIMOMURA gets the one reservation. The rest of Yokohama's best eating fits around it.

2 The Workaday Tier: ARAIYA Leads, With TENSAKU, GARLIC JO'S, OINOS and shigekichi Covering Every Hour

The fryer at TENSAKU starts hissing at 11:30 on weekdays and 11:00 at weekends, and the smell of hot sesame-edged oil drifts over Ishikawacho 2-chome. This is the workaday tier: none of these five needs weeks of notice, and GARLIC JO'S and OINOS both run past 23:00.

ARAIYA is the standout, and the order that earns it is the beef bowl. At 4-23-1 Kaigan-dori, the restaurant gives its simmered-beef bowl a fine-dining listing, which fits a city where Japan's taste for beef took hold in the Meiji era. Lunch runs 11:00 to 14:00 and dinner 17:00 to 21:30, every day. For a careful Japanese meal without the SHIMOMURA commitment, ARAIYA is where we'd go.

For tempura, TENSAKU runs second to Hakata Tempura Takao, which fries from 11:00 to 21:00 without a break, while TENSAKU closes lunch at 14:30 and reopens from 17:00 to 21:00. Order the tempura set at either counter: Hakata Tempura Takao for the 15:00 slot, TENSAKU for a proper dinner in Ishikawacho.

GARLIC JO'S, in Motomachi 5-chome, is the table for a group that cannot agree, running steak, grilled chicken, pizza, pasta and noodles from 11:30 to 23:00 daily. Order the steak and expect garlic in most of what follows. Bring children to GARLIC JO'S, not to a tempura counter.

OINOS, at 21 Ishikawacho 1-chome, is the late Italian option, with the bar staying open until 23:30 from Tuesday to Sunday. A pizza and a glass of wine at OINOS after 22:00 beat any hotel room-service menu in Minato Mirai.

The draw at shigekichi, also in Ishikawacho 1-chome, is wagyu on a Korean-style grill, with weekday dinner running 17:00 to 23:00 and weekends adding a lunch sitting from 11:30 to 14:30. Skip the all-you-can-eat barbecue halls near Yokohama Station, where quantity crowds out the beef. A Saturday lunch at shigekichi, grilled a few slices at a time, is the easiest way in. Book on +81 453087246.

ARAIYA gives a humble beef bowl the attention of a proper dining room.

3 Fukumitsuen honten: The Verdict on Chinatown Noodles and Ramen Served Until 02:00 at Weekends

At 01:30 on a Saturday, the room at Fukumitsuen honten still carries the smell of pork broth and scorched garlic, chopsticks going against bowls in Yamashita-cho while most of Yokohama Chinatown has gone dark. This kitchen has another 30 minutes to run.

Fukumitsuen honten serves the best late bowl in Chinatown, and that is the reason to go. It opens at 11:00, runs to 02:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, and closes at 01:00 on other nights. The menu leans toward ramen and Chinese noodles, so order a noodle soup. Yokohama's own local bowl is sanmamen, a noodle soup under a glossy, thickened topping of stir-fried bean sprouts, and if sanmamen is on the board at Fukumitsuen honten, it is the order that tells you most about the cooks.

Ignore the set-menu banquets built for tour groups: they are the trap in Chinatown, and they say nothing about a kitchen's noodles.

Night owls come first: when the bars in Kannai close at the end of a Friday, this is where the evening ends, a 10-minute walk from Kannai Station. The other draw is a noodle lunch at 11:00, since the same test applies at midday.

The runner-up is Santou ni gouten, at 3 Yamashita-cho, a few streets away, closing at 01:00 every night, Fridays and Saturdays included. Pick Santou ni gouten for a big group that wants to share a spread of plates, and pick Fukumitsuen honten when it is past 01:00 and you want one hot bowl. For a calmer daytime version, tou-en, also in Yamashita-cho, runs from 11:00 to 21:00 without a break.

Fukumitsuen honten posts its current menu and prices at fukumanen.jp. If you are bringing a group of six or more, call 0456625185 before you walk over.

A bowl of noodles after midnight is the better test of any Chinatown kitchen.

4 la Tenda Rossa: The Verdict on Italian Cooking Across Two Distinct Daily Services

The doors at la Tenda Rossa on Otamachi open at 11:45, and the first smell out of the kitchen is butter browning in a pan. By 15:00 the room has cleared and the kitchen resets for dinner at 17:30.

That gap is the verdict. la Tenda Rossa treats lunch and dinner as two separate services, and a kitchen that closes between them is taking both meals seriously, with dinner running until 22:30 from Tuesday to Saturday and until 22:00 on Sundays and public holidays. Mondays are closed.

At dinner the kitchen runs its full evening menu, and the handmade pasta course is where we'd start. At lunch, a pasta plate followed by a second course fits comfortably inside the 11:45 to 15:00 window.

Who is it right for? Couples after a proper Italian dinner at 75 Otamachi, a short walk from Kannai Station and the Bashamichi brick streets, and anyone with a long working lunch in the Kannai office district.

The runner-up is RISTORANTE REGA in Ishikawacho 2-chome, which serves dinner from 18:00 to 21:30, so la Tenda Rossa wins for anyone who eats late. REGA wins at weekends, when its lunch stretches to 15:30. For pizza after 22:30, OINOS in Ishikawacho keeps its bar open until 23:30 from Tuesday to Sunday.

Skip the pizza-and-pasta chains around Yokohama Station that treat Italian food as a price point. They cook to a margin. A two-service kitchen in Otamachi cooks to a booking.

la Tenda Rossa posts its current menu and prices at tenda.jp. Reserve on +81 45-663-0133, and aim for a Tuesday-to-Saturday dinner, when service runs to 22:30.

A kitchen that closes between lunch and dinner is taking both meals seriously.

5 Santou ni gouten: The Verdict on a Chinatown Kitchen Open From 11:00 to 01:00 Every Day

Shared plates cover every table at Santou ni gouten at any hour, the clatter of serving spoons carrying out into Yamashita-cho in the heart of Yokohama Chinatown. It might be 11:00, it might be 00:30, and the clock makes little difference either way.

The kitchen runs from 11:00 to 01:00 seven days a week, with no break between lunch and dinner and no Monday closure to plan around, unlike la Tenda Rossa, SHIMOMURA and RISTORANTE REGA. That is the whole pitch, and it is a strong one.

We'd call it the most dependable Chinese kitchen in Chinatown. Fukumitsuen honten stays open an hour later on Fridays and Saturdays, until 02:00, but Santou ni gouten is the one you can count on at 15:00 on a Monday.

The standout order is a spread, not a single dish: two noodle plates and a round of dumplings for a table of four, then more from there. The place is built for sharing, and a solo bowl misses the point of the room.

Groups are the obvious fit, and if you're bringing eight or more, call +81 45-212-1198 ahead of time. It also works for anyone arriving at Ishikawacho or Motomachi-Chukagai Station on a late train who needs a hot meal before 01:00.

For a calm family meal at 17:00 with young children, tou-en, also in Yamashita-cho and open from 11:00 to 21:00 without a break, is the better call. After 21:00, when tou-en has closed, Santou ni gouten takes over.

Skip the tour-group banquet sets in Chinatown, priced and paced for a coach timetable. Santou ni gouten posts its menu and current prices at santon.co.jp, so check there before you go.

At 15:00 on a Monday, Santou ni gouten is the one you can count on.

6 SHIMOMURA: The Verdict on the One Japanese Fine-Dining Meal in Yokohama Worth Booking

The room at SHIMOMURA goes quiet at 11:30, when the first lunch guests sit down in Ishikawacho 3-chome and the smell of dashi drifts from the kitchen. Voices drop. Lacquer and ceramic take over the table.

This is the one splurge in Yokohama worth booking: SHIMOMURA serves Japanese fine dining at lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday, with lunch running until 15:30, dinner from 18:00 to 22:30, and Mondays closed.

The lunch course is the standout order, drawn from the same kitchen as dinner but carrying less pressure than the evening sitting, and it wraps up by 15:30 with time to walk it off along Motomachi Shopping Street, five minutes away. We'd save the SHIMOMURA dinner course for an anniversary or the last night of a trip.

We'd skip the conveyor-belt counter in the Minato Mirai malls, and if Yokohama gets one careful Japanese meal from you, spend it at SHIMOMURA rather than on plates circling a belt.

The runner-up is ARAIYA, at 4-23-1 Kaigan-dori, where a simmered-beef bowl carries a fine-dining listing and the doors are open every day, Mondays included, making it the right pick if you want fine-dining care on a humbler dish. SHIMOMURA is right when you want the full seasonal Japanese meal. For a tempura lunch instead, TENSAKU in Ishikawacho 2-chome fries until 14:30.

Courses and prices change with the season, so read shimomura-kunikazu.com for the current menu before you call SHIMOMURA on +81 452638989 to book, at least a week ahead for a weekend lunch.

If Yokohama gets one careful Japanese meal from you, spend it at SHIMOMURA.

7 RISTORANTE REGA: The Verdict on Italian Dinners From 18:00 and Long Weekend Lunches Until 15:30

On a Saturday at 14:45, pasta plates are still reaching the tables at RISTORANTE REGA, and the smell of olive oil and garlic drifts over Ishikawacho 2-chome. Weekend lunch runs until 15:30. Nobody is rushing.

RISTORANTE REGA earns its place as the best Italian lunch in this guide, though the title is a weekend one. The hours take a moment to parse: Monday closed, Tuesday has dinner but no lunch, and from Wednesday to Friday lunch runs 11:00 to 14:30, stretching to 15:30 on Saturdays and Sundays. Dinner runs 18:00 to 21:30 on every day the kitchen opens.

Order the seasonal pasta and, if the 15:30 close gives you room, follow it with a second course. The menu changes with the season, so when you book, ask which dishes the kitchen is running that week.

Who is it for? Anyone wanting an unhurried Italian meal in daylight, and anyone pairing lunch with an afternoon in Motomachi, next door to Ishikawacho Station.

The runner-up is la Tenda Rossa at 75 Otamachi, where dinner runs until 22:30 from Tuesday to Saturday, an hour later than RISTORANTE REGA. For a late weekday dinner, la Tenda Rossa; for a long Sunday lunch, RISTORANTE REGA. For something looser, OINOS at 21 Ishikawacho 1-chome serves pizza, with dinner from 17:00 at weekends.

We'd skip the trattorias near Yokohama Station with laminated photo menus: they promise the slow Italian meal and rarely deliver it. RISTORANTE REGA delivers it every Saturday and Sunday until 15:30.

Call +81 456332460 to book and to confirm the seasonal dishes and current prices before a weekend lunch.

A weekend lunch here is the unhurried Italian meal the tourist strip promises.

8 ARAIYA: The Verdict on a Regional Japanese Beef Bowl Listed as Fine Dining

Your beef bowl arrives at ARAIYA still steaming, and the sweet smell of beef simmered in soy and sugar reaches you before anything else. The restaurant sits on Kaigan-dori, the old waterfront avenue, at 4-23-1.

Of the everyday meals in this guide, this is the most rewarding. ARAIYA's listing reads beef bowl, regional Japanese cooking, and fine dining all at once: Yokohama is where Japan's taste for beef took hold in the Meiji era, and ARAIYA gives that humble dish the attention of a proper dining room. The beef bowl is the standout order and the reason to make the walk.

Timing matters. ARAIYA serves daily, with lunch from 11:00 to 14:00 and dinner from 17:00 to 21:30, and the 14:00 lunch close leaves no room for a slow arrival. Walk in by 13:15.

Who is it right for? Travellers who want a proper Japanese meal on a Monday, when SHIMOMURA is closed, solo diners who want one excellent bowl rather than a long course, and families too, since a beef bowl needs no explaining to children.

The runner-up depends on the hour: for wagyu, shigekichi in Ishikawacho 1-chome grills it Korean-style from 17:00 to 23:00, and for a daytime meal after the 14:00 cutoff at ARAIYA, Hakata Tempura Takao fries straight through until 21:00.

We'd skip the chain beef-bowl counters around Yokohama Station. They sell speed at a counter stool; ARAIYA sells a dining room's attention on the same dish.

Check araiya.co.jp for the current menu and prices, or call +81 452265003 before a Saturday lunch.

Chain counters sell speed. ARAIYA sells a dining room's attention on the same dish.